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Chapter 3. Rumors, Rivalries, and the Queen's Secret Adultery
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3 Rumors, Rivalries, and the Queen's Secret Adultery WHEN KING MARC'S BARONS demand that the queen prove that she remained chaste during her sojourn in the Morrois forest with Tristan, they equate the state of the queen's body with the state of the king's sovereign status, and they speak as vassals of the king concerned about a disorder that undermines the king's control of his household and his court. In an earlier episode of Beroul's Tristan, the barons claim already to know the truth about the queen's adultery. They assert that Tristan and Iseut are lovers, and they accuse King Marc of complicity in the crime. Here they speak as the king's vassals , but also as rivals of the king's nephew, Tristan, with whom they compete for influence over the king. A la cort avoit trois barons, Ainz ne ve'istes plus felons. Par soirement s'estoient pris Que, se Ii rois de son pals N'en faisot son nevo partir, II nu voudroient mais soufrir: A lor chasteaus sus s'en trairoient Et au roi Marc gerre feroient. Qar, en un gardin, soz une ente, Virent l'autrier Yseut la gente Ovoc Tristran en tel endroit Que nus hon consentir ne doit; Et plusors foiz les ont veiiz Ellit roi Marc gesir toz nus; Rumors, Rivalries, and the Queen's Secret Adultery 85 Quar, quant Ii rois en vet el bois, Et Tristran dit: "Sir, g'en vois;' Puis se remaint, entre en la chanbre, Iluec grant piece sont ensenble.... A une part ont Ie roi trait: "Sire;' font il, "malement vet. Tes nies s'entraiment et Yseut, Savoir Ie puet qui c'onques veut; Et nos nu volon mais sofrir." (Beroul, vv. 581-609) (There were at the court three barons, and never have you seen such evil men! They had taken an oath that, if the king did not banish his nephew from his land, they would tolerate it no longer; rather, they would withdraw to their castles and wage war against King Mark. For the other day they had seen the fair Iseut with Tristran, in a garden, under a grafted tree, in a situation that no one should tolerate. And several times they had seen them lying completely naked in King Mark's bed. For whenever the king went into the forest, Tristran would say: "Sir, I am leaving." But then he would stay behind and enter the chamber, and they would remain together a long time....They drew the king aside: "Sir;' they said, "there is trouble. Your nephew and Iseut love each other. It is obvious to anyone who cares to look, and we will no longer tolerate it!" [Lacy, 30-31]) The barons' accusation takes the not-so-secret adultery as an instrument of political conflict. Knowledge of the secret can be used against the queen, undermining any influence she might have over her husband. More important, knowledge of the secret can be used to subvert the powerful position of the queen's lover in the royal court. The political rivalry that motivates the accusation of adultery has long been acknowledged by readers of the romance.l In this chapter I argue that the inadequacy of the secrecy surrounding the queen's adultery and the ambiguity that characterizes refutations of the baron's accusations are also part of a political structure. The queen's close bond with her knight is openly acknowledged in the best-known romances about royal adultery even while the adultery itself is ostensibly hidden. Lancelot is known as Guenevere 's knight, and Tristan's close relationship to Iseut is explained by the service he owes to the wife of his lord, who is also his kinswoman through marriage to his uncle, and by his part in winning her for 86 Chapter 3 King Marc and bringing her to Cornwall to marry the king. Loyalty to the queen represents the knight's service to a lady idealized by all the court because of her beauty and courtesy, and esteemed above all other women because she is the wife ofthe king. In an important study ofwhat she calls "courtly adultery" (adultere courtois), Christiane Marchello-Nizia discusses the various seductions at work in the triangular relationship between the queen, the king, and the knight. She suggests that the knight's love for the lady is a displaced desire to occupy the lady's position in proximity to a powerful lord. It is...