Jean de Saintré: A Late Medieval Education in Love and Chivalry

Jean de Saintré

Jean de Saintré This page intentionally left blank [1]1 To you, most excellent and all-powerful prince, Monseigneur Jean d’Anjou, Duke of Calabria and of Lorraine, marcher lord and Marquis du Pont, my most honorable lord:2 following my most humble and obedient commendations, in answer to your prayers, which are my total commands, I have the pleasure of offering you four beautiful treatises, arranged in two volumes so that they may be more easily carried. The first treatise tells about a lady of Belles Cousines from France, without identifying her by any other name or surname, and the most valiant knight, the Seigneur de Saintré. The second recounts the most loyal love and pitiable end of my lord Floridan, a knight, and of the most beautiful, gracious demoiselle Elvide, whom the book, which has been translated from Latin into French, does not name further, as it follows the story word for word. And the third will be a work that I’ve culled from the Chronicles of Flanders, which is a thing of wonder.3 First: The story of the lady whom we shall call Belles Cousines and Saintré At the time of King John of France, eldest son of King Philip of Valois,4 [2] there was in his court the Seigneur de Pouilly in Touraine, in whose entourage there was a most well-born and gracious youth named Jean, oldest son of the lord of Saintré, which was also located in Touraine.5 The youth’s good manners found favor with the King, who determined to retain him and who ordered that he be made his page—for he was still quite young—and that he ride directly behind the King, and even further that he serve in the great hall as did his other nobly born young page boys. This Jean de Saintré excelled over all the other pages in serving each member of the court at table more diligently and industriously than did any of the others, and especially in providing the ladies, as best he could, with all the attentions and services that they ordered. Furthermore, for his thirteen years, he was a very clever, daring young lad, whether he was riding a very strong courser* or singing and dancing, or playing tennis,* running, jumping, or engaging in all the other exercises and activities that he saw men enjoying. He attempted to do everything joyously; in spite of the fact that his physique was then and remained slim and slight, his heart was of steel and surpassed all others. For 4 Jean de Saintré his considerable talents, sweet demeanor, numerous courtesies, and gracious behavior, he was so beloved and praised by the King and Queen, by the lords and ladies, and by all others that everyone maintained and believed that if he lived he would be considered one of the most renowned gentlemen in France. And this turned out to be the case, for when he departed from the world he was esteemed as being among the most valiant of knights, as the following story, which recounts just a part of his many deeds, will tell. THE AUTHOR: At that time, at the court of Queen Bonne of Bohemia,6 wife of the aforementioned John, there was a rather young widow who was one of the royal cousins; [3] the story says nothing of her name or her lineage, for reasons that you will soon understand. Ever since the death of her honorable late husband, this lady had refused to remarry for any reason, perhaps wishing to resemble the real widows of ancient times of which Roman histories (which are the most excellent stories) make such glorious mention; I will skip over these histories to shorten my tale and come to the story of this particular lady who refused to remarry after her husband’s death. It seems to me that Madame des Belles Cousines wanted above all to follow the example of the venerable widows from the past, as the histories tell it: which is to say that the Romans had the admirable custom of greatly praising and honoring those widows who resolved to remain unmarried after the death of their first husbands, and who chose to remain faithful and entirely chaste out of the very great and faithful love that they felt for them.7 The Apostle Paul in his first epistle to Timothy, etc., speaks of this...