The Hybrid World
The phrase “hybrid world” helps explain the literary world of courtly love and the historical events and figures that shaped courtly love in the real medieval world. In some instances, these worlds overlap each other, making it hard to tell what is real and what is fictional. In other cases, the literary world influences the historical world, or the historical world influences the literary world. With this in mind, courtly love existed and happened, but it was also alive in books, short stories, and poems.
A text from 1278 called the Roman du Hem can be read in more than one way. It is a tournament book that depicts a French court festival where there are tournaments and jousts that are very similar to the themes in Arthurian tales. There are depictions of performances of romance and historical figures are taking part in these performances. This book is also one of the earliest depictions of women’s participation alongside the chivalric activity that is not within the codified behavior of the courts. One of the ways the Roman du Hem can be read is as a historical account that was influenced by Arthurian themes. The court members would have performed Arthurian plots. This text could also be read as a piece of literature that describes a historical account but intertwines it with the chivalry and love in those plots.
A literary text that is full of courtly love representation is Chrétien de Troyes’ Lancelot, The Knight of the Cart. A historical aspect of this tale is that Marie de Champagne commissioned the story, but she also provided the plot and storyline.
This part of the story gives an example of a woman having power over her lover. One of the beliefs of courtly love is the lover must be obedient to the “commands of ladies.” The only way for Sir Lancelot to save Queen Guinevere is to ride in a cart that is typically for criminals on their way to execution. He hesitates to enter the cart, but he eventually does ride in it to know the location of his lover. As he passes by, everyone ridicules him and he has to bear the suffering and shame. Eventually, he has to battle the Queen’s abductor, and he wins. Lancelot rushes to find the Queen and is confused when she is cold to him and will not speak with him. Unbeknownst to him, she is punishing him for hesitating to get into the cart, she does not hate him for riding in the cart, but for putting his reputation before her safety.
Queen Guinevere is in a position of power over Sir Lancelot as his lover, and because of the codified behavior of courtly love, she is not satisfied and wants to test his love for her. During a tournament after the cart, she notices Sir Lancelot fighting extremely well (as he should if he is trying to impress her). She sends a message to him to do the opposite and to fight the worst, and because he has to be obedient to her, he does. He runs away from his opponents and fights them poorly, all of the knights think he is a coward. He continues to obey the Queen the next day as well. The day after, she is satisfied that he has been humbled and is obedient to her, so she instructs him to do his best, and he wins the tournament.
While this occurred in the literary world, it provides examples of the courtly behavior that likely happened within the courts of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Marie de Champagne. Such as testing the love of lovers, maybe not as extreme as Queen Guinevere did. Since Marie de Champagne commissioned this story, it is likely she was inspired by the behavior within her courts.
A historical example is the relationship between Eleanor of Aquitaine and the troubadour, Bernart de Ventadour. Ventadour wrote poetry about Eleanor of Aquitaine that was fairly explicit for the time:
“...Ah, my good and longed-for beloved, with well-formed figure sweet and slender, with fresh, pretty colored skin, whom God made with his own hands! Always I have desired you, and no one else pleases me—I want no other love.”
“Then I know that I would see that most lovely lady, and her beautiful eyes and her fresh complexion, and I would kiss her on the mouth again and again, so that the mark of it would show for a month. I would like well to find her alone, while she slept, or made semblance of it, so that I could steal a sweet kiss from her, since I am too unworthy to ask for one. By God, my lady, we accomplish little of love!”
Eleanor of Aquitaine had had marriages that were not great, so the speculation of her romance with Ventadour may have not been far from the truth, especially with the culture of courtly behavior at the time—only finding romance outside of marriage. Eleanor and her daughter also may have had public hearings about troubles in love, where a delegation of noblewomen would judge and decide the outcomes of these hearings. Supposedly, Marie de Champagne had come up with the idea to have these love hearings. However, the entire story may have been a fictional event. It is likely, though, that Eleanor would have been able to run a court like this since she was an assertive and powerful queen.