The Twelfth Century & the Invention of Courtly Love
The twelfth century was a cultural watershed in many ways. One of its most enduring contributions was a phenomenon known as “courtly love,” whose characteristics have shaped ideas about romantic love into the present.
The Troubadours
Some of the earliest expressions of this form of love occur in the writings of the singer-poets known as the troubadours, who flourished in Occitania, what is now southern France.
Troubadour poetry can be surprisingly raunchy—more “locker-room” than “love” talk. A case in point is this song, “Farai un vers, pos mi sonelh” (“I’ll write a verse, since I’m dozing off” by William IX (1071-1127), Duke of Aquitaine, which recounts the randy poet’s encounter with two ladies and their cat. William wrote songs construing women in ways ranging from beautiful and cruel mistresses to horses to be tamed and ridden.
The following song by Bernard de Ventadorn captures some of the key features of troubadour poetry. As you read, note what the poet tells us about his lady. Note also the metaphors he uses to describe himself. What does he want from his beloved, and why should she agree to his demands?
It’s no wonder that I sing better than any other singer,
for I am the one whose heart is most strongly drawn towards love,
and the most obedient to Love’s law.
Heart and body, intellect and instinct,
strength and power, all these have I engaged.
And the bridle steers me so strongly to love that I
pay no attention to anything else.
When see her, it’s visible in my eyes,
my face, my color,
because I tremble with fear like a leaf in the wind.
I have no more sense than a babe,
so dominated am I by love;
and for a man so vanquished,
a lady should have great solicitude.
Oh, God! If it were only possible
to separate out the true lovers and the false;
and if the flatterers and cheats only wore horns
in the middle of their foreheads.
All the gold in the world, all the silver,
if I had them, I would give them away,
so that my lady could see how truly I love her.
Good Lady, I ask you nothing else but
that you take me as your servant,
so that I could serve you as a good master,
whatever my reward may be.
You see me here at your orders,
you who are honest and humble,
cheerful and courtly.
You are neither a lion nor a bear,
who would kill me if I gave myself to you.
To my Courtly One, where she is, I send this verse, and may it not weigh that am so far distant.)
(Click here for the French.)
Andreas Capellanus: The Art of Courtly Love (De arte honeste amandi)
Some of the assumptions (and presumptions) of “courtly love” were codified in a how-to book of sorts by Andreas Capellanus. Andreas was the chaplain of Marie de Champagne, who governed the principality of Champagne for much of the 1180s and 90s. (Marie, by the way, was the granddaughter of the aforementioned troubadour William IX, who wrote the raunchy song about the two ladies and their cat).
Andreas wrote The Art of Courtly Love (De arte honeste amandi) circa 1184 in the form of a letter to his (almost certainly fictional) friend, Walter, who’s seeking advice on how to get laid. Andreas is full of advice, and in the course of delivering it he elaborates a whole ideology of love. Before delving into the particulars, take a look at some of the “Rules” of courtly love that Andreas lays out. As you read them, ask yourself what kind of relationships following these rules would produce. How many of these “rules” persist in relationships today?
- Marriage is no real excuse for not loving.
- He who is not jealous cannot love.
- No one can be bound by a double love.
- It is well known that love is always increasing or decreasing.
- That which a lover takes against his will of his beloved has no relish.
- Boys do not love until they arrive at the age of maturity.
- When one lover dies, a widowhood of two years is required of the survivor.
- No one should be deprived of love without the very best of reasons.
- No one can love unless he is impelled by the persuasion of love.
- Love is always a stranger in the home of avarice.
- It is not proper to love any woman whom one should be ashamed to seek to marry.
- A true lover does not desire to embrace in love anyone except his beloved.
- When made public love rarely endures.
- The easy attainment of love makes it of little value; difficulty of attainment makes it prized.
- Every lover regularly turns pale in the presence of his beloved.
- When a lover suddenly catches sight of his beloved his heart palpitates.
- A new love puts to flight an old one.
- Good character alone makes any man worthy of love.
- If love diminishes, it quickly fails and rarely revives.
- A man in love is always apprehensive.
- Real jealousy always increases the feeling of love.
- Jealousy, and therefore love, are increased when one suspects his beloved.
- He whom the thought of love vexes, eats and sleeps very little.
- Every act of a lover ends with in the thought of his beloved.
- A true lover considers nothing good except what he thinks will please his beloved.
- Love can deny nothing to love.
- A lover can never have enough of the solaces of his beloved.
- A slight presumption causes a lover to suspect his beloved.
- A man who is vexed by too much passion usually does not love.
- A true lover is constantly and without intermission possessed by the thought of his beloved.
- Nothing forbids one woman being loved by two men or one man by two women.
This text is taken from the Internet Medieval Source Book, a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/capellanus.asp.
The following video-lecture will summarize Andreas’s advice to Walter, which includes a twist you probably won’t see coming.
Courtly Romance
Let’s now turn to the permutations of courtly love in one of the major genres of the medieval period, romance, a genre that emerged in medieval Europe during the twelfth century.
For many, medieval romance conjures up images of knights in shining armor rescuing damsels in distress and living happily ever after. Actual medieval romances were not so neat. Some were more bromances than romances. Sometimes damsels rescue knights in distress. Sometimes chivalry is depicted as just a little silly. Heterosexual relationships could be deeply problematic, especially when they embody the principles enshrined in Andreas Capellanus’s Art of Courtly Love. Learn more about this fascinating genre in the video-lecture below.
Mastery Check:
- What are the chief characteristics of “courtly love”?
- Who were the troubadours, and how did they write about love?
- What does Andreas Capellanus propound in The Art of Courtly Love, and how does he conclude his book?
- How do Béroul’s Tristran and Isolde and the romances of Chrétien de Troyes problematize love?
- How does Guenivere treat Lancelot in Chrétien de Troyes’s Knight of the Cart? How does she demand that he prove his love for her?
A troubadour (English: /ˈtruːbədʊər, -dɔːr/, French: [tʁubaduʁ], Arabic: طربي دور Arabic: [tʁabi:duʁ]; Occitan: trobador [tɾuβaˈðu] (About this soundlisten)) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word troubadour is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz. (source: wikipedia)
William IX (Occitan: Guilhèm de Peitieus; Guilhem de Poitou French: Guillaume de Poitiers,) (22 October 1071 – 10 February 1127), called the Troubador, was the Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou (as William VII) between 1086 and his death. He was also one of the leaders of the Crusade of 1101. Though his political and military achievements have a certain historical importance, he is best known as the earliest troubadour—a vernacular lyric poet in the Occitan language—whose work survived. (source: Wikipedia)
Bernart de Ventadorn, also known as Bernard de Ventadour or Bernat del Ventadorn, was a prominent troubadour of the classical age of troubadour poetry. He was born in 1135, and died in 1194. Now thought of as "the Master Singer" he developed the cançons into a more formalized style which allowed for sudden turns. He is remembered for his mastery as well as popularisation of the trobar leu style, and for his prolific cançons, which helped define the genre and establish the "classical" form of courtly love poetry, to be imitated and reproduced throughout the remaining century and a half of troubadour activity.
Andreas Capellanus (Capellanus meaning "chaplain"), also known as Andrew the Chaplain, and occasionally by a French translation of his name, André le Chapelain, was the 12th-century author of a treatise commonly known as De amore ("About Love"), and often known in English, somewhat misleadingly, as The Art of Courtly Love, though its realistic, somewhat cynical tone suggests that it is in some measure an antidote to courtly love. Little is known of Andreas Capellanus's life, but he is presumed to have been a courtier of Marie de Champagne, and probably of French origin. (source: Wikipedia)