Gui of Burgundy: zoomer knight versus boomer knight
Or, the Star Trek: TNG of medieval epics. Adam's Notes for January 10, 2024
In real life, Charlemagne spent two months of the year 778 campaigning in Spain before rushing north to fend off the Saxons and suffering his greatest defeat at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass on the way. In The Song of Roland, Charlemagne is said to have spent seven long years in Spain, and to have conquered everything but Saragossa as the poem opens. In Gui of Burgundy, the chanson de geste we’re looking at today, Charlemagne and his army have been stuck in Spain for twenty-six years. It’s become his forever war, his Vietnam or his Iraq and Afghanistan, and a whole generation of young men in France have grown up in the absence of their fathers.
Gui of Burgundy is a chansons de geste of almost 4600 lines divided into 109 laisses (a laisse being more or less the Old French equivalent of a stanza), so it’s the longest geste we’ve looked at yet, but about typical for the genre. It’s been translated for the first time in 2023’s Three Preludes to The Song of Roland by William W. Kibler and Catherine M. Jones. In their intro, the translators tell us that the mention of a coin called a marchois means it could not have been composed before 1211, when the coin was first minted, and another geste from around 1230-4 that mentions this one means it could not have been written after that date.
The poem opens with Charlemagne having conquered the town of Nobles and ready to finally return home. But when he puts this idea to his men, Ogier the Dane complains. He says his chest is worn raw by the chainmail links of his hauberk, which he hasn’t been able to remove for more than four nights at a time. He complains that people say Charlemagne has conquered all these towns, but really it’s himself and Roland and Oliver and Duke Naimon doing all the work while Charlemagne lies in his tent eating cakes and game birds and drinking claret and spiced wine. Charlemagne is shocked to hear this and points out he’s suffered as much as they have, but together they’ve conquered all of Spain. Not so fast, replies Richard of Normandy. There are five towns that still elude us: Montorgueil, Monsteclair, Luserne, Carsade, and the tower of Augorie. Charlemagne summons his knight Floriant of Combie, who swears that he was born in these pagan lands and that all of this is true.
That night, an angel visits Charlemagne in his tent and tells him to go directly to Luserne to conquer it. Curiously, Charlemagne instead brings his army to each of the other four cities, besieging each one for a whole year before giving up, and always no avail. He cannot capture so much as an apple. Finally, they march to Luserne. The French army has lost its morale, but Charlemagne is determined. He says anyone who wants to leave the army can go home to France, but if so, they will be reduced to serfdom. 4700 men leave the army, and ‘thus were the ranks of serfs first created.’
The story now turns to Paris, where 54,000 young men have grown up while their fathers have been off fighting. They form a sort of parliament and Bertrand, son of Duke Naimon, proposes that they must elect a new king, because Charlemagne has forgotten them, and without a king “Sweet France will be destroyed / And the rich will seize the houses of the poor.” Everyone agrees, and Maucion, the son of the traitor Ganelon, nominates himself. But despite his many self-serving arguments, everyone laughs at him for being greedy for power, and he’s repeatedly told to shut up. Besides, everyone knows he’s from a long line of traitors. The other barons decide to elect four hundred of their own to be in charge of selecting a king, but Maucion keeps interrupting and Bertrand has to be restrained from attacking him with a pole. Finally Gui of Burgundy is nominated. His father is the paladin Samson of Burgundy, and moreover Gui is Charlemagne’s nephew through his mother and will inherit the kingdom anyway, so if Charlemagne finds out about this and doesn’t like it, he’ll probably spare Gui’s life. Still, Gui has to be forced at sword point to take the crown.
So Gui of Burgundy is crowned king and issues his first order: let’s all go home to our own lands and prepare a wagon full of war material and ten years worth of provisions, then meet up and go help Charlemagne. Because we are still young men and prone to quarrel, let’s also take our mothers along, and let’s search our estates for the oldest man we can find and take him along as well. That way, “the old ones will be there to offer good advice.”
Interestingly, the young barons are nervous about going off to war. Gui of Burgundy also has to convince his mother he isn’t out to usurp Charlemagne’s throne, and she makes him promise to be generous to orphans. Gui repeats an earlier promise that he will not hold any castle in France nor accept a penny (denier) in taxes until they’ve helped Charlemagne. The young barons meet up on the banks of the Seine outside Paris, but Maucion is conspicuously absent. He doesn’t want to conquer a foreign land, he wants to conquer France once Gui leaves for Spain.
So Gui and his boys ride to Maucion’s castle and surround it, but before any fighting can happen Maucion comes out and apologizes and says he’ll go to Spain after all. But Gui isn’t having it:
“Maucion,” said Gui, “by the ever-truthful God,
I’ll never trust you a single day of my life!
I know that if you remain here in France,
You will start causing trouble as soon as I leave.”
He summoned the provost, with his sergeants and bailiffs,
To whom he had confided the task of ruling France.
He turned Maucion over to him and told him
To convey him swiftly to the tower of Privers,
To be guarded there and properly nourished,
And not to release him on any account
Until after Charles returns, if he is still alive.
Then the women start causing trouble: they’ve already lost their husbands, they don’t want to lose their sons, too. Gui threatens to cut off their lower lips, and so of course they stop protesting.
Gui’s army finally sets off from Paris, but under a bad omen, as the sky goes unnaturally dark and the Seine turns blacker than ink.
But their journey goes well, and we see how time has passed: in Gascony they drink wine from grapes Charlemagne planted, and see a woods that has sprung from the acorns he sowed when he was passing through all those years ago. They hear from a pilgrim that Charlemagne is at Luserne, “his feet and hands were so swollen / That he could barely stand upon his two feet. / He and his men were so beaten down / That they could barely mount their horses.” Gui’s own father, once a mighty warrior, has been reduced to drinking his horse’s blood, mixed with salt.
At Carsade, the Saracens rise from their meal to look out the castle window: there’s an enemy army approaching but it’s not Charlemagne’s. Who could it be? A Saracen named Barbarin goes out to parlay, but he doesn’t believe Guy is the King of France, because he’s not Charlemagne, who has already been here and gone. Barbarin is upset and confounded that France can somehow support two kings in Spain, and still have enough men left behind to defend itself. Barbarin returns to his castle and tries to convince his men to surrender, but they won’t have it, and so there’s a battle, but it’s a bit weak by geste standards. In the end, Barbarin sneaks up to Gui and offers to betray the citadel to him. The plan works and the French take the castle. When the fighting ends, Gui orders all the city’s provisions rounded up in the market square and sent to King Charlemange, but orders his men to keep their true identities hidden. The men are irritated at this and rue the day Gui was crowned king. It’s hard to tell if Gui’s order is just a plot contrivance or if theres a reason for it. I suppose he’s afraid Charlemagne will be angry at him for assuming the crown.
Their next battle goes even easier: the enemy’s tower collapses while the French are at prayer. “Before an archer could raise his bow, / The marble tower collapsed and split in two, / Sending every pagan and infidel / Crashing to his death on the ground below.”
For the convoy of provisions to reach Charlemagne, it must pass Montorgueil. The French are spotted by the Saracen warrior Danemont, son of Huidelon, and attacked and driven into a river where they almost drown, but a miracle suddenly dries up the river and they fight on. The battle turns and Danemont retreats to his castle and warns his father that they’re in trouble.
At Luserne, Charlemagne’s besieging army only has two days worth of food on hand. Just then the young knights arrive with the provisions, but Charlemagne mistakes them for Saracens and Slavs and has his men go to arms. Luckily, Duke Naimon spots the crosses on their shields and goes out to speak with them. His own son, Bertrand, announces the provisions but cannot say who he is. Bertrand then curses Naimon for abandoning his son,
– “My God,” said Duke Naimes, “do I have a son?”
– “Yes,” said Bertrand, “a very fine young man;
He was dubbed less than a year ago;
He is no bigger than I am and no older.
By the God we worship,
I once heard him pledge and swear
That if he encountered you on the road
He would send your head flying.
You let his mother suffer a long widowhood:
In Bavaria they told her
That Charles had arranged for you to be married in Spain.”
– “As God is my witness,” said Naimes, “I never dreamed of it!
He has kept us in Spain against our will.”
Another father and son argue over whether this new king has usurped the crown. And Charlemagne of course is furious. Still, they are thankful for the provisions, of which they were in dire need. Roland and Oliver say they have gone seven years without a change of clothes. Then Ganelon begins to stir up trouble at a conference of the older knights: he claims these young ones have stolen our possessions in France. He wants the young knights arrested and stripped naked, then for the army to attack this new king, and hang him from the gallows. But Duke Naimon offers better advice: he wants the young knights to be shown hospitality and for a kind message to be sent to the new king, for Naimon suspects all their sons are among them. Ganelon storms out, and we’re reminded that he’ll betray the French to King Marsile. At dinner, Charlemagne speculates about which of the young knights are the sons of which of his barons, guessing correctly for each. The young knights still won’t tell them King Gui’s name or their own identities, and Charlemagne is irked that he wasn’t consulted, but they’re all elated to hear that the women of France have come with the army.
Charlemagne decides he still wants to take Luserne, and hits upon a ruse. He dresses up as a pilgrim to infiltrate the town, and tells Ogier to be ready to attack. Charlemagne gets inside, but then a blast of wind knocks off his hat and exposes him. He overhears people speculating about his identity, but an angel appears and tells him not to be afraid. He goes to see King Aquilant, who is surrounded by thirty lesser kings, and Charlemagne ‘greets him in the name of Mohammed’ (!) and says he is a pilgrim returning from Mecca with greetings from Aquilant’s father. Then a Saracen who recognizes Charlemagne yanks on his beard and denounces him.
Charles raised his thick and weighty staff
And struck him such a blow to the head
That he smashed his skull to pieces,
And the pagan’s eyes popped out of his head
As it came crashing to the ground.
Aquilant wants to hang Charlemagne, but Salatré the Turk chastises him and says that the pilgrim was in the right to defend himself, for if he’d lodged a complaint about his beard being pulled you’d have defended him. Then a boy rushes forward and says the French are attacking, and have destroyed the drawbridge and the moat. There’s a brief battle and Charlemagne rejoins his forces, but the attack is called off when it’s seen to be futile. Charlemagne sends the young knights back to King Gui, and asks for the new king’s help.
The story turns back to King Gui’s army, where the women are sad they won’t be going to Luserne. Instead, the army is finishing the job at Montorgueil. It’s a well-defended city, and the rivers are full of hidden magnets that will attract and drown armoured knights. At the suggestion of Bertrand, Duke Naimon’s son, King Gui takes a delegation of nine men as messengers into Montorgueil. Macabré from Vaulion Hill and his thousand Saracen troops spot them coming. He greets them in Greek, which is kind of strange (when language is even mentioned at all in these things, it’s usually just that a Frenchmen is said to know the Saracen tongue, or vice versa), and they say they are messengers, so Macabré escorts them across the magnetic rivers and sends them on their way.
Gui and his delegation enter the city of Montorgueil, where they see many rich bourgeois with fine households, and Saracen women at work. We learn that King Huidelon has sent his son Danemont off to guard another of the five cities. Gui’s delegation reaches the gate to Huidelon’s keep, which is guarded by a fierce giant, over thirteen feet tall, with eyes as red as burning coals. The gatekeeper giant is armed with a large club encircled with many bands of steel, at the end of which are many keys. In the past he has killed many of Charlemagne’s men. The club is so heavy that lesser men have collapsed their ribs into their sides trying to pick it up. Gui’s delegation ask to speak to Huidelon, but the giant attacks them. Gui dodges the club, which instead kills Bertrand’s horse, and then Gui slices off the giant’s arm and head.
They’re into the castle proper now but this is all getting a bit long, so I’m going to break off here and continue next time. I’ll have part two out next week instead of waiting my customary two weeks. Hope to see you then!
Thanks for reading, especially if you’ve made it this far. This has been Adam’s Notes for January 10, 2024. My name is Adam McPhee, and you can find me on Twitter, Bluesky, Letterboxd, and Goodreads.