La Belle Hélène de Constantinople
La Belle Hélène de Constantinople (or L'Ystoire de Helayne) is a Middle French chanson de geste of the 14th century combining features of epic, romance and hagiography. It exists in both verse and prose versions.[1]
Manuscripts and versions
There are three manuscripts in verse and four in prose. The most extensive verse version, found in a manuscript of
In 1448,
Synopsis
The main story of La Belle Hélène, although embellished by numerous subplots and action sequences, is of the same type as
The anachronistic story appears to be set in
When the Saracen king of Flanders falls in love with her, Hélène flees by ship but is captured by pirates. When the pirate captain tries to rape her, she prays to the
Hélène and the boys land on the island of Constance (ever since called Scotland), where the children are taken by a wolf and a lion. Believing them dead, Hélène sails for France. The boys are rescued by a hermit named Felix, who names the one Lion and the other Brac, because he is holding his mother's arm (French bras). In Rome, the hundred-year-old pope and King Henry defeat the Turkish king Butor and Henry adopts his crest of three leopards as his own. It is the coat of arms of England down to the present.[3]
Meanwhile, Antoine, still searching for his daughter, exorcises an evil spirit from Graibaut, king of Bavaria, who had fallen in love with his daughter, Clariande. Graibaut retires to a hermitage, leaving Bavaria to Clariande. Antoine goes to Flanders, where he repents of his incestuous desires. In England, he meets a distraught King Henry and the two realize they are in-laws. When the fraud perpetrated by Marguerite is revealed by Antoine's ruse, Henry has her burned to death. Gloucester then reveals that he burned his sister in place of Hélène. The two kings are joined by a third, Amaury of Scotland, exiled by his people on account of his conversion to Christianity.[3]
When they reach the age of sixteen, Lion and Brac go searching for their mother. They come to the court of Clariande, who has recently married the earl of Gloucester, but they must flee when she falls in love with Lion. In France, they are baptised by an
The three kings fight numerous battles in their search for Hélène. They capture Bordeaux, which becomes an English possession, and baptise its pagan king, Coustant, who joins them. They arrive at Tours, where Hélène goes into hiding, but they recognize her arm, which Brice still carries. Brice goes to England, but the four kings march to liberate Jerusalem from the pagans. Coustant is captured. Plaisance, the daughter of the king of Jerusalem, falls in love with him. When the two are found together, Coustant kills the king and is miraculous brought to the Christian camp by Saint George. A pregnant Plaisance flees to the protection of a Roman senator and is baptised. The senator falls in love with her, poisons his wife and tries to have her infant son murdered. A prophecy says that the two ladies (Plaisance and Hélène) will only be rescued when Jerusalem, Flanders and the city of Castres in Lombardy have been conquered.[3]
Thieves spoil the murder of Plaisance and Coustant's son, who is left in a forest near Castres, which is being besieged by Clovis I of the Franks. When the senator makes advances on Plaisance he is paralyzed and she flees to the pagan king of Castres. The siege of Jerusalem ends when King Amaury manages to scale the tallest tower. The pagan king of Jerusalem now converts and becomes an ally. This is the centrepiece of the chanson.[3]
Hélène is working as a washerwoman fending off the amorous advances of beggars when she decides to visit the pope. Plaisance has opened a hostel for pilgrims. When Hélène falls ill on her journey, she is nursed back to health by Plaisance. King Hurtaut of Castres falls in love with her, but she flees to Rome. There she meets the pope, her uncle, but keeps her identity concealed. When she learns that Henry is coming, she returns to Tours. Coustant goes in search of Plaisance and learns of the survival of his son.[3]
The remaining kings take
The conquest of Flanders involves fighting dwarfs and giants. Henry is captured at
At last the principal characters surround Tours and demand to know about the one-armed woman. Her neighbours hand her over and beg for mercy. After 32 years, she is reunited with her father. Her son Martin miraculously restores her arm. All go to Rome to see the aged Pope Clement. There Henry and Hélène die and are buried. Brice becomes king of England and Constantinople. Martin succeeds to the archbishopric of Tours and is succeeded in turn by his nephew, Saint Brice.[3]
See also
Notes
Bibliography
- Black, Nancy B. (2001). "La Belle Hélène de Constantinople and Crusade Propaganda at the Court of Philip the Good". Fifteenth Century Studies. 26: 42–51.
- Jones-Wagner, Valentina Aimee (2001). "La Belle Hélène de Constantinople": The Text of the Female Body in a Fourteenth-Century Chanson de Geste (PhD dissertation). City University of New York. ProQuest 304690067
- McInerney, Maud B. (2012). "Fantasies of Failing Empire in La Belle Hélène de Constantinople". New Medieval Literatures. 14: 63–94. .
External links
- Histoire de la belle Héleine de Constantinople, a modern French edition by Épinal (1823).