Rosalind Brown-Grant and Mario Damen (trans)

A Chivalric Life: The Book of the Deeds of Messire Jacques de Lalaing

(Boydell & Brewer, 2022), 375pp. $115

This volume is an English translation of a fifteenth-century biography, recounting the short but eventful life of a Burgundian nobleman, Jacques de Lalaing (c. 1421–1453). Lalaing’s career in the service of Philip the Good of Burgundy exemplified many of the ideals of the later medieval aristocracy. A noted jouster, diplomat and soldier, whose deeds were recorded by other contemporary writers, such as Olivier de la Marche, Lalaing died at the young age of thirty two, struck by a cannonball while besieging the castle of Poeke. The biography, commissioned by Lalaing’s family as a memorial, depicts him as a modern paladin, selflessly devoted to the Virgin Mary and his lord, the ideal knight in both word and deed. While the text itself may present some difficulties to the general reader, Brown-Grant and Damen’s edition, with its exhaustive introduction and apparatus, is a rich source for the history of the medieval aristocracy, its literature, tournaments and wars.

The introduction is extensive, covering not only Lalaing’s story but his family history, their connections to the dukes of Burgundy and the circumstances in which the Book was composed. The Lalaings, a noble family of Hainaut, had a complicated relationship with their overlords. Jacques’s father, Guillaume, had been so highly favoured by the duke that in 1440 he was appointed governor of Holland and Zeeland, but was dismissed in 1445 after failing to resolve the conflict between the ‘Hooks’ and the ‘Cods’, the two major factions in the province (pp. 15–16). The editors suggest that this fall from favour may have spurred Guillaume’s son to perform his extraordinary chivalric feats in order to restore the family’s status at court.

Following Jacques’s death, and with two other sons predeceasing him without heirs, Guillaume was faced with the possibility that the lordship of Lalaing would pass to his eldest daughter’s in-laws, the Brederode family of Holland. The Brederodes had a history of conflict with the dukes of Burgundy and Guillaume appears to have been very concerned that this connection should not tarnish the Lalaings’ reputation (pp. 37–42). This was the context in which the Book was composed, some time in the 1470s. One of Guillaume’s aims was to record and restate the connection between the Lalaings and the dukes, most recently by the great deeds performed by his famous son.

Like many medieval texts, the Book’s author is anonymous and it has been attributed to various contemporary figures throughout history. Brown-Grant and Damen argue convincingly that the author was a herald at the Burgundian court: the frontispiece of all three illustrated manuscripts depict such a herald composing the text and heraldic records form the basis for key sections, particularly the description of the Pas of the Fountain of Tears (see below). The author was clearly an expert on heraldry and noble titles, meticulously recording which nobles were present at every feast, joust or assembly. The editors propose one Gilles Gobet (d. 1492) as the potential author, who succeeded the famous Lefèvre de Saint-Rémy as Toison d’or King of Arms, the most senior Burgundian herald. Gilles had access to the necessary records, as well as a personal connection to the Lalaings, having acted as an intermediary between Guillaume and the ducal court in 1440 (pp. 53–54).

The introduction also includes a detailed manuscript history of the Book, which survives in twelve manuscripts, three of them illuminated. The translation is taken from Paris BnF MS fr. 16830, the oldest and most complete witness and the earliest illuminated copy. Six illuminations from different manuscripts, most depicting tournament and battle scenes, are produced in full colour in the introduction. It is almost a shame that these striking images are confined to the introduction, rather than being placed in the text proper to illustrate the events they purport to depict.

The Book begins with a short section covering Lalaing’s early life, including moral instruction based on avoidance of the Seven Deadly Sins given by his father, before quickly turning to its main theme: the different feats of arms Lalaing performed throughout Europe, either as himself or in the year-long event at Chalon-sur-Saône (1449–50) where he ‘defended’ the Fountain of Tears as the anonymous Knight of the Fountain. The Book is replete with details about the tournaments of the early fifteenth century, from arms and armour, to organisation and governance, to the elaborate ritual and ambiguous theatrics that accompanied the year-long pas. Importantly, the ‘chapters’ that Lalaing sent out, specifying the rules for his combats, are preserved in full in the text. The combats themselves, either jousts or foot combats with pollaxe or sword, are described in fairly formulaic language, enlivened by reports of the occasional controversy. The very real violence of these events is abundantly clear, with Lalaing repeatedly described as jabbing at his opponent’s eyes with the spike on the end of his pollaxe.

The final section of the Book, covering Lalaing’s involvement in the war against Ghent, will be of particular interest to historians of later medieval warfare. The descriptions of the raids across the Flemish countryside, with enemy ambush parties lurking in every wood, visibility reduced by the hedges and progress frequently hampered by ditches, recall the ‘hedgerow hell’ faced by the Allies in 1944 when campaigning in the same region. It is a valuable portrait of warfare at the tactical level and bears comparison to the advice recorded in Jean de Bueil’s Le Jouvencel, also available in English translation from Boydell.  

The scholarship on display in the apparatus accompanying the text is formidable. As well as the usual contextual detail and notes on difficult translations or manuscript errors, every individual named in the text (of which there are many) is given a fully-referenced, mini-biography in the footnotes. Lalaing’s itinerary, and that of the great nobles such as the duke of Burgundy, are carefully compared to the existing records, confirming much of the Book’s basic narrative. The apparatus makes this essential reading for any researcher interested in the court of Philip the Good, or more generally in the royal courts of fifteenth-century Europe.

In the introduction, the editors state that their translation is ‘intended principally to appeal to a general readership interested in finding out more about medieval chivalry’ (p. 73). I would be less inclined to recommend this text as a whole to undergraduates or a general readership. It is a very accomplished translation but there is no disguising the fact that much of the text is very repetitive, particularly the account of Lalaing’s journey to Castile in 1447–48. The endless lists of noble persons and their titles, while adding credence to the editors’ theory that the author was a herald, does not make for a particularly engaging narrative. Lalaing himself is almost a cipher, an image of perfect chivalry defined only by his list of virtues. It is noteworthy that there is no romantic element in Lalaing’s story, not even chaste service to an idealised lady. Early in the Book there is a comedic subplot about two (nameless) noble women, each of whom thinks she is Lalaing’s beloved, and who only learn of their rival’s existence when Lalaing appears at a joust wearing both their love tokens, but Lalaing himself is seemingly oblivious to love (pp. 111–14). His devotion is reserved for the heavenly Virgin alone. The only flash of personality we get is during the account of his foot combat against Jean de Pitois, lord of La Creuze, as part of the Pas of the Fountain. During the fighting, Pitois tried to punch Lalaing in the face, who afterwards remarked: ‘Jean, I can’t help myself from pointing out to you that it’s too much like a woman to hit a man with a gauntlet when one has a weapon in one’s hand that could be used!’ (p. 244). If using this text for teaching, I would only set relevant extracts, such as the Pas of the Fountain or the later war episode, as general readers are likely to struggle with the whole Book.

 A Chivalric Life is a highly-accomplished edition of an important fifteenth-century text, with particular relevance for those interested in the history of the later medieval aristocracy, tournaments and warfare. While the narrative itself lacks the flair or drive of some contemporary texts, it is an important reminder that past cultures had very different tastes and criteria for judging literature.

James Titterton
University of Manchester