Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 5034
  • Author(s)/Creator(s):
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  • Title: The Marriage of Edward III and the Transmission of French Motets to England
  • Source: Journal of the American Musicological Society 45, 1 (Spring 1992): Pages 1 - 29.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Edition of Text;Journal Article;Translation
  • Subject (See Also): Edward III, King of England Gervais du Bus, Poet- Roman de Fauvel Isabelle of France, Wife of Edward II, King of England Marriage Motets Music Philippe de Vitry, Bishop of Meaux Philippa of Hainault, Wife of Edward III, King of England Politics Queens Tra
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: British Isles;France
  • Century: 14
  • Primary Evidence: Manuscript; Manuscript One Paris, Archives Nationales, J 634, no. 14. Manuscript Two Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Français 561, fol. 6. Manuscript Three Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Français 571. Manuscript Four Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Français 57
  • Illustrations: Six Figures. Figure One Map of Northern and Central France in the early fourteenth century; shaded areas mark English possessions in 1337. Figure Two Manuscript, Paris, Archives Nationales, J 634, no. 14; documents the homage Edward as prince paid to the French king in September 1325. The record is attested by three different notaries, including Gervais du Bus. Figure Three Chart of the line of French royal succession in 1328. Figure Four Manuscript, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Francais 561, fol. 6; depicts Edward and Philippa standing in the margins adjacent to two framed miniatures. At the four corners of the left miniature-frame are the arms of Hainault, Luxembourg, Bar, and Limbourg; at the corners of the right miniature-frame are the arms of England, Brabant, Artois, and Malines. Figure Five Manuscript, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Français 571, fol. 66v (detail); folio from a fourteenth-century manuscript of the “Secreta secretorum” has an initial bearing the arms of Edward, the English heir apparent. Figure Six Manuscript, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Français 571, fol. 124 (detail); another folio from the “Secreta secretorum” that also has an initial bearing the arms of Edward.
  • Table: Two Tables. Table One Contents of Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Français 571; lists the number of each folio, its contents, how the contents are identified in the manuscript itself, its scribe, and its illuminator. Table Two Texts of Motets from Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Français 571; the two motets are “Ludowice prelustris francorum / servant regem / Rex regum et dominus dominantium” and “Qui secuntur castra / Detractor est / Verbum iniquum.” The table transcribes the texts in Latin and French with English translations.
  • Abstract: This article describes the hitherto unsuspected transmission to England of the two motets in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS français 571 (also found in Chaillou de Pesstain's interpolated version of the "Roman de Fauvel" (MS français 146) as a direct product of the period spent in France by Isabella, Queen of England, 1325-1326, and of the negotiations for the marriage of her son, the future Edward III of England. Isabella'd expedition, both before and after the open break with her husband, Edward II, afforded numerous opportunities for the proximity of English and French musicians; new documentation presented here permits the charting in detail of English clerics' contacts with Gervais du Bus, one of the authors of the "Roman de Fauvel" and with Philippe de Vitry. A new dating is advanced for MS français 571, compiled for the marriage of Prince Edward and Philippa of Hainault. Edward's proximity to the French royal line (and the residual English claim to the French throne) provided a rationale not only for the English diplomatic handling of the marriage, but also for the inclusion of the motet texts in MS français 571. The motets' topical texts, originally cast with other purposes in mind, are here subordinated to the broader political program of the Anglo-Hainault marriage. Thus, far from being monofunctional, fourteenth-century motets could be re-used in new contexts that made quite different uses of the messages promulgated in their texts: the adaptability of individual motets may, indeed, have been a fundamental cause in their transmission and even in their later survival.
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  • Year of Publication: 1992.
  • Language: English;Latin;Middle French
  • ISSN/ISBN: 00030139