Showing posts with label Queen Isabella. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Queen Isabella. Show all posts

Tuesday 18 February 2020

Medieval Verse (4) Praise Crown Restored . . . Raise Voice in Song . . .

[ This hitherto untranscribed text is by a hand unknown and no putative attribution to any earlier scriptor should be assayed. ]

Discovered inscribed in cursiva anglicana (Middle English
and Latin) by stylus on a wax tablet. Early 14th Century.
This tabletta (tabula or ceraculum), one of a number hinged together and
sealed in a carrying-pouch, is in the personal possession of
Catherine Eisner who has transcribed the orthographical variants,
with reference to The Middle English Dictionary and 
to The Index to Middle English Verseand within 
the limitations of current scholarship Eisner 
believes this text to be a faithful rendering.

                     In Truth May All Our 
                                                         Prayers Exalt the Tongue
                     Loud to Condemn the 
                                                         Wrongs by Falsehoods Shriven.
                     Praise Crown Restored 
                                                         in Faith Raise Voice in Song
                     Not Death Besought but 
                                                         Souls their Harvests Thriven.


This verse, perhaps the final jottings on these wax tablets
to be deciphered (since the succeeding tabulae in the
series are seemingly irredeemably welded together),
 is thought to celebrate the seizure of power by Edward III,
aged seventeen, in the coup d'état against Roger Mortimer,
the de facto Regent of England; so a ‘restoration’ of the 
true king would have been strong in the mind of  the writer,
possibly a mendicant preacher. This series of verses (1307
to 1330?), therefore, spans the reign of Edward II and the
early years of his heir, the boy King Edward III. 
It’s clear the tablet-scriber was alert to the unfolding drama
within the unruly House of Plantagenet and aware, too, of the
monarchical intrigues of his turbulent times, so it’s 
frustrating that his later shrewd observations are hidden
from us. The fact that the travelling-pouch of tablets lay
concealed in a secret cache for over six hundred years surely
evidences the caution the writer must have observed
in safeguarding his indiscreet clerical broadsides. 

The figuration of the growth of the Soul as a spiritual
harvest to be reaped by Righteousness may be
found in 2 Corinthians 9:10


For a transcription of the first of these medieval verses by an unknown hand, see
Verse 1 (possibly 1307) a devout prayer on the occasion of Edward II’s coronation:
The tabulae appear chronological in composition; see the following Verse 2 of 1312:
Verse 3 (possibly 1325-1330) records the Fall of Edward II with the defeat of Queen Isabella – the She-Wolf of France – together with her lover, Roger Mortimer:
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2020/02/medieval-verse-3-when-lief-churl.html


The Cambridgeshire Hoard

Provisional details of the 14th Century Cambridgeshire Hoard will be announced by Eisner following completion of the first phase of studies.

I realised only yesterday, following the uncovering of a childhood cache of my drawings, that I must have been – even in my early teens – fascinated by 14th Century clerical thought and practice. This pastiche of a medieval woodcut – a pilgrim – I printed at home when I was fourteen.


Friday 7 February 2020

Medieval Verse (3) When lief a Churl

[ This hitherto untranscribed text is by a hand unknown and no putative attribution to any earlier scriptor should be assayed. ]

Discovered inscribed in cursiva anglicana (Middle English
and Latin) by stylus on a wax tablet. Early 14th Century.
This tabletta (tabula or ceraculum), one of a number hinged together and
sealed in a carrying-pouch, is in the personal possession of
Catherine Eisner who has transcribed the orthographical variants,
with reference to The Middle English Dictionary and 
to The Index to Middle English Verseand within 
the limitations of current scholarship Eisner 
believes this text to be a faithful rendering.

                    When lief a Churl   
                                                 Our Chateleine enthrones 
                    To Woe a Mort ere  
                                                 More Her Dower* guerdones   
                    For Domayne Reft  
                                                 the Wolf-Dam nere atones 
                    Til Lord of Hosts 
                                                 fain All of Heaven summons

Above: 1326,
Queen Isabella, ‘She-Wolf’ of France, consort of Edward
II, and her lover Roger Mortimer raise an insurgent
mercenary army to rule England as de facto regents.

Beneath the overt meaning of this verse it’s tempting to
read a dangerously libellous covert broadside whose
intention, if correctly interpreted, places its composition
at some point between 1325 and 1330.
Overt meaning: ‘When willingly Our Lady Regnant
raises a Ruffian to High Office/a great deal [mortof
her Dowery, before an even greater amount, is gifted to
Sorrow/since the She-Wolf never atones for Plundering
the Realm/until the Kingdom of Heaven is obliged by evil
deeds on earth to summon the aid of the Lord God.’
Covert meaning: ‘When willingly Queen Isabella raises
an Upstart [Mort-i-more] to the Throne of England/
a great deal [mort] of England’s Treasury, before an even
greater amount, is gifted to England’s Bankruptcy/
because the She-Wolf of France never atones for
plundering the English Realm/until the Kingdom
of Heaven is obliged by the Lovers’ evil deeds
on earth to summon the aid of the Lord God.
Above: 1308,
Princess Isabella, twelve years old, daughter
of King Phillip IV of France, marries the new
king of England, Edward II, aged 24.

*Anglia dos Mariae. (England, Mary's dowry.)
On reflection, when probing deeper into the connotations of this verse, I believe the words are an anti-royalist Mariolatrous invocation protesting the despoiling of England by the French She-Wolf’s predations on the King’s treasury. The words possibly seek to quicken in the reader (assuming there existed a trusting confidant in the 14th Century privy to read them) an affirmation of a religiose national idolatry. The denunciatory character of the verses are all the more heretical since they point up the extreme comparison to be found in Queen Isabella’s ‘Dowry-by-Plunder' when contrasted with the metonym for England that is Our Lady’s Dowry (or Dowry of the Virgin and similar variations). This metonym had become widespread by the middle of the fourteenth century for at that time it is stated, ‘It is commonly said that the land of England is the Virgin’s dowry.’  The Virgin Mary was regarded, therefore, as England’s Protectress who, through her power of intercession, acted as the country’s defender or guardian. The iambic scansion of these lines suggest that 'dower’ was pronounced with a diphthong.



For a transcription of the first of these medieval verses by an unknown hand, see

Verse 1 (possibly 1307) a devout prayer on the occasion of Edward II’s coronation:
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2016/03/medieval-song.html
The tabulae appear chronological in composition; see the following Verse 2 of 1312:
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2020/01/medieval-verse-2-hart-there-was.html
The Fourth verse, which ends the series (the succeeding wax tablets are irredeemably welded together) see: