The Treasure of the City of Ladies Read online

  Had her husband had a trade or business she might have continued it herself, but her husband had not been a tradesman. If she had been the country-bred wife of a peasant farmer, she might have supported her family by toil on the land. In The Treasure of the City of Ladies she suggests doing laundry as a respectable occupation for a woman, but it is unlikely that she considered it for herself.

  As relief from the cares of a penurious widowhood (at one time she had four lawsuits running concurrently), Christine applied herself to study. She began at the beginning – like a child, she said, learning its ABC – with histories of the world, histories of the Hebrews, Assyrians, famous rulers of antiquity, the Romans, then the French and Bretons. As well as all the history she could find, she read widely in science and poetry. Armed with this learning, Christine began to write. Fortunately, her first efforts, conventional love ballades and other lyrical forms, the earliest composed around 1393, met with considerable success, and she was encouraged to continue writing. By the end of the decade she was writing seriously for a living. She seems to have gradually fallen into the profession of letters, writing partly for pleasure and partly from financial necessity, a daring way of life, unheard of for a woman of her time.

  The autobiographical content of her works makes her remarkable in the Middle Ages, when writers wrote and rewrote versions of popular stories, but revealed very few personal details. The Changes of Fortune (La Mutacion de Fortune, finished in November 1403) is an immensely long poem of 23,636 lines in which she describes the reversals in her own life and then shows how the vagaries of Fortune have affected others. She includes some striking vignettes of contemporary life and then continues with a wide-ranging history of the world. At the same time Christine was composing various short poems and The Epistle of Othea, a collection of ninety-nine poems with an allegorical interpretation appended to each. The Road of Long Study followed, then her life of Charles V, written at his brother’s request. She then returned to her own experience in The Vision of Christine which, in spite of a loose allegorical framework, gives us very detailed information about Christine’s life. She mentions that between 1399 and 1405 she has written ‘fifteen principal volumes, not counting other small ditties, which together fill about seventy quires of large format’. Christine’s writing would be stunningly prolific even in an age of typewriters and word-processors; as it is, she has been compared to Lope de Vega for this ability apparently to compose as fast as she could write.

  She dedicated copies of her work, often beautifully illuminated, to great ladies and noblemen, who then rewarded her handsomely. Powerful statesmen and distinguished men of letters took an interest in the work of this courageous widow, who was, as a professional woman writer, sui generis and moreover had a great many valuable things to say. Her fame spread beyond the borders of France. In 1397 the Earl of Salisbury offered to take her son, Jean, as a page in his household. This arrangement lasted for only two years, however, for Salisbury was executed in 1399 for plotting to kill Henry IV in revenge for the death of Richard II. Henry IV invited Christine to England, but she prudently delayed in giving a direct refusal until her son was safely returned to her. Now Jean entered the service of the Duke of Burgundy. Her other son apparently died in childhood, or at any rate disappeared from the record, and her daughter entered the Dominican convent of St Louis in Poissy, to the west of Paris.

  Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, appealed to Christine’s affection for the land of her birth, but the pull of France was stronger. She declined his invitation to ornament the Milanese court with the same firmness with which she had refused Henry IV of England. (And it was just as well, for the Duke of Milan was killed in the Siege of Florence in 1402.)

  She had by now collected an impressive list of protectors and admirers in France, including powerful members of the royal family. Jean, Duke of Berry, collected nearly all of Christine’s works in his famous library. Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, commissioned the biography of his brother, Charles V. John the Fearless (Duke of Burgundy after 1404) and Anthony of Burgundy, Duke of Brabant and Limburg, rewarded her for her writing. Both King Charles VI and his queen, Isabeau of Bavaria, gave her generous gifts. (The illumination on the cover of this book is taken from a sumptuous volume Christine once presented to Queen Isabeau and which is now in the British Library.) Louis, Duke of Orleans, and his wife, Valentine Visconti (daughter of the Duke of Milan), had a number of Christine’s works in their library, as did the Dauphin and Louis de Guyenne and his wife, Marguerite of Burgundy. It was to the latter that Christine dedicated The Treasure of the City of Ladies.

  With a secure base of patronage, Christine took a leading part in the most celebrated literary controversy of the Middle Ages, the Querelle, or debate, of the Romance of the Rose. The Romance of the Rose was probably the most popular literary work of the Middle Ages, recounting in an immensely long allegory the gradual winning (or seduction) of a lady by her lover. The lady is represented by a prize rose in a garden carefully guarded by such allegorical figures as Danger and Jealousy, often personified as suspicious old crones. The Romance of the Rose, begun around 1230 by Guillaume de Lorris, was continued in 1275–80 by Jean de Meung, who introduced a pronounced element of misogyny. Christine, probably one of the few women who had ever read it, attacked its immorality in her Letter to the God of Love in 1399. She particularly objected to the generalizations Jean de Meung made about women. She could not understand, she said, why men wrote so scathingly about women when they owed their very existence to them. Had they no gentle feelings for their mothers, sisters, wives or daughters? Had they never met any virtuous women who might disprove these sweeping generalizations? Had they really passed their lives entirely among immoral women, if indeed they had been acquainted with any women at all? This was fairly radical feminism in a world that held that women were the sources of most sin and the embodiment of both temptation and the deadly sin of lechery. Whether or not Christine was the only woman who had ever read the Romance of the Rose, she was certainly the only woman who dared to attack such a universally popular work. She did, however, have three powerful allies in her objections: Jean Gerson, the chancellor of the University of Paris; Guillaume de Tignonville, the provost of Paris; and Marshal Jean le Meingre Boucicaut. Opposing them were Jean de Mon-treuil, provost of Lille; Gontier Col, the king’s secretary; and his brother Pierre Col, the canon of Paris. The principals in this literary battle circulated some twenty treatises and letters among themselves for the next three years. In the end their disagreement was as strong as ever, but Christine, who had written more than the others put together, had demonstrated her courage in defending what she believed to be right, even in the face of strong opposition.

  In 1404 Christine wrote The Book of the City of Ladies as her final statement on the issues that had been raised in the controversy over the Romance of the Rose. The Book of the City of Ladies, alluding to St Augustine’s City of God, has a loose allegorical structure in which exempla about virtuous ladies, borrowed largely from Boccaccio’s De claris mulieribus, serve as the ‘building blocks’ for the City, which is to be a haven for all virtuous ladies. The exemplary stories illustrate all the strengths and excellent qualities that the long tradition of misogynist writers claimed that all women lacked. With wit and a shrewd appeal to empiricism Christine demolished every argument traditionally put forward to justify the inferior status of women. She demonstrates how a supposed weakness is in fact often a moral strength, as when women, who are physically weak and timid, are therefore more inclined to make peace and avert wars. In a striking passage that must be unique in all medieval literature, Christine advises women to rely on their own experience for knowledge of the feminine condition and not on the ignorant scribbles of men who could not possibly have the same accurate knowledge, no matter what the evidence of their wide reading in the works of other misogynists.

  The Treasure of the City of Ladies

  Having put forward her last word on the moral natur
e of women, Christine went on to write a kind of ‘sequel’ to The Book of the City of Ladies. While The Treasure of the City of Ladies (written in 1405, also called The Book of the Three Virtues) complements the earlier work in that it is supposed to be the cardinal possession of the ladies now securely sheltered in their allegorical city, it is a book of a very different character. The reader seeking feminist polemics will not find them here. The Treasure of the City of Ladies is strictly a guide to practicalities. Part etiquette book, part survival manual, it was written for women who had to live from day to day in the world as it was. The women she addressed ranged from those with power and authority to the poorest peasant women, including widows, spinsters, prostitutes and nuns. This range hardly reflects the real readership that Christine had in mind; rather it reflects a medieval penchant for all-inclusiveness. However, Christine devotes most of her attention to the powerful and well placed. It would be difficult to find more practical social advice in medieval European literature. The society in which great ladies moved was a closed one. The counsel is to be nice to everyone in order to keep a good reputation and also to render the narrow life of the court livable. If a lady is rude or angry to a servant or an equal, she has to live with the friction and hostility she has partly caused. ‘Pretend not to notice,’ Christine advises, whether it is a husband’s infidelity or the jealousy of one’s enemies.

  Here is advice for making peace between one’s husband and his vassals and for keeping the domestic peace with one’s spouse and among the ladies of the court. One of her recurring themes is that women should stick together. They should not gossip about each other; they should be tolerant of other women who are much younger or much older than they are; if they are chaste and virtuous they should not assume that other women are not; and they should love each other like sisters. Again and again with casual artistry Christine presents scenes that clearly come straight from life – the great lady waking up in her luxurious bed; the lady positioning herself by her window in the morning so that she can be sure the workmen are all going out to the fields; the lady graciously accepting little gifts from her subjects; the maid pretending that the groceries cost more than they really did; the servants’ banquet of purloined food in the kitchen; the women jostling in church, each trying to be the first to the altar. The Treasure of the City of Ladies is full of such vivid little pictures of medieval life, startling in their evident authenticity.

  Not surprisingly, the only other sources of knowledge we have about medieval chivalry come from the pens of male writers. Modern readers often wonder to what extent the very complicated rules of courtly love actually obtained in the real life of a medieval court. While the lords and ladies were reading fanciful tales of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, how were they actually behaving towards each other? Christine’s allusions to the practice of chivalry in the early fifteenth century are the only reliable picture we possess from the point of view of a woman writing for other women. The message is clear and straight from the shoulder: gallants at court are untrustworthy; they will say anything and make any promise to get their own way. Their promises of secrecy and discretion are worthless; they will brag about their conquest the moment the lady’s back is turned. They will badger her for favours and love tokens, but these pleas should be resisted. An adulterous affair is dangerous for everyone concerned, the lady, her husband, her parents and her chaperon (and presumably even for the hectoring and footloose lover, although Christine wastes no sympathy on him). Even in this case, when the popular conventions of courtly flirting can be positively dangerous to a woman with a reputation to protect, Christine does not suggest that the conventions should be changed or abolished: she merely notes that they exist and advises ladies how to deal with them.

  Christine assumes that women who do not intend to enter religious orders will marry, although a few may choose to remain in a state of secular virginity, and some will be widowed. Christine’s advice concerning widowhood and remarriage comes straight from her own experience. A widow suddenly becomes prey to every sort of swindle and deception. Even men who deferred to her when her husband was alive are now rude and dismissive. People will bring lawsuits against her, and she herself may be forced to go to law to obtain justice. After her husband’s death people will try to cheat her out of what is rightfully hers. If you cannot settle it amicably out of court, Christine counsels from bitter experience, get a good lawyer, an old one who knows all the tricks, but be careful that the legal fees do not exceed the sum you stand to gain by litigation!

  In view of all the problems of widowhood, Christine might be expected to advise remarriage, but she does not. She presents this argument, but reminds her readers that marriage is not always better than independence, even of this difficult and penurious sort:

  If in married life everything were all repose and peace, truly it would be sensible for a woman to enter it again, but because one sees quite the contrary, any woman ought to be very wary of remarriage, although for young women it may be a necessity or anyway very convenient. But for those who have already passed their youth and who are well enough off and are not constrained by poverty, it is sheer folly, although some women who wish to remarry say that it is no life for a woman on her own. So few widows trust in their own intelligence that they excuse themselves by saying that they would not know how to look after themselves.

  Ladies, whether married or widowed, living on country estates should know how the estate is administered and run. The country lady should also know the details of crop management and animal husbandry so that she can oversee her workmen intelligently. Any woman with a household to run should know how to budget the money. Christine gives practical instructions for allocating income and staying out of debt: divide your expenditure into five categories of descending priorities; give to the poor, pay your debts and household expenses, pay your servants and staff, put something aside for gifts, and save the remainder to spend on your own clothing and jewellery.

  One of Christine’s overriding concerns – a concern that is evident in much of her advice – is for peace. A princess or great lady should try to make peace between her husband and any rebellious vassals or subjects. A lady should keep peace in her family and among the ladies and women of her household. Men are a little inclined to be hot-headed, she says, and it is a woman’s duty to bring a measure of calmness and reason to a hostile situation. A lady should establish herself as a mediator between any hostile factions, whether it is a question of national politics or friction in the household. The queen or princess can become the power behind the throne by exerting her calming influence. Women generally should work behind the scenes, tactfully, even stealthily, on a personal level. The wife, at whatever level of society, must defer to her husband. In the absence of her husband, however, the wife should act as his representative, whether she is a queen presiding over his council or an artisan’s wife overseeing her husband’s subordinates.

  Christine’s Later Works

  When Christine de Pizan finished writing The Treasure of the City of Ladies she was forty and could look back on a distinguished career in letters. She had written nineteen or twenty major works in both poetry and prose. To these she added The Body of Policy, about the instruction of princes, written with the young Dauphin in mind, as a companion piece to The Treasure of the City of Ladies.

  The peaceful atmosphere in Paris quickly deteriorated after 1407, when Louis, Duke of Orleans, was assassinated by the Burgundian faction. Christine stayed on in Paris until 1418, when she finally escaped the civil war by entering a convent. In the meantime she continued to write. In The Book of Feats of Arms and of Chivalry she compiles the wisdom of several classical authors and adds her own judgements and observations, including practical information she has gleaned from soldiers with battle experience. Always concerned with very practical, usable advice, Christine describes how to choose a campground, what food and bedding a general will need fora campaign, how to attack a stronghold, and conversely, how to prevent the u
ndermining of one’s own castle. Such was the usefulness of this handbook that eighty years later Henry VII asked William Caxton to translate it into English and print it for the benefit of English men-at-arms.

  Although the licentious and disorganized court of Queen Isabeau inspired Christine to write some of her works about good government and well-run courts, she seems to have followed her own advice and kept on the good side of the queen. Soon after Christine finished The Treasure of the City of Ladies, the queen asked her for a collection of her complete works to date. Although all of the love poems are included, the biography of Charles V and the just completed Treasure are omitted, the latter being perhaps a little too close to home for the queen’s taste. There are a number of new poems in this collection, and no doubt Queen Isabeau was considerably more interested in poems about ladies and knights, separated lovers and bittersweet reunions, than in moral instruction about the proper management of a hypothetical court that greatly resembled her own. Christine de Pizan was now reasonably well off financially, thanks to her prolific composition and her influential patronage, and she was well known both at home and abroad. In 1409 she wrote Seven Allegorical Psalms at the request of Charles the Noble, King of Navarre. They include some workmanlike prayers, composed as an exercise in a genre by special request. But in the summer of the next year she wrote something very much nearer her own taste for debate on public affairs. France was about to be torn apart by civil war, and Christine, ever the French patriot and seeker of reconciliation, wrote an open letter to those in power called Lamentation on the Evils of Civil War. She describes the death and ruin that would result from civil war. She begs the powers that be to avert the impending national catastrophe. She signs her letter ‘A poor voice crying in this kingdom, desirous of peace and the good of all of you, your servant Christine, who prays that she may see the day when peace comes.’ But 23 August 1410, the date of the letter, was too late to have much effect on the growing dissension among the factions in the realm. After the hostilities had gone on for another two years and a shaky treaty was concluded, Christine exultantly addressed her Book of Peace to the Dauphin. After having lauded Charles V in The Book of the Deeds and Good Customs of Charles V(1404) and, in the Body of Policy (written in 1406 or 1407), explained in detail how a ruler should be educated, Christine now seeks to instil all the princely virtues into the adolescent Dauphin before it is too late. The Book of Peace was finished by the end of 1413. (Christine always presented a copy of her latest work to Jean, Duke of Berry, as a New Year’s present, and as a result we have good evidence of the order in which she wrote her works and her speed of composition. The Book of Peace, Christine’s last major work, was presented to the Duke of Berry on the first day of 1414.)