HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

378 MICHAEL GOODICHIn the late twelfth century, vernacular (sometimes versified) biography(often devoted to the upper nobility) began to appear, includingthe lyric poet Adam de la Halle’s life (1283/85) of Charles ofAnjou, king of Sicily, the life of King Alfonso VII by Gil Zamora,and the life (1226) of William the Marshal, duke of Pembroke. Theseworks belong to a courtly tradition that attempted to portray theirsubjects as the personification of knightly ideals. In addition, nonaristocraticbiographies—such as the twelfth-century collective vidasof such troubadours as Marcabru and Cercamon and the later lifeof Dante by Boccaccio—extended the list of the subjects of biographybeyond saints and sovereigns. In contrast, Walter of Burley’sLiber de vita et moribus philosophorum (1275/1337), dealing with ancientphilosophers, is entirely derivative.Abbot Suger of St. Denis’ life (1137/44) of Louis VI inaugurateda long tradition of French royal historiography in which biographyserved as a framework for a history of the reign rather than a personalportrait of the sovereign. In Suger’s work, strict chronologicalorder is not always followed. Each of the thirty-two chapters followsa set pattern: a summary description of a particular historical event,royal intervention, and the solution of the problem. Another loyalservant of the Capetian dynasty, Jean de Joinville, sénéschal ofChampagne (1225–1317), who accompanied Louis IX to the HolyLand, was one of the witnesses at the king’s canonization trial andtook part in the elevation of his relics. His life of Louis, dedicatedin 1309 to Philip the Fair, was based on this deposition. It was dictatedto his clergy and focused on the Christian virtues and militarycourage displayed by the saint, including reports of the saint’s edifyingremarks to his entourage, which the author apparently intendedto inspire Louis’s successor and to satisfy the piety of Philip’s wife,Jeanne of Navarre. Another life (1302/03) of Louis was written byGuillaume of St. Pathus, who had served as confessor to both Louis’swidow Marguerite and his daughter Blanche, to whom the work wasdedicated; it is also based on the canonization record. Many of theseroyal biographies do not survive in a large number of copies.Nevertheless, their impact on historiographical tradition may beenduring, since, as semi-official accounts, they were cited by latercourt historians. 7474Guenée (1980), 273.