APPENDIX

ON THE COURTS OF LOVE[(68)]

There were Courts of Love in France from the year 1150 to the year 1200. So much has been proved. The existence of these Courts probably goes back to a more remote period.

The ladies, sitting together in the Courts of Love, gave out their decrees either on questions of law—for example: Can love exist between married people?—

Or on the particular cases which lovers submitted to them.[1]

So far as I can picture to myself the moral side of this jurisprudence, it must have resembled the Courts of the Marshals of France established for questions of honour by Louis XIV—that is, as they would have been, if only public opinion had upheld that institution.

André, chaplain to the King of France, who wrote about the year 1170, mentions the Courts of Love

André mentions nine judgments pronounced by the Countess of Champagne.

He quotes two judgments pronounced by the Countess of Flanders.

Jean de Nostradamus, Life of the Provençal Poets, says (p. 15):—

"The 'tensons' were disputes of Love, which took place between poets, both knights and ladies, arguing together on some fair and sublime question of love. Where they could not agree, they sent them, that they might get a decision thereon, to the illustrious ladies president who held full and open Court of Love at Signe and Pierrefeu, or at Romanin, or elsewhere, and they gave out decrees thereon which were called 'Lous Arrests d'Amours.'"

These are the names of some of the ladies who presided over the Courts of Love of Pierrefeu and Signe:—

It is probable that the same Court of Love met sometimes at the Castle of Pierrefeu, sometimes at that of Signe. These two villages are just next to each other, and situated at an almost equal distance from Toulon and Brignoles.

In his Life of Bertrand d'Alamanon, Nostradamus says:

"This troubadour was in love with Phanette or Estephanette of Romanin, Lady of the said place, of the house of Gantelmes, who held in her time full and open Court of Love in her castle of Romanin, near the town of Saint-Remy, in Provence, aunt of Laurette of Avignon, of the house of Sado, so often celebrated by the poet Petrarch."

Under the heading Laurette, we read that Laurette de Sade, celebrated by Petrarch, lived at Avignon about the year 1341; that she was instructed by Phanette of Gantelmes, her aunt, Lady of Romanin; that "both of them improvised in either kind of Provençal rhythm, and according to the account of the monk of the Isles d'Or[(69)], their works give ample witness to their learning.... It is true (says the monk) that Phanette or Estephanette, as being most excellent in poetry, had a divine fury or inspiration, which fury was esteemed a true gift from God. They were accompanied by many illustrious and high-born[2] ladies of Provence, who flourished at that time at Avignon, when the Roman court resided there, and who gave themselves up to the study of letters, holding open Court of Love, and therein deciding the questions of love which had been proposed and sent to them....

"Guillen and Pierre Balbz and Loys des Lascaris, Counts of Ventimiglia, of Tende and of Brigue, persons of great renown, being come at this time to visit Pope Innocent VI of that name, went to hear the definitions and sentences of love pronounced by these ladies; and astonished and ravished with their beauty and learning, they were taken with love of them."

At the end of their "tensons" the troubadours often named the ladies who were to pronounce on the questions in dispute between them.

A decree of the Ladies of Gascony runs:—

"The Court of ladies, assembled in Gascony, have laid down, with the consent of the whole Court, this perpetual constitution, etc., etc."

The Countess of Champagne in a decree of 1174, says:—

"This judgment, that we have carried with extreme caution, is supported by the advice of a very great number of ladies..."

In another judgment is found:—

"The knight, for the fraud that has been done him, denounced this whole affair to the Countess of Champagne, and humbly begged that this crime might be submitted to the judgment of the Countess of Champagne and the other ladies."

"The Countess, having summoned around her sixty ladies, gave this judgment, etc."

André le Chapelain, from whom we derive this information, relates that the Code of Love had been published by a Court composed of a large number of ladies and knights.

André has preserved for us the petition, which was addressed to the Countess of Champagne, when she decided the following question in the negative: "Can real love exist between husband and wife?"

But what was the penalty that was incurred by disobedience to the decrees of the Courts of Love?

We find the Court of Gascony ordering that such or such of its judgments should be observed as a perpetual institution, and that those ladies who did not obey should incur the enmity of every honourable lady.

Up to what point did public opinion sanction the decrees of the Courts of Love?

Was there as much disgrace in drawing back from them, as there would be to-day in an affair dictated by honour?

I can find nothing in André or Nostradamus that puts me in a position to solve this question.

Two troubadours, Simon Boria and Lanfranc Cigalla, disputed the question: "Who is worthier of being loved, he who gives liberally, or he who gives in spite of himself in order to pass for liberal?"

This question was submitted to the ladies of the Court of Pierrefeu and Signe; but the two troubadours, being discontented with the verdict, had recourse to the supreme Court of Love of the ladies of Romanin.[3]

The form of the verdicts is conformable to that of the judicial tribunals of this period.

Whatever may be the reader's opinion as to the degree of importance which the Courts of Love occupied in the attention of their contemporaries, I beg him to consider what to-day, in 1822, are the subjects of conversation among the most considerable and richest ladies of Toulon and Marseilles.

Were they not more gay, more witty, more happy in 1174 than in 1882?

Nearly all the decrees of the Courts of Love are based on the provisions of the Code of Love.

This Code of Love is found complete in the work of André le Chapelain.

[1] André le Chapelain, Nostradamus, Raynouard, Crescimbeni, d'Arétin.

[2] Jehanne, Lady of Baulx,
Hugnette of Forcarquier, Lady of Trects,
Briande d'Agoult, Countess de la Lune,
Mabille de Villeneufve, Lady of Vence,
Beatrix d'Agoult, Lady of Sault,
Ysoarde de Roquefueilh, Lady of Ansoys,
Anne, Viscountess of Tallard,
Blanche of Flassans, surnamed Blankaflour,
Doulce of Monestiers, Lady of Clumane,
Antonette of Cadenet, Lady of Lambesc,
Magdalene of Sallon, Lady of the said place,
Rixende of Puyvard, Lady of Trans."
(Nostradamus, p. 217.)

[3] Nostradamus, p. 131.

There are thirty-one articles and here they are:—