''Baudouin de Sebourc'' is a fourteenth-century French ''
chanson de geste
The , from 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poetry, epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th centuries, shortly ...
'' which probably formed part of a
cycle related to the Crusades,
[ and may well be related to '']Bâtard de Bouillon
"Bâtard" (English: "Bastard" or "Mongrel") is a short story by Jack London, first published in 1902 under the title "Diable — A Dog" in '' The Cosmopolitan'' before being renamed "Bâtard" in 1904.
Story
The story follows Black Lecl� ...
''. The poem was likely composed c. 1350 in Hainaut.
The poem consists of 25,750 lines and is retained in two manuscript copies and was printed in 1841; a critical edition wasn't published until 1940. This edition, by Edmond-René Labande, advanced two ideas about the poem. The first was that it should be dated to the middle of the fourteenth century rather than earlier in that century, and the second that it was written by two poets—the first a very capable writer with a fine sense of humor, the second a much less original one.
Plot
According to Claassens, the plot "is impossible to summarize ... briefly". The main character's father, King Ernoul of Nijmegen
Nijmegen ( , ; Nijmeegs: ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and the ninth largest of the Netherlands as a whole. Located on the Waal River close to the German border, Nijmegen is one of the oldest cities in the ...
, travels to the Orient to deliver his brother from Saracen captivity. In the meantime his seneschal
The word ''seneschal'' () can have several different meanings, all of which reflect certain types of supervising or administering in a historic context. Most commonly, a seneschal was a senior position filled by a court appointment within a royal, ...
, Gaufroi of Friesland, takes Ernoul's place in his bed and on his throne, having betrayed his king to Sultan Rouge-Lion. Ernoul has four sons, all of whom go their various ways to escape the threat of death at the hands of Gaufroi; Baudouin is the youngest of them. At age two he is taken in at the court of the Lord of Sebourc.
Baudouin sires 31 (bastard) children, one of them with his patron's daughter. He falls in love with the sister of the Count of Flanders, Blanche, and runs off with her. They intend to travel to the Orient, and this sets off a series of extraordinary adventures. They get married, but by hook and crook Gaufroi manages to capture Blanche, forcing Baudoin to travel alone, having adventures in places like Baghdad and Jerusalem. He is reunited with his family; together they return and are able to defeat Gaufroi. After a winter in Nijmegen Baudouin returns to help the King of Jerusalem fight off the Saracens, and he leaves, this time with his 31 children.
Background
The poem is closely related to other poems from the Crusade cycle including '' Les Chétifs'' and continuations of the 13th-century '' La conquête de Jérusalem''. The poem has historical connections; Baudoin seems to be based on Baldwin II of Jerusalem
Baldwin II, also known as Baldwin of Bourcq (; – 21August 1131), was Count of Edessa from 1100 to 1118, and King of Jerusalem from 1118 until his death. He accompanied Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin of Boulogne to the Holy Land during the ...
(d. 1131) and Guy of Lusignan
Guy of Lusignan ( 1150 – 18 July 1194) was King of Jerusalem, first as husband and co-ruler of Queen Sibylla from 1186 to 1190 then as disputed ruler from 1190 to 1192. He was also Lord of Cyprus from 1192 to 1194.
A French Poitevin kni ...
(1150-1194), but his name, "de Sebourc", derives from a town near Valenciennes
Valenciennes (, also , , ; ; or ; ) is a communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department, Hauts-de-France, France.
It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced ...
.
A central tension in the narrative is between Holland and Friesland, a tension unique to Old French poetry but well known from the literature of the Low Countries. Gaufroi is Frisian, and the Frisian town of Leeuwarden
Leeuwarden (; ; ; ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 127,073 (2023). It is the provincial capital and seat of the Provin ...
falls to him by treachery. The poem comes from Hainault, and since the Counts of Hainault had become the Counts of Holland by 1299 (after the death of John I, Count of Holland
John I (1284 – 10 November 1299) was Count of Holland and Zeeland as son of Count Floris V. John inherited the county in 1296 after the murder of his father.
Shortly after his birth, after negotiations between Floris and King Edward I of E ...
), it appears that Hainault had adopted the animosity that existed between Holland and Friesland.
Legacy
The poem has left no trace in the visual arts, and there are only a few surviving copies. While it exerted little influence on other works, it did, after translation into Middle Dutch
Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until the advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or , there was no overarching sta ...
, provide a source for names and motifs for the two plays '' Esmoreit'' and ''Gloriant
Gloriant is a Middle Dutch drama. It is one of the four '' abele spelen'' ("able plays") contained in the Van Hulthem Manuscript, and consists of 1,142 lines in rhyme. The other abele spelen are '' Esmoreit'', '' Lanseloet van Denemerken'' and '' ...
''.
References
Notes
Bibliography
*{{cite book, last=Labande, first=Edmond-René, title=Étude sur Baudouin de Sebourc: chanson de geste, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PybI5KYxe5UC&pg=PA213, year=1940, publisher=Librairie Droz, isbn=9782600045049; ''légende poétique de Bauduin II du Bourg, Roi de Jérusalem'', Paris, Univ., Diss., 1940
* Hermann Breuer: ''Sprache und Heimat des Balduin von Sebourg : eine Reimuntersuchung'', Bonn, Univ., Diss., 1904
Chansons de geste