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from Part II - Constantinople Desired
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
Imitation and admiration coincide and conflict in the representation of East–West relations in complex ways. This chapter explores in greater detail the motif of the marriage alliance between the Western hero and a female relative of the Byzantine emperor. It will focus on two twelfth-century texts, the verse romance Partonopeus de Blois and the chanson de geste Girart de Roussillon, exploring not only the use of the alliance as a means of renewal, but also the depiction of Constantinople as a utopia.
The Byzantine princess: marriage alliance as a means of renewal
The texts to be discussed in this chapter narrate the achievement of an alliance between Byzantium and France through the marriage of the texts' male Western heroes to the educated daughters of the Byzantine emperor. The end of manuscript A of Partonopeus contains an ending stressing the significance of the alliance for East–West relations, and the opening scenes of Girart de Roussillon also recount the sealing of a marriage alliance. Through an exposition of the close relationship between marriage and material city, these texts propose an ideal of unity of East and West under the Frankish king and elevate Constantinople into a model of urban prosperity and harmony.
Partonopeus de Blois effects union between East and West by stressing the beneficial effects of Western domination. The role of the eponymous Frankish hero Partonopeus is to anchor the Byzantine Empire firmly within Christendom and deliver it from the magic of the Byzantine princess Melior and her power over the marvellous city of Chief d'oirre.
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