8 - Political Violence and Sexual Violation in the Work of Benoît de Sainte-Maure

Summary

Late in his Chronique des ducs de Normandie (ca. 1170–80), Benoît de Sainte-Maure makes an analogy:

Vez, merveilles poez entendre

Qu'en vos deit mostrer e aprendre:

Qu'Agamennon e li Grezeis

Ne bien plus de quatorze reis

Ne porent Troie en disz anz prendre;

Unques n'i sorent tant entendre.

E icist dus od ses Normanz

E od ses autres buens aidanz

Conquist un reiaume plenier

E un grant pople fort e fier,

Qui fu merveille estrange e grant,

Sol entre prime e l'anuitant.

(39873–84)

[Now you can hear a marvel that should indeed be brought to your attention. Agamemnon and the Greeks, including more than fourteen kings, could not take Troy in ten years. So much was beyond the scope of their abilities. Yet this duke, with his Normans and other worthy retainers, conquered an entire kingdom and a great, strong, proud people. And, what is truly cause for great marvel, he did so entirely between early morning and nightfall.]

The favorable comparison of the Norman victory at Hastings with the ineffectual Greek siege of Troy may appear unexceptional hyperbole: Benoît was writing under royal commission, and such fulsome praise of the Conqueror could be assessed as a predictable gesture of deference toward his great-grandson, Henry II. However, Benoît's relationship with his appointed task was complex.