The topic of adultery in Lanval by Marie de France is complex because there is nothing in the text that technically qualifies as adultery based on the laws of the Middle Ages. Instead, the text includes accusations of adultery as well as unmarried characters engaged in a sexual relationship. While this text does not actually portray any adulterous relationships or characters, the way the text deals with the topic is still significant.
Lanval centers around the sexual and romantic relationship between Lanval and a mystical, beautiful woman, as well as the conflict between Lanval and Queen Guinevere. The relationship between Lanval and his lover is not considered adulterous because neither of them are married and there is no indication that the woman is a widow or a virgin, so Lanval is not violating the property rights of any man, since she seems not to “belong” to any. However, some scholars and writers using religious concepts of adultery expanded its definition to include a wider range of activities, such as any kind of lust or sexual desire (Bullough 10). Lanval and his relationship with his lover would be categorized as adultery under this expanded definition, since Lanval “longed for his amie so much—/to kiss her, hold her, know her, know her touch” (Marie 255-256). While his relationship with the woman would not have been considered adulterous in the legal sense, in a religious sense their relationship would have been much more taboo because sex of any kind was largely considered a sin by religious authorities.
While Lanval’s relationship with the woman would have been considered partially wrong because the two were not married, it is treated in the text with a sort of reverence, reflecting the common circumstance of characters engaged in adulterous or otherwise stigmatized sexual relationships being given much more leniency than actual adulterers or sexual deviants. Lanval is held up as an honorable knight and the woman is exalted as the most beautiful woman any of them have ever seen, even Queen Guinevere, who was considered the epitome of beauty. The fact that she is considered much more beautiful than any other woman is significant, because “the judgement of women’s bodies reveals a truth about men’s status” (McCracken 109). Lanval’s lover is more beautiful than any other woman, signifying that Lanval himself is a better man than any other. The two are not punished or reprimanded for their sinful relationship. Instead, they are celebrated for it.
While Lanval gets his happily ever after by the end of the poem, his life is almost ruined by the false accusations leveled at him by Queen Guinevere that he tried to initiate an adulterous relationship with her. In reality, Queen Guinevere is the one who tries to initiate the relationship with Lanval and when he spurns her advances, she retaliates by telling her husband, King Arthur, that “she’d been dishonored by Lanval!” (Marie 316). The reaction that King Arthur has to finding out another man tried to make an advance on his wife is very in line with what a husband of the Middle Ages would have been expected to do had he found out the same thing. Arthur is furious, and “in his great rage he swore an oath,/if in the court this was proved truth,/Lanval must hang, or burn to death” (Marie 326-328).
While there is not an actual adulterous relationship portrayed in the text, the reaction of King Arthur to the allegation that Lanval tried to initiate one is highly indicative of how serious the issue of adultery was in the Middle Ages. King Arthur’s rage and oath to have Lanval killed if the allegations were true is reflective of the impulsive response many laws about adultery seemed designed to cater to. While religious law did away with homicide as an acceptable form of punishment for adulterers, in medieval civil law, a husband was still allowed to kill his wife and her partner if he caught them in the act (Bullough 10-11). Arthur obviously did not catch Lanval and Guinevere because there was no act to catch them in, but he is the king and therefore has the power to twist the rules regarding punishment for adultery if he wishes. However, Lanval is still given a trial and the chance to prove his innocence before the court, which is reflective of the fact that there was legal protocol in cases of adultery.
The story of Lanval is interesting to look at in connection with medieval laws about adultery, despite the fact that there is no actual adultery depicted in the text. Considering how Lanval’s relationship with his lover is portrayed versus how it would have been perceived by social and religious norms, it becomes evident that not everything that was unacceptable in society was necessarily unacceptable or even disliked in literature (particularly courtly romance). Conversely, looking at how King Arthur reacts when Queen Guinevere accuses Lanval of making advances on her, there are many aspects of the social norms that do carry over into the literature of the time period. Lanval provides readers with an interesting combination of portrayals of the ways adultery was perceived in the Middle Ages.
Works Cited
Bullough, Vern L. “Medieval Concepts of Adultery.” Arthuriana, vol. 7, no. 4, Scriptorium Press, Winter 1997, pp. 5-15.
Marie de France. “Lanval.” Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, 2018, pp. 171-185.
McCracken, Peggy. “Rumors, Rivalries, and the Queen’s Secret Adultery.” The Romance of Adultery: Queenship and Sexual Transgression in Old French Literature, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998, pp. 84-118.