Life Of St.Louis
Although in his Life of St. Louis Joinville declared that his objective was to "dictate the life of our good King, Saint Louis”, his own personal experiences and actions do constitute a great part of the book. The crux of the question is over which component is the stronger; in other words, which man has more of his life revealed in Joinville’s pages. As the text comprises three clear sections, it is best to analyse each section separately as well as the text as a whole. Also, we must bear in mind the obvious limitations of a biography, or indeed an autobiography (if we intend to view Joinville’s work as such) such as the fact that no-one can accurately portray another person’s thoughts and motivations as these are less reliably perceived than a person’s deeds and that a person is likely to colour an account of their own deeds in a more favourable shade. ‘Experience’ is the key word here: Joinville can only write about what he has experienced, so every fact we learn about Louis IX is also a refection on the author for we learn of Louis IX’s deeds and opinions through what Joinville saw, or was permitted to see - itself very informative.
The general structure of the book to a great extent reflects the motives behind its writing. The first section is short and deals with descriptions of Louis IX’s piety and religious wisdom, and it focuses almost entirely on the king’s deeds and attributes. However, this is followed by a long account of the crusades in which Joinville accompanied Louis IX’s forces and we hear of the events of the crusade but also of Joinville’s role in them.
The last section resembles the first more than the second as it deals with Louis IX’s greatness in the administration of his own kingdom. The fact that the middle section is so much longer means that we learn more about life on crusade than Louis IX’s religious or administrative life at home in France. This then brings us to realise that it is the central passage that decides whether we learn more of Joinville than Louis IX as it is easily established that this question does not occur in the shorter two sections which are almost entirely about Louis IX as they are anecdotal memoirs of the king’s sayings and deeds.
The reason that the question of which man we learn most about even occurs, becomes apparent on reading the main body of the text, which deals with the crusades. We get to hear a detailed description of what type of crusade Louis IX led and what some of its main events were. Yet, although this information is useful in examining Louis IX’s life, it is all seen through Joinville’s actions and experiences. Each chapter seems to follow the same general pattern: the situation is viewed in terms of the king’s response to it, then this situation is illustrated by the parts of the battle Joinville took part in and what he saw, even when the king is elsewhere, and finally the king makes a comment or reaches a conclusion at the end of the chapter. Amongst others, chapter Four follows this pattern. At the beginning of the chapter an overview of the king’s expedition is given, followed by a description of the problems Joinville had in obtaining a galley , where his ship landed and then what it was like to fight the saracens. It is only after his personal experiences that Joinville mentions the king eagerly wading to shore. Consequently, this larger part of the text is more autobiographical than biographical, meaning that, in terms of quantity, we do learn more about the author than the king from the text as a whole. However, although it now seems obvious that we learn more of Jean de Joinville than Louis IX, we should consider the idea that we may learn more types of information about the king than his ‘biographer’.
In the first chapter, entitled "The Servant of God”, we learn more about Louis IX’s personality, physical attributes and beliefs than throughout the crusade section of the book. His piety is described in the second paragraph when Joinville says of him,
"This saintly man loved our Lord with all his heart, and all his actions followed His example.” [p.167]
And then continues to describe his interest in religious matters, such as his belief that a storm at sea was a warning from God. Also, Joinville notes that the king was not victim to impious extravagances:
"He was so temperate in his appetite that I never heard him, on any day of my life, order a special dish for himself, as many men of wealth do.” [p.167]
The main section of the text mentions his religious beliefs and behaviour much less, but the last section returns to address such matters when his attitude to swearing and blasphemy is described:
"The king had so deep a love for our Lord and His sweet mother that he punished most severely all those who had been convicted of speaking of them irreverently or of using their names in some wicked oath.” [p.336]
The reason why this discussion of piety is so important in considering the question are that such descriptions form the smaller part of the book, so seem to be less important than the account of the crusade in which Joinville is often the main protagonist.
However, that would be an over-simplification for two reasons: firstly, Joinville spent more time in the presence of Louis IX during the crusades than he did in France so the crusading section is bound to be longer, and, secondly, we do not get such a specific view of Joinville’s religious beliefs, so we learn more about Louis IX than Joinville in this respect.
Particularly in the last few chapters, we learn a great deal about how Louis IX managed his kingdom. For example, according to Joinville’s description, he was very considered in his approach to awarding clerical positions:
"When any benefice of Holy Church fell into his gift the king always consulted clerics and other worthy people on whose goodness he could rely before bestowing it; and after consultation with them he would make such appointments loyally, conscientiously, and as in the sight of God” [p.337]
Following this, Joinville quotes the ordinance passed by Louis IX to reform France. From details such as these, some very specific, we glean a fair amount of information about the king’s attitudes to the rulership of France and the actions he took to remedy the problems he perceived in the country. In contrast, we hear nothing of Jean de Joinville’s management of his lands as Seneschal of Champagne. So, in this respect we learn more of Louis IX than his ‘biographer’.
Another consideration is that we can learn of Joinville’s status in France and on the crusades from the situations at which he was present. During the expedition to the Holy Land, Joinville appeared to be in attendance at several important meetings during which policies were decided, suggesting that he felt that he had the right to advise the king on matters of state. However, it is the Council with whom the king consults before making important decisions, and Joinville is never appointed to this Council. This shows that Joinville was respectable enough to offer an opinion to his king, but not to advise permanently, thus suggesting that he lacked something he needed to ascend to the king’s official inner circle possibly social status, consistent good advice or the right comportment for official meetings.
Whilst we bear all these different factors in mind, it is also worth remembering that in theory there is an obvious limitation on what we can learn about either man. With Joinville as the author and Louis IX as the subject, we can only really learn about these two men in the context of each other. We only learn what Joinville saw or heard about the king. Sometimes this is further limited as it is information passed onto him by the king. For example, the story of the king’s capture:
"At this point I will break off, to tell you how the king was taken prisoner, as he himself related to me.” [p.241]
In terms of the king’s opinions and decision-making, we hear less than if the author had been on the Council. However, through Joinville we get a more personal view of the king, such as when he complains about his family, which would hardly have been a Council matter:
"The king also complained to me of his other brother, the Comte d’Anjou, because, although they were both on board the same ship, the latter gave him little of his company.” [p.265]
Similarly, Joinville’s digressions into his own affairs, can only be included in his account if they relate to Louis IX or his crusade. In short, theoretically we can only learn about one man if it in some way relates to the other.
Although Joinville can only write about himself in the context of the king and his crusades, the link does appear to be very tenuous at some points in his account. A major example of this is when the author digresses on to the topic of the money that was withheld from him. In this section the link to Louis IX is that he intervened in the affair but in essence this is a discussion of Joinville’s personal problems. To begin with he makes it clear that this is an account of his problems;
"I now propose to tell you something about the trials and troubles I experienced during my stay at Acre,” [p.265]
Then a few paragraphs later he tells us of how a Templar stole his money. This obviously leads us to learn about Joinville and how much he needed the sum of money and reveals barely anything connected to the life of Saint Louis.
In conclusion, it seems that we should qualify the title ‘Life of St. Louis’ with a subheading such as ‘and the deeds done in his service by Jean de Joinville’. Louis IX’s piety and sense of justice are clearly (though not passionately) portrayed in the first and last sections, but the main body of the text is concerned predominantly with Joinville’s experiences on Louis IX’s crusade. Perhaps it seemed natural to Joinville that he portray the king by means of describing what it was like to serve him, but it is also plain that Joinville has succumbed to the temptation of detailing his own part in the glory. It is not that the life of St. Louis is confined to the first and last pages of the book, but that the descriptions of Louis IX’s decisions, victories and defeats on the crusades are illustrated by Joinville’s part in each skirmish. However, we must not be too disparaging: Joinville probably did not spend a great deal of time with Louis IX, nor was he always in a position to see more than his own corner of each battle or any conference at which he was not present. While we learn more about Joinville in terms of his role in the crusades, we do learn more of Louis IX outside the crusades. So, in summary, we learn more of Jean de Joinville in terms of quantity of information, but we have more variety in the information we learn about Louis IX from the text.
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