The true story of the return of Martin Guerre

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The True Story of the Return of Martin Guerre is a book by Natalie Zemon Davis . The work was published in 1983 by Harvard University Press under the title The Return of Martin Guerre . Davis deals with the story of the French farmer Martin Guerre , who disappeared from Artigat in 1548 without a trace . It is considered one of the most important works in microhistory .

Cognitive interest

Natalie Zemon Davis worked on the film Le retour de Martin Guerre by Jean-Claude Carrière and Daniel Vigne and then decided to write a book from the story because she was interested in the rural society of France in the 16th century. The fall gave her the opportunity to show how an event in a farmer's life is shaped into a story that has survived to this day.

content

Martin Daguerre is a farmer's son, born in the Basque village of Hendaye , whose family moved to Artigat , a village in the south-west of France between Toulouse and Foix , when Martin was still a child. There, Daguerre became the Guerre family, who built a brick factory . In 1538 Martin married the daughter of the wealthy Rols family, Bertrande de Rols. What is unusual about the wedding is the age of the couple: Martin is fourteen and Bertrande later claims in court that she was only nine or ten. Shortly after the marriage it turns out that the couple seem to be under a curse, because Martin is impotent and the marriage is therefore not considered consummate . Only eight years later do they manage to break the curse, the marriage can be consummated and Bertrande gives birth to a son who is named after Martin's father Sanxi. When Martin was 24 years old, he stole a small amount of wheat from his father; for fear of its harshness, he fled and left his family behind. His path leads him to Burgos , a Spanish city, where he is employed as a servant in the house of Cardinal Francisco de Mendoza . There Martin is recruited by the Spanish army, which at that time wages war against the French.

In the time of Martin's absence, Bertrande de Rols lived a life of chastity and Martin's parents died. In the summer of 1556 a man comes to Artigat who claims to be Martin Guerre. Bertrande, Martin's uncle Pierre and the village community are initially unsure whether the returnee is really Martin Guerre, but his stories about earlier experiences in the village and his knowledge of intimate details of his wife are all convincing for the next three years. During this time, Bertrande becomes pregnant again and gives birth to a daughter.

When the new Martin tries to sell the land his father left him and asks his uncle Pierre to hand over the administration of the family business to him, his uncle struggles and begins to doubt that it is the real Martin acts. He convinces his wife, Bertrande's mother, to take him and Bertrande to court against the alleged Martin. Almost at the same time a soldier from Rochefort passes the village and claims that the real Martin Guerre lost a leg in the war and now has a wooden leg. Rumors spread that it was actually Arnaud du Tilh from Sajas , and so the alleged fraudster was brought to trial in Rieux in early 1560 .

Artigat residents disagree about the man's true identity, with over thirty witnesses coming to testify that the man is indeed Martin Guerre, while more than forty say he is not. The court in Rieux finally finds the accused guilty and sentenced him to death, but he appeals and so a second trial takes place in the parliament of Toulouse.

This time the prisoner seems to have convinced the judge, but just as the sentence is about to be pronounced, a man with a wooden leg appears in court and claims to be the real Martin Guerre, who has returned from the war after twelve years. Only now do the wife and family realize that they have been deceived for three years and that the man with the wooden leg is the real Martin.

Even after the man with the wooden leg appeared, Arnaud du Tilh still claims that he is the real Martin, and so the two are subjected to a comparison. Martin's family members clearly identify the one-legged man as the true Martin. Thus, you Tilh will be found guilty of deceit, false name and person assumptions, and adultery. He is sentenced to publicly apologizing to the Catholic Church, after which he is to be hanged and burned. The judgment is carried out four days after the end of the trial.

swell

Jean de Coras , one of the judges who judged the case in Toulouse, found the events so extraordinary that he decided in 1561 to write a book about it, which appeared under the title "Arrest Memorable". It summarizes all evidence, formal arguments and judgments about the case in French. The book met with great success and was revised five times in the years that followed. In the same year as “Arrest Memorable”, the “Admiranda Historia” appeared, which was edited by Guillaume Le Seur in Latin. Little is known about Le Seur, but it can be said that he probably got the facts about the trial from the papers of the then Speaker of Parliament and was in part present at the hearing himself. Where neither Coras nor Le Seur provide information on the case, Natalie Zemon Davis falls back on the entries from Parliament in Toulouse. However, she does not deny that parts of "The True Story of the Return of Martin Guerre" are her own inventions.

Bertrande de Rols' view

Natalie Zemon Davis believes that Bertrande de Rols assisted Arnaud du Tilh in his deception and even helped him in his defense. In Cora's comment, Arnaud du Tilh is a fraud who is sentenced to death by his own cunning and ambition. Coras focuses on the wonderful deception committed by Arnaud and in the many retellings of the story the focus is also on the deceiver Arnaud du Tilh. Davis puts forward a different interpretation, with the emphasis on Bertrande de Rols, or rather on her relationship with the deceiver. According to Natalie Zemon Davis, Bertrande is indeed Arnaud's accomplice, because she needs to know that the man who claims to be her husband is a fraud. She accepts Arnaud, she falls in love and she regards her relationship with him as an invented marriage. Bertrande deliberately invents a lie and when she is challenged in court, together with Arnaud she developed a strategy of deception and manipulation: She searches in her memory for a sexual episode with which she can surprise the court and which Arnaud independently confirms. With the return of the real Martin Guerre, however, Bertrande's deception collapses and she makes excuses for her behavior, says Natalie Zemon Davis. For his part, Arnaud remains loyal to his lover and accomplice, claiming that she was betrayed as thoroughly as the rest of the villagers of Artigat. From Davis' point of view, Bertrande is a hero, independent, clear-sighted, passionate and invariably honorable. While Coras sees the woman as an innocent victim, Davis sees her as a knowing actress.

reception

Peter Burke sees Natalie Zemon Davis as "one of the most talented and best-known social historians of our time", whose unmistakable achievement is to combine breadth with depth. Their extensive curiosity, and especially their interest in social anthropology, would lead them to ask original and interesting questions about the life of religious in the later sixteenth century. This would be particularly expressed in her new creation by Bertrande. She sees Bertrande as a stubborn, independent woman who can maneuver within the confines of her position.

According to Pat Aufderheide of The Village Voice , "Natalie Zemons Davis relies on elaborate land-ownership, legal rights and demographics to reinterpret an amazing story of the French peasantry." Davis' book brings together the ingredients for a good social history essential - careful historical research and a lively, empathetic imagination. The result of this happy combination is that the figure emerges in context. Her work balances possibility and compulsion, character and situation. It puts people back in history, but it doesn't take away their social and political powers.

David Parker wrote in The Times Literary Supplement that Davis created a masterful narrative that exposes Bertrande's complicity in the continuation of a fraudulent marriage while imparting important contextual knowledge of the French legal system. Her observations on property rights, inheritance, customs, family relationships, and the mechanisms of law would be combined with a rare blend of historical craft and imagination. Davis' ability to combine lively narrative, wit, historical reflection, and psychological analysis secured a wide audience for this work.

Cole Bricker replied to McGill that the work of Zemon Davis revealed a critical aspect of this well-documented court case that had not been previously reported: Martin Guerre's wife probably helped Arnaud deceive him and even assisted him in his defense. Another important aspect of Zemon Davis' text is her analysis of the French legal system. In particular, Zemon Davis emphasized by using the texts of two lawyers that members of the peasantry could seek meaningful recourse to the French legal system. Indeed, even though Pierre had important connections with local aristocrats and landowners, the lawyers did not want to be influenced by these relationships and really went out of their way to give the fraudster a fair trial. This would be instrumental in destroying the notion that French farmers did not have access to a fair and responsive judicial system - an issue that was particularly important when you consider that farmers in many other European areas are subject to largely arbitrary judicial standards have been.

"Unfortunately, Davis allowed an excess of inventions in The Return of Martin Guerre to disguise the lives of people who have captured her sympathy and imagination. When the readers of her book feel a kinship with Bertrande and the return of the man with To lament the wooden leg, if they feel they really understand the lives of these long-dead peasants, it is all at the expense of their respect for historical integrity, their very different motivations and values imaginative approach to the study of history that she even leaves this possibility open in the epilogue of her book: "I think I have uncovered the true face of the past-or has Pansette done it once again?" "says Robert Finlay in his essay The Refashioning of Martin Guerre , which he wrote for The American Historical Review .

Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon comments in the work “ What is Microhistory? Theory and Practice ”:“ Davis pursues the innovative approach - in the micro-historical spirit of dealing with a topic that is not at the center of the narrative but rather seems to be on the edge of the story - primarily on the position of Ms. Bertrande de Rols and their decision to play along when their 'new husband' showed up. In this way, Davis creates an opportunity to approach this oft-told story from an entirely new perspective; and she does this by briefly reading the references and signs in the sources. She sets out to recreate Bertrande's world in terms of her environment in the past and in her own time. This is a good example of the micro-historical approach. "

expenditure

  • English original edition: Natalie Zemon Davis: The Return of Martin Guerre. Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1983, ISBN 978-0-674-41733-5
  • Übers. Ute Leube, Wolf Heinrich Leube
  1. The true story of the return of Martin Guerre. Piper, Munich 1984 ISBN 3-492-02858-6
  2. The true story of the return of Martin Guerre. Fischer TB, Frankfurt 1989 ISBN 3-596-24433-1
  3. The true story of the return of Martin Guerre. WAT 498. Wagenbach, Berlin 2004 ISBN 3-8031-2498-0
  • French: Le retour de Martin Guerre. Tallandier, Paris 2008 ISBN 2-84734-529-9
  • Italian: Il ritorno di Martin Guerre: un caso di doppia identità nella Francia del Cinquecento. Einaudi, Torino 1984 ISBN 88-06-57174-5

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Natalie Zemon Davis: The Return of Martin Guerre . Harvard University Press, 1984, ISBN 0-674-41733-X , pp. viii-ix , doi : 10.2307 / j.ctvjf9vdd .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Natalie Zemon Davis: The Return of Martin Guerre . Harvard University Press, 1984, ISBN 0-674-41733-X , pp. 81 , doi : 10.2307 / j.ctvjf9vdd .
  3. ↑ Robert Finlay: The refashioning of Martin Guerre. (PDF) Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association, 1988, accessed August 29, 2019 .
  4. ↑ in: London Review of Books
  5. ^ Peter Burke: The Impostor . In: London Review of Books . April 19, 1984, ISSN  0260-9592 , p. 12 ( lrb.co.uk [accessed August 27, 2019]).
  6. ↑ a b The Return of Martin Guerre. Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  7. ^ The Return of Martin Guerre, Reviewed by Cole Bricker Taking on Popular Histories. Retrieved August 27, 2019 (American English).
  8. ↑ Robert Finlay: The refashioning of Martin Guerre. (PDF) Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association, 1988, accessed August 29, 2019 .
  9. ^ Sigurður G. Magnússon: What is Microhistory? Theory and Practice . Routledge, 2013, ISBN 978-0-203-50063-7 , pp. 108 .