Phlebotomy

So for one reason or another, I ended up reading about phlebotomy/blood letting this week which in turn led me to the unfortunate phlebotomisation of Robin Hood. This one comes from Child’s edition of folk tales and I’ve abridged the original to keep to the pertinent bits:

Disney's Robin Hood

 ‘I will neuer eate oor drinke,’ Robin Hood said,

‘Nor meate will doo me noe good,

Till I haue beene at merry Churchlees,

My vaines for to let blood.’

Will Scarlet and Little John ride off with Robin looking for Churchlees/Kirklees:

They two bolde children shotten together,

All day theire selfe in ranke,

Vntill they came to blacke water,

And over it laid a planke.

Upon it there kneeled an old woman,

Was banning* Robin Hoode;

‘Why dost thou bann Robin Hoode?’ said Robin,

 ‘To giue to Robin Hoode;

Wee weepen for his deare body,

That this day must be lett bloode.’

 ‘The dame prior is my aunts daughter,

And nie vnto my kinne;

I know shee wold me noe harme this day,

For all the world to winne.’

*banning may be cursing, or lamenting an approaching death

They make their way to Churchlees/Kirklees eventually and give the prioress “Twenty pound in gold”

 And downe then came dame prioresse,

Downe she came in that ilke,

With a pair off blood-irons in her hands,

Were wrapped all in silke.

‘Sett a chaffing-dish to the fyer,’ said dame prioresse,

‘And stripp thou vp thy sleeue:’

I hold him but an vnwise man

That will noe warning leeve.

Shee laid the blood-irons to Robin Hoods vaine,

Alacke, the more pitye!

And pearct the vaine, and let out the bloode,

That full red was to see.

  

And first it bled, the thicke, thicke bloode,

And afterwards the thinne,

And well then wist good Robin Hoode

Treason there was within.

Red Roger then enters and tries to kill the weakened Robin. Little John takes the treachery badly:

‘Now giue me leaue, giue me leaue, master,’ he said,

‘For Christs loue giue leaue to me,

To set a fier within this hall,

And to burne vp all Churchlee.’

But Robin stays his hand and he goes to die quietly in “yonder streete” with his “bright sword “ at his head, his “yew-bow” by his side and his arrows at his feet.

This is already quite a wordy post so I praise you for making it this far. The points I’d like to raise at this point for the uninitiated are that blood-letting was a generally practiced medical technique up until really quite recently. It was practiced at set points throughout the year amongst religious communities and in part recreated the phlebotomisation of Christ on the cross. 

When visiting Valmont in 1259, bishop Eudes comments on the monks saying:

“some of them  had themselves bled without the abbot’s permission; we advised them to determine amongst themselves at what periods of the year and how often it should be permitted to anyone to undergo bleeding”

While the late eleventh century constitutions of Archbishop Lanfranc state:

“Permission for being bled is at all seasons to be sought…[and] the hour for blood-letting in winter is after the gospel of High Mass; in summer after None and before Vespers; in Lent after Vespers. When those to be bled have put on their night shoes and come to the place allotted for the purpose, they shall turn to the east and make a double obeisance…” 

Some more liturgy follows before they remove their tunics and, in silence, are bled. 

All terribly ritualised, and very important, which makes the prioress’s betrayal of Robin all the more dramatic which was no doubt its intended purpose (I’m intentionally omitting the academic debate over this, as well as the different editions of Robin’s death). 

Notes

Knowles, D., ed., The monastic constitutions of Lanfranc (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd, 1951) pp. 92-94

Rawcliffe, C., 'On the threshold of eternity: Care for the sick in East Anglian monasteries', in East Anglia's History: Studies in honour of Norman Scarfe, ed. by C. Harper-Bill, Rawcliffe, C., and Wilson, R. (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2002)

The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, ed. F. Child, 5 vols, (New York: 1957) no. 120a

'The Register of Eudes Rigaud', ed. by J. O'Sullivan (London: Columbia University Press) p. 402

It's the law don't you know

Something a bit different today from 1283 France. Common laws from the Beauvais region written by the jurist Philippe de Beaumanoir. Discuss amongst yourselves, I though they were quite interesting (see what I did there?)

Something fairly sensible to begin with:

“1180. Those who are at war or in such a feud [en haine] that they do not speak to the person against whom they are called to testify can certainly be excluded from testifying, for it would be cruel thing if those who are at war against me or in such great hatred that they do not speak to me should be heard to testify against me”

Now something a little more interesting, especially considering the disputes religious men and women often got themselves intangled in regarding property:

“1210. No man in religion and no women in religion, or whatever order, may be allowed to testify for their house in a secular court or against a layperson."

This one just caught my eye as I immediately imagined corrupt lawyers trying to testify in their own cases to win:

“1199. Attorneys and lawyers and counsel cannot give testimony in cases in which they are attorneys and lawyers and counsel” 

- and finally some much abused lepers and bastards:

“1177. A leper [meseaus] should not be heard giving testimony, for the custom is settled that they should be excluded from intercourse [conversacion] with other people.”

"1176. Bastards and serfs must be excluded from testifying unless the suit is against a serf or a bastard, for they cannot exclude those of their own condition. But if they are called against a free person and they are challenged, they must not be heard."

Notes

The Coutumes de Beauvaisis of Philippe de Beaumanoir, trans. F. Akehurst (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992) pp. 427, 437, 426

"Alone walkyng"

Some melancholic poetry for you today. An exercise in writing like a dramatic teenager in the middle ages:

"Alone walkyng, 

In thought pleynyng (complaining)

And sore syghyng (sighing)

All desolate, 

Me remembryng

Of my lyvyng (life)

My deth wyssyng (wishing)

Erly and late,

Infortunate, 

Ys soo my fate,

That - wote ye whate? - (do you know what)

Oute of mesure

My lyfe I hate;

Thus desperate,

In suche estate (such a state)

Do I endure.

Of other cure

Am I nat sure, (not)

Thus to endure

Ys hard, certayn;

Suche ys my ure (my custom)

I yow ensure; (assure you)

What creature

May have more payn?

My trouth so pleyn? (my fidelity so apparent)

Ys take in veyn (taken)

And gret disdeyn

In remembraunce;

Yet I full feyne (most readily)

Wold me compleyne

Me to absteyne (to keep myself)

From thys penaunce (from this suffering)

But in substaunce,

Noon allegeaunce (alleviation)

Of my grevaunce

Can I nat fynde;

Ryght so my chaunce (fate)

With displesaunce (displeasure/sorrow)

Doth me avuance - (advance)

And thus an ende."

Notes

MS Cambridge, Trinity College R.3.19.

Duncan, T. (ed) Medieval English Lyrics and Carols (Camridge, D.S. Brewer: 2013) pp. 202-203

War of the Roses

Eudes Rigaud was a thirteenth century spiritual reformer and his visitations throughout Normandy were written by himself and his aides between 1248 and 1269. Of the Franciscan order, Eudes rose to become archbishop of Rouen in 1248 and his register provides valuable anecdotal evidence for the misdemeanours in ecclesiastical life and its problems. 

On the 19th of January, 1248, he visited the deanery of Foucarmont.

There he found a priest "defamed of a certain woman...who is said to be with child by him", who treated his own father "in a most disgraceful manner" and finally is accused of fighting a knight "with drawn sword, and making a great clamor".

This priest was not the only sinner Eudes was to find there. There was another priest who despite being chastised by the archdeacon, continued to associate with a particular woman and even take her to the market (!); another who sold grain at an inflated price due to a poor harvest; a drunk leper; and even a priest who frequented the taverns and played "dice and quoits".

But these are fairly run of the mill for Eudes visits, however what caught my eye was the final priest's sins: 

"Item, the priest of Mesnil-David is disobedient and has his children at home and a concubine elsewhere; item two women fell upon each other in his house; they fought with each other and because one was fond of roses the other cut down the rose bushes"

Definitely the stuff of soap opera!

Baille des Roses: Mid-fifteenth century wall tapestry, Belgium

Notes

Davies, A., 'The Holy Bureaucrat: Eudes Rigaud and Religious Reform in Thirteenth-Century Normandy',  (London: Cornell University Press), p. 6

O'Sullivan, J., ed., The Register of Eudes of Rouen (London: Columbia University Press, 1964)

pp. XXIX, 24