Romance and Identity

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 4 focuses on three romances set in marcher contexts. The romance of Fouke le Fitz Waryn, set initially in Shropshire, depicts the disinheritance of Fouke III de Waryn (d. 1258) and his subsequent adventures during exile on the continent and in Wales, where he is assisted by his childhood companion Llywelyn ab Iorwerth. The History of William Marshal portrays the exceptional life of William Marshal (c.1146–1219) in chivalric terms, while The Awntyrs off Arthure at the Terne Wathelyn provides a counter-example of Arthurian border literature from the Anglo-Scottish borderlands. Whereas previous analyses have considered these romances in the context of other ‘ancestral romances’ or family romances from Anglo-Norman England, this chapter shows that these texts are primarily occupied by marcher concerns, such as land rights, independence, and the need for jurisdictional limits on the English Crown. Placing these texts in a marcher context, rather than a strictly English context, allows a more focused articulation of their interests to emerge. In particular, marcher literature is interested in the Welsh past, the strain of British history and prophecy indebted to Geoffrey of Monmouth, the idea of women as key players in lines of succession of lordships (especially in cases where there is no living male heir), and defensive ownership of and claim to land in Wales and the Marches.