Mapping an English Crusader Fantasy

This StoryMap introduces, maps, and contextualizes two excerpts from Aberdeen MS 123, in order to demonstrate their relationship to and participation in 15th c. English crusader fantasies as expressed in roughly contemporary crusader romances.

Currently housed at the University of Aberdeen's Sir Duncan Rice Library, Aberdeen MS 123 is a miscellany (or a book that contains seemingly disparate but often useful materials, almost like a notebook) from c. 1440, likely from a convent in Cheshire, England (Ludwig 2). This miscellany contains pieces on an array of subjects, including medicine and astronomy, but the only excerpts this project will focus on are the political pieces from f.121r and f.158v-159r; I have named these the "Sultan Letters" and the "List of Kings" respectively.

These excerpts contain numerous parallels and allusions to texts such as The Letter of Prester John, Chaucer's "Man of Law's Tale," and Mandeville's Travels, aligning it with a tradition of crusader and travel romances written to express and/or inspire a sense of nationalism and encourage crusading.

The "Sultan Letters" present an Orientalist fantasy of Asia and Africa, more specifically Syria, Egypt, and Jerusalem, alongside a caricatured sultan, somewhat inspired by and directly linked to Prester John. The fictional response to the Sultan's letter from "Harry," most likely King Henry VI of England, offers an open-ended response to the Sultan's request to unite their kingdoms under Christianity.

The "List of Kings" lists the names of the "kynges of all Crystendom" in a column next to three other columns listing various kings and their coats of arms (Ludwig 10). The "List of Kings" references the concept of a global kingdom of Christendom (listing many of the same places mentioned in the "Sultan Letters") and includes the aforementioned fictional sultan, directly tying the two pieces together. Listing a geographically vast array of kingdoms works similarly to the "Sultan Letters"'s caricature of the sultan--it presents the rest of the world as inferior to and for the consumption of the English.

Neither the "Sultan Letters" nor the "List of Kings" includes the word "saracen," a word often used in Medieval Romance to describe Muslims, though the texts' overt links to textual traditions that utilize this word makes the discussion of this term necessary.

...we depoliticize and delegitimize the violent and painful Islamophobia and racism of objects of study concerning Muslim representation when we choose to use the offensive label Saracen over Muslim and when we resist calling the primary material what it is: violent, Islamophobic, racist, anti‐Muslim, and hateful. (Rajabzadeh)

This project seeks to acknowledge and criticize the blatant Islamophobia and racism present in these two excerpts. The sultan is caricatured according to offensive stereotypes about Muslims, and the text uses this characterization in order to encourage the colonization of Muslim-majority lands. In A Sample of Understudied Works in Aberdeen MS 123, I used this term within my discussion of the Muslim characters in both these excerpts and other texts--I regret the indirectness and harmfulness of this word. Drawing on the work of Shokoofeh Rajabzadeh's in their article "The Depoliticized Saracen and Muslim Erasure" and in an effort to clearly recognize the excerpts' Islamophobia as Islamophobia and the presence of Islamophobia in the Middle Ages, I will not be using the term in this StoryMap.

"Be it knowen to all Crysten men that I am kyng of all kynges, lord of

all lordes, Soudon of Surry, Emperour of Babyloun, Steward of Hell, [1] 

Porter of Paradys, Constabul of Jerusalem, Lord of all Inde, [2]  floure

of all the werld, and cosyn to Cryst. I am lord as fer as gres growes 

or water flowes or foule flyeth or sun schynes. I am lord above all

medyl erth as Cryst is above hevyn. I send gretyng and gode love

to all sondry [3]  and namly to Herry your kyng. [4]  And he wil wed my

doghter, I schall becom Crysten and all myne. And tho that wil not bycom

Crysten, thay schal be brent [5]  or drouned. And I schal gyf hym

IIII myllyonys of gold betwene VII sun rysyngys. [6]  And I

schal gyf hym tho cros that Cryst dyed on on Gode Fryday and ros

tho thryd day. And I schal make rest and pes in al Crystendom

tho which is for to newme [7]  of XVIII kynges [8]  londes of Inglond,

Scotlond, Fraunce, Irelond, Portyngale, Naberne, Denmark, Sesyle,

Cyprys, Spayne, Norwey, Sweth, Cateloun, Wyffiall, [9]  Beme,

Hungry, Aragoun, and Naples. And I schal make all thes as on [10]  and

make tho kyng of Ingelond emperour, or all mayntein [11]  Inglond

ageynes al Crystendom and hethenes.

I, Harry, be tho grace of God, kyng of Inglond and of France, lord of

Irelond, prynce of Walys, lord of Gyan and Gasquyn, Erle of

Derby, Duke of Cornwayle, Erle of Chestre, Duke of Lancastre,

and conquerour of Scotland. Of this message, I thank hym, and of

his sonde. [12]  And of this I take avysement [13]  to tho date of Cryst cum

to anno millesimo [14]  CCCC XLI yere, [15]  and then I schal gyf hym answere.

 [1]  Reminiscent the Virgin Mary’s title, Empress of Hell, which is mentioned in a marginal note on f.132r.

 [2]  Due to the handwriting and context, this can either be read as inde (India) or iude (Judea). I chose to transcribe it as “Inde”, because this word occurs more frequently according to the University of Michigan’s Middle English Compendium, it is present in roughly contemporary texts, and the word “ynde” appears in f.159rb of this manuscript.

 [3]  each individual

 [4]  Likely King Henry VI

 [5]  burnt

 [6]  a week

 [7]  refer to; probably a form of nevenen,MED 1: “To mention (sb. or sth.), speak of, refer to, esp. by name”

 [8]  There are 18 kings of Christendom listed on f.158va.

 [9]  This reference is unclear.

 [10]  one

 [11]  protect

 [12]  message

 [13]  time for consideration

 [14]  Thank you to Dr. Marjorie Harrington (@mlkharrington) and Twitter user @gundormr for their help transcribing this section!

 [15]  1441"

(Ludwig 8-9)

The first "letter" comes from the perspective of a fictional sultan. The description and characterization of this Sultan is reminiscent of the Sultan of Babylon from Mandeville's Travels.

The Sultan lives at Babylon, because there is a handsome, strong castle there, well placed on a rock. [...] He wanted me [Mandeville] to marry a local noble prince's daughter, so that I would have abjured my faith. You should really know that the Sultan rules over five kingdoms, which he has conquered and gained by force; these are: Canopat, that is, Egypt; the kingdom of Jerusalem, of which David and Solomon were kings; the kingdom of Syria, of which the city of Damascus was the capital; the kingdom of Aleppo in the land of Damietta; and the kingdom of Arabia, of which one of the three kings who presented a gift to our newborn Lord was king. (Bale 20)

...the Travels' deliberate identification of the world effectively marks, for the travelogue's audience, these extreme geographic reaches with Christian tags... (Heng 271)

Both texts present the world in a way that highlights its Christian potential and potential for Christians. The vast reaches of his kingdom and the holy relics in his possession make MS 123's Sultan a desirable, but potentially threatening, figure to convert. His self-subjugation and reverence for "Herry" neutralize this threat. According to the presented ideology, the outside world is fruitful, but unsown and poorly managed, just waiting to be converted and cultivated by English/Western European Christians.

Drawing on a version of the marriage plot presented in the Travels and consistent with Constance romances (Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale, for example), the letter utilizes conversion as "a rich trope that exercises the full might, and powerfully nuanced authority of religious discourse as cultural discourse: announcing, in effect, the arrival and existence of an empire of culture, and the workings of what we might today analogously think of as flows of 'cultural imperialism,' translatio imperii, in the register of romance" (Heng 188).

The sultan's promise to convert all of his subjects and himself to Christianity as well as transfer his authority to Henry VI if only he could score a marriage between the king of England and his daughter clearly demonstrates the political power and associations of religious conversion.

There should be little doubt that what Constance accomplishes in her story is the enactment of a successful crusade, cultural-style, feminine-style. (Heng 189)

“Islamophobia at its core is the presumption of guilt assigned to Muslims” (Beydoun, 2018, p. 40). This is evident in nearly every facet of European representations of Muslims in the Middle Ages. As non‐Christians in Jerusalem, Muslims are considered guilty of occupying Christianity's holy site. Their faith is misrepresented as idolatrous and then valued as inferior. Their guilt is even visible on their racialized bodies; they are often described as fiendish, grisly giants, and described as an unwanted and undesirable black that can and should be washed away to white with Christian absolution. These are all explicit proofs of guilt. (Rajabzadeh)

Concomitantly the medieval belief that pockets of Christian communities are to be found in distant lands, especially "India"--a name that stretches to signify, at different times, Asia, Africa, and even the Near East--also has historical durability (Heng 271)

The "Inde" of MS 123's Sultan bears equally fluid boundaries (Ludwig 8). Including titles for unplaceable places, such as "Steward of Hell" and "Porter of Paradys," bolsters this blurriness (Ludwig 8). Rather than clearly defining his kingdom, the distant and "Eastern" land of the Sultan remains fantastical and open to interpretation.

The inclusion of places with questionable locality (at best) made mapping this an interpretive endeavor. I have opted to include Paradise and Hell on the map, using Mandeville's description of Prester John's kingdom and contemporary assumptions about the "actual" location of his kingdom.

Mandeville describes an island amongst Prester John's occupied by a man named Catolonabes. Catolonabes had a garden here called "Paradise" (Bale 110-11). Only "[a] short distance from that place, on the left-hand side near the River Phison" is a valley said to contain "an entrance to Hell" (Bale 111). This river Phison is later called the "Ganges," and it is said to "[run] through India" (Bale 120).

After the mid-14th century, Ethiopia became the centre of the search for the kingdom of Prester John, who was identified with the negus (emperor) of that African Christian nation. The legend, however, locates Prester John in Asia, especially in Nestorian areas. ("Prester Jonh")

Piecing together this information, I roughly estimate the scope of MS 123's Sultan's kingdom. Despite my efforts, the nature of the description pointedly evades "mappability," feeding into the semi-fictional, fantastical presentation of the world offered by these excerpts.

The Sultan's letter concludes by offering to unite the kingdoms of Christendom. The list is largely consistent with the "List of Kings," so I will not map it here. The only two exceptions are "'Cateloun' (Catalonia) and 'Wyffiall' (unknown)," and I have not been able to account for them (Ludwig 29).

The second letter, written from the perspective of of "Harry," or King Henry VI of England, offers a brief and possibly snarky response to the fictional Sultan's letter. He thanks him for his offer and says he'll get back to him by 1441.

Though Henry VI is not particularly associated with any crusades in particular, the "Sultan Letters" appear to be entering a tradition of texts made to entice him into maintaining/promoting crusader ideologies.

Motivations for Henry VI to go on crusade may well have permeated his surroundings. Murals in royal chambers at Westminster from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, to which Henry VI was likely exposed, evoked English ties to the Crusades. (Parker 116)

Leah Pope Parker in her article "The Proleptic Fantasy of Anglo-Saxon Crusade in a Manuscript for King Henry VI" argues that another manuscript, Harley 2278, includes Islamophobic depictions and "models for negotiating the demands of kingship and piety as they pertain to warfare" (95). In this way, Harley 2278 appears to be promoting similar ideologies to Aberdeen MS 123.

...texts such as the Tractatus de Regimine directly encouraged the young Henry VI to make peace with France so that he might take the cross. Moreover, in 1442, a substantial portion of the indulgence proceeds from Henry’s foundation at Eton were directed toward efforts to resist the Ottoman Turks in the East, suggesting that Henry VI did develop some inclination to aid crusading efforts. (Parker 116-117)

The fictional Henry's listing of his territories incorporates his shaky claim on France alongside his more sound rule of England and the nations immediately surrounding it.

Later in the manuscript, the "List of Kings" appears and invokes the kingdoms of Christendom listed in the Sultan's letter.

"Thyse ben the namys of the kynges of all Crystendom

Following this list of kings of Christendom, the manuscript offers up slices of the world for the consumption of an English audience via the listing of heraldic devices.

As a figure to express the overarching cohesion of the communal whole, the identity of a medieval geopolitical collectivity is crucially invoked by symbolic kingship--as identity of the modern republican nation today might be invoked in flag or national anthem (Heng 66)

The listing of coats of arms works to these ends and more. Not only evoking a sense of nationalism, the variety of heraldic devices offers a notion of a Christian world there for the English's consumption.

In much the same way Mandeville and the "Sultan Letters" bring the world, and a precise version of the world meant to entice its audience at that, to the English, the "List of Kings" presents this concept of global Christendom.

The Sultan of Babylon, a contemporary romance, employs the description of heraldic symbols in a similar context:

Two maistres were in the dromounde / Two goddes on hye seten thore / In the maister toppe, withe macis rounde, / To manace with the Cristen lore. / The sailes were of rede sendelle, / Embrowdred with riche arraye, / With beestes and breddes every dele, / That was right curious and gaye; / The armes displaied of Laban / Of asure and foure lions of goolde, / Of Babiloyne the riche Sowdon, / Moost myghty man he was of moolde; / He made a vowe to Termagaunte: / Whan Rome were distroied and hade myschaunce, / He woolde turn ayen erraunte / And distroye Charles, the Kinge of Fraunce. (Lupack, lines 125-140, emphasis my own)

He [King Charles] bare a chek of goulis clere, / An egle of goolde abrode displayed (Lupack, lines 189-190)

Paired with the "Sultan Letters"'s utilization of Islamophobic romance tropes, Orientalism, and tantalizing lists of place names, the "List of Kings" functions as a companion text to bolster the presented crusader ideologies.

Aberdeen MS 123's understudied "Sultan Letters" and "List of Kings" fit into a larger corpus of late medieval travel and crusade romances. Mapping and reading these texts provide a unique insight into English concepts of the world and Christendom as they were (and perhaps still are in some ways) shaped by crusader ideologies. Likewise, this emphasis on global territories highlights the colonizing impulse of the crusades--an aspect sometimes denied in favor of understanding the wars as strictly religious. Understanding the nature and expression of crusader ideologies as they were expressed in the Middle Ages can help us to better understand the implications of the Crusades as they are invoked in the present and how the history of the Crusades have shaped international relations today.

If you have any interest in reading more about these excerpts or the manuscript itself, feel free to have a look at the manuscript study, attached below:

Bale, Anthony Paul, editor. The Book of Marvels and Travels. Oxford University Press, 2012.

“Gascony” Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/place/Gascony. Accessed 29 Nov. 2020.

“Guyenne” Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/place/Guyenne. Accessed 29 Nov. 2020.

Heng, Geraldine. Empire of Magic: Medieval Romance and the Politics of Cultural Fantasy. Columbia University Press, 2003.

Ludwig, Bailey. A Sample of Understudied Works in Aberdeen MS 123. Ursinus College, https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/english_hon/9/.

Lupack, Alan, editor. Three Middle English Charlemagne Romances. Published for TEAMS by Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1990.

Parker, Leah Pope. The Proleptic Fantasy of Anglo-Saxon Crusade in a Manuscript for King Henry VI. Jan. 2020, http://muse.jhu.edu/article/747131. Project MUSE.

“Prester John” Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Prester-John-legendary-ruler. Accessed 28 Nov. 2020.

Rajabzadeh, Shokoofeh. “The Depoliticized Saracen and Muslim Erasure.” Literature Compass, vol. 16, no. 9–10, 2019, p. e12548. Wiley Online Library, doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/lic3.12548.