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René’s Court

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The Good King

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Abstract

On 3 June 1449 king René inaugurated the Tournament of the Shep¬herdess at Tarascon in Provence. To the sound of trumpets and tam¬bourines the king and queen of Sicily mounted a scaffold close to the lists. They were accompanied by their son-in-law, Ferry of Vaudemont, by great Angevin nobles, such as Guy de Laval, lord of Loué, and Louis de Beauvau and many Provençal knights. A detailed account survives in a poem by Louis de Beauvau.1 The part of the shepherdess, who was to distribute the prizes, was played by Isabelle de Lenoncourt a noble lady of Lorraine. She wore a grey damask robe in a pastoral style and a red hat and carried a silver crook. She entered on the first day on horseback escorted by one of the judges of the tournament and the king of arms, her sheep followed with the two men who actually looked after them, and she was installed in a rustic bower decorated with flowers. Two shields hung from a tree nearby, one was white for joy the other black for sorrow. Two knights, ‘the shepherds’ Philippe de l’Aigue, René’s chamberlain, and Philippe de Lenoncourt (probably the father or brother of ‘the shepherdess’) defended them against the eighteen other contestants as each attempted to touch one of the shields.

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Notes

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Authors
  1. Margaret L. Kekewich
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© 2008 Margaret L. Kekewich

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Kekewich, M.L. (2008). René’s Court. In: The Good King. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230582217_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230582217_5

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-54201-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-230-58221-7

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