[See also: BEAUMANOIR, PHILLIPE DE REMI, SIRE DE; COMTE DE POITIERS,
ROMAN DU; COUCY, CHÂTELAIN DE; JEHAN DE PARIS, ROMAN DE; JOUFROI
DE POITIERS; MAILLART, JEAN; PERCEVAL CONTINUATIONS; ROMANCE]
Fay, Percival B., and John L.Grigsby, eds. Joufroi de Poitiers: roman d’aventures du XIIIe siècle.
Geneva: Droz, 1972.
Gerbert de Montreuil. Le roman de la Violette ou de Gerart de Nevers par Gerbert de Montreuil,
ed. Douglas L.Buffum. Paris: SATF, 1928.
Jakemés. Le roman du castelain de Couci et de la dame de Fayel par Jakemés: édition établie a
l’aide des notes de John E. Matzke, ed. Maurice Delbouille. Paris: SATF, 1936.
Jean Renart. L’escoufle: roman d’aventures, ed. Franklin Sweetser. Geneva: Droz, 1974.
——. Galeran de Bretagne: roman du XIIIe siècle, ed. Lucien Foulet. Paris: Champion, 1925.
——. Le roman de la Rose ou de Guillaume de Dole, ed. Felix Lecoy. Paris: Champion, 1966.
——. The Romance of the Rose or Guillaume de Dole, trans. Patricia Terry and Nancy Vine
Durling. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
Maillart, Jean. Le roman du comte d’Anjou, ed. Mario Roques. Paris: Champion, 1931.
Boulton, Maureen B.M. The Song in the Story: Lyric Insertions in French Narrative Fiction, 1200–
- Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
Lejeune, Rita. L’œuvre de Jean Renart: contribution à l’étude du genre romanesque au moyen âge.
Paris: Droz, 1935.
Paris, Gaston. “Jehan Maillart.” Histoire littéraire de la France 31 (1893):318–50.
Shepherd, M. Philippe de Remi’s “La Manekine” and “Jehan et Blonde”: A Study of Form and
Meaning in Two Thirteenth-Century Old French Verse Romances. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1990.
Zink, Michel. Roman rose et rose rouge: Le roman de la Rose ou de Guillaume de Dole de Jean
Renart. Paris: Nizet, 1979.
REBELLIOUS VASSAL CYCLE
. Cycle of chansons de geste that depict the struggles of a feudal baron and his family
against another house or the king. This is the third cycle defined by Bertrand de Bar-sur-
Aube in a passage from Girart de Vienne, The King Cycle concerns the exploits of
Charlemagne and Roland as defenders of the faith; in the Guillaume d’Orange Cycle, the
warriors defend the southern frontier. In these first two gestes, texts were composed
following the principles of medieval cycle formation: epic poets composed sequels to
famous poems, telling the early exploits (enfances) of a renowned warrior or those of his
ancestors. Such was seldom the case in the third cycle. Only in the 13th century were the
rebel heroes gathered into a “clan” of their own, known as the Rebellious Vassal (or
“Doon de Mayence”) Cycle, which then took its place beside the other two.
Epics belonging to the Rebellious Vassal Cycle reflect cultural tensions in the
medieval world, especially the crisis of the aristocracy at a time when the barons sensed,
in the face of increasing royal power, that for the first time since Charlemagne they were
no longer the dominant force in society. The best epics of revolt, Girart de Roussillon,
Raoul de Cambrai, Garin le Lorrain, Chevalerie Ogier, and Quatre fils Aymon (or
Renaut de Montauban), strove to come to grips with the malaise of their society. They
portray a situation in which a weak and tyrannical king is readily swayed by traitors,
preferring his favorites to the barons of the realm. Disinherited and insulted, the nobles
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