Auvergnat castellan families swelled the archives of houses like Brioude and
Sauxillanges.
Continuous wars between castellan groups in the 10th through early 12th centuries
were part of ongoing processes of feuding and peacemaking. New forms of peace were
created. Gerald of Aurillac (d. 909), whose Vita by Odo of Cluny (d. 942) presented one
of the first models of a warrior saint, was an Auvergnat aristocrat. Early and important
peace councils met in Auvergne: at Laprade ca. 975/80 (probably the first instance of the
Peace of God) and at Saint-Paulien ca. 993/94).
When Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry II Plantagenêt in 1152, Auvergne became
part of the Angevin empire. In 1189, however, Henry recognized the suzerainty of Philip
Augustus (d. 1223) over the region. Auvergne subsequently became an apanage (part of
the royal domain given out to a cadet of the royal house). Thus, in 1225, Louis VIII (d.
1226) granted the region to his son Alphonse (d. 1271), while in 1360 it was among the
territories given to John, duke of Berry.
Barbara H.Rosenwein
Baudot, Anne M. and Marcel, eds. Grand cartulaire du Chapitre Saint-Julien de Brioude: essai de
restitution. Clermont-Ferrand: Imprimerie Générale, 1935.
Doniol, Henri, ed. Cartulaire de Brioude. Clermont-Ferrand: Thibaud, 1861.
Fournier, Gabriel. Le peuplement rural en basse Auvergne durant le haut moyen âge. Paris: Presses
Universitaires de France, 1962.
Lauranson-Rosaz, Christian. L’Auvergne et ses marges (Velay, Gevaudan) du VIIIe au XIe siècle:
la fin du monde antique? Le Puy-en-Velay: Cahiers de la Haute-Loire, 1987.
AUVERGNE, MARTIAL D’
(ca. 1430/35–1508). A native of Paris and procurator at the Parlement de Paris after 1458,
Martial d’Auvergne is best known for the prose Arrêts d’Amour (ca. 1460). In this work,
which grew out of the Quarrel of the Belle dame sans merci, Martial narrates a series of
fifty-one fictional trials before the Court of Love. After a lively and often realistic
presentation of opposing arguments in appropriate jargon, the cases are closed by
unappealable decisions: Love’s decrees (arrêts). No manuscripts survive, but the work
was frequently printed in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
Martial’s Vigiles de Charles VII (1477–83), a long poem in honor of the late king (d.
1461), incorporates a chronicle of his reign with alternating allegorical passages
lamenting the “good old days.” The Matines de la Vierge alternates passages relating the
life and miracles of Mary with intimate insights into Martial’s own life. He may also be
the author of a Danse des femmes, on the model of the Danse macabre des hommes.
William W.Kibler
[See also: AMANT RENDU CORDELIER; HERENC, BAUDET; QUARREL OF
THE BELLE DAME SANS MERCI]
Martial d’Auvergne. Les arrêts d’Amour, ed. Jean Rychner. Paris: Picard, 1951.
——Les matines de la Vierge, ed. Yves Le Hir. Geneva: Droz, 1970.
Piaget, Arthur. “La Belle dame sans merci et ses imitations.” Romania 34(1905):416–28.
Puttonen,Vilho. Études sur Martial d’Auvergne. Helsinki, 1943.
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