Languedoc. In 1290, its territory increased with the marriage of Count Roger-Bernard III
to Marguerite, heiress of the viscounty of Béarn.
The apogee of the counts’ power came in the 14th century, when they profited from
the weakness of royal authority during the Hundred Years’ War and the strategic position
of their own domains to play a critical role in the politics of the kingdom. Against the
determinedly proFrench position of his rivals the counts of Armagnac, the brilliant and
lettered Gaston III Phoebus (r. 1343–91) pursued a policy of official neutrality in favor of
the English and engaged in frequent hostilities with both the house of Armagnac and the
duke of Berry, royal lieutenant of Languedoc. His successor Jean I (r. 1412–36)
continued the pro-English alliance until the accession of Charles VII, from whom he
accepted the lieutenancy of Languedoc. At the death of François Phoebus (1483), the
county of Foix passed to the house of d’Albret and was united to the monarchy with the
accession of Henry IV.
Alan Friedlander
[See also: ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADE; GASTON PHOEBUS; LANGUEDOC;
TRENCAVEL]
Courteault, Henri. Gaston IV comte de Foix, vicomte souverain de Béarn, prince de Navarre,
1423–1472. Toulouse: Privat, 1895.
Tucoo-Chala, Pierre. Gaston Fébus et la souveraineté de Béarn. Pau: Marrimpouey, 1981.
——. Gaston Fébus, un grand prince d’occident au XIV siècle. Pau: Marrimpouey, 1983.
Wolff, Philippe. “Une ville pyrénéenne du XIII siècle: l’exemple de Foix.” Annales du Midi
77 (1965):137–55.
FOLIES TRISTAN
. The common subject matter of the Bern Folie (Bern MS 354; 584 octosyllables) and
Oxford Folie (Bodleian Library, d6; 998 octosyllables) is Tristan’s return to Iseut
conjoined to the motif of feigned madness. The narrative of these two short tales is itself
based on another “return”: Tristan’s evocation, first at Marc’s court and then for Iseut and
Brangain, of the main events of his past life. Because of the episodes cited, the Bern
version is generally associated with the tradition represented by Eilhart and Béroul, while
Oxford is related to Thomas d’Angleterre. Thus the two texts are important for
reconstituting episodes that are missing in the Béroul and Thomas fragments.
Tristan’s hiding behind a mask of madness permits the development, without
constraints of decency, chronology, or verisimilitude, of a highly eroticized discourse,
which moves without transition from burlesque fantasies and obscenities to lyric laments
and the detailed depiction of dream worlds. Marked by the repetition of the verb “to
recall, remember” (OFr. membrer, remembrer), the Folies return obsessively to the main
Tristan themes of wounds, lovesickness, self-alienation (of which madness is the sign),
unsatisfied desire, and death. They translate another Tristan obsession as well: the
impossibility of establishing the veracity of language, especially the language of love.
Tristan’s words alone are not enough for Iseut to recognize him in either Folie. Only the
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