Bertram Flees to Tuscany

Bertrand de Roussillon’s flight to Tuscany turns a marriage imposed by royal promise into a prolonged separation. Rather than return with Gillette de Narbonne to govern his county as her husband, he rides away under a pretext and makes a military life in Tuscany; meanwhile, Gillette assumes the responsibilities he has abandoned and tries to bring him back on terms he himself has set.

The Marriage He Resists

Gillette had cured the king of France, who had promised to marry her well in return. She claimed Bertrand, whom she had loved since childhood, as the husband she wanted. Although the king acknowledged that giving him to her was a serious matter, he kept his promise and ordered Bertrand to marry her. Bertrand objected that Gillette was a healer and, in his view, beneath his lineage. The king insisted that she was fair, wise, and deeply devoted to him, and the marriage went forward despite Bertrand’s refusal to consent willingly.

On the appointed day, Bertrand espoused Gillette in the king’s presence. He had already decided what to do next: he asked leave to depart on the pretense that he would return to his county and consummate the marriage there. Instead, he took horse for Tuscany. The departure is thus also an evasion: he accepts the royal ceremony outwardly, but redirects his journey away from the wife and home the ceremony was meant to join.

A Captain in Tuscany

In Tuscany, Bertrand heard that the Florentines were at war with Siena and chose to join their side. They received him gladly and made him captain of a company of men-at-arms. He remained in their service for a considerable time, well provided for, turning the flight from his marital duties into an established military position. His absence was not simply a brief delay on the road to his county: he took up arms elsewhere while leaving its government without its lord.

Gillette Governs in His Absence

Gillette, dissatisfied with her situation but hoping to recall Bertrand through her conduct, went to his county. Its people received her as their liege lady. Because the land had long lacked its lord, she found it waste and disordered; with diligence and care, she put its affairs in order. Bertrand’s vassals were pleased with her rule, came to value her greatly, and reproached him for refusing to accept her.

After the county had been restored to order, Gillette sent two knights to ask whether her presence there was keeping Bertrand away. She offered to leave if that was the obstacle. He replied that he would return to live with her only when she wore his ring and carried in her arms a son begotten by him. He particularly cherished the ring because he had been told it possessed a special virtue. The condition makes his absence harder to overcome: Gillette’s successful stewardship wins the county’s loyalty, but Bertrand sets her two further demands as the price of his return.