Gillette de Narbonne and Bertrand de Roussillon's Marriage

Gillette de Narbonne and Bertrand de Roussillon’s marriage is shaped first by unequal social rank and a husband’s refusal, then by Gillette’s resourcefulness and perseverance. The match is imposed when Gillette cures the King of France and claims Bertrand as her reward; it becomes a marriage in practice only after she has governed Bertrand’s neglected county, obtained his ring, borne his sons, and confronted him with the evidence that fulfills his own conditions for her return.

Origins and Unequal Attachment

Gillette’s love for Bertrand begins in childhood. Her father, Master Gerard de Narbonne, is a physician in the household of Isnard, Count of Roussillon, and the two children grow up together. Gillette loves Bertrand with a devotion beyond what might be expected at her age. When the Count dies and Bertrand is taken to Paris under the King’s care, she is left behind, disconsolate. Her father also dies, and Gillette, now rich but closely guarded, has no honorable opportunity to travel to Paris to see Bertrand. Though her relatives seek a suitable husband for her, she refuses the men proposed to her, unable to forget her first attachment.

The separation does not diminish her love. When she hears that Bertrand has grown into a handsome gentleman and that the King suffers from a fistula no physician has been able to cure, she sees a way to reach Paris and, she hopes, to win Bertrand. Her journey is not simply a private pursuit: she has learned medicine from her father, and the royal illness gives her an opportunity to demonstrate that knowledge. The story thus presents her desire and her practical skill together. Gillette seeks Bertrand, but she can act on that desire because she possesses expertise that the King urgently needs.

Cure and Imposed Marriage

Gillette examines the King and promises to cure him within eight days, without causing him distress. When he doubts her because she is young and a woman, she explains that her knowledge comes from her father’s teaching and invokes God’s aid. She stakes her life on the promise: if she fails, the King may have her burned; if she succeeds, she asks him to give her a husband of her choosing, excluding the King’s sons and the royal house. The King agrees, and Gillette restores him to health before the promised term has elapsed.

Her chosen husband is Bertrand. The King calls Bertrand back from his county and tells him he is to marry the woman who restored the royal health. Bertrand recognizes Gillette, but rejects the match with contempt, objecting that her birth does not suit his rank and calling her a healer. The King insists that he honor the promise made in exchange for his cure, and points to Gillette’s beauty, wisdom, and love for Bertrand. Bertrand does not consent in spirit: he maintains that the King may dispose of his property or person as his liege lord, but that he will never willingly accept this marriage. Nevertheless, in the King’s presence, he formally espouses Gillette.

The difference between public arrangement and personal consent determines what follows. Gillette has secured the marriage the King promised, but not Bertrand’s affection or companionship. Bertrand asks leave to return to his county and consummate the union there, then rides instead into Tuscany. He joins the Florentines in their war against the people of Siena and serves as a captain of men-at-arms. The marriage exists as a formal bond, while Bertrand’s departure leaves Gillette to make a life and a household without him.

Stewardship and Bertrand’s Conditions

Gillette travels to the County of Roussillon, where the people receive her as their liege lady. The land has been left waste and disordered during Bertrand’s absence. She applies herself diligently to its affairs, restores order, and wins the affection of the vassals. Their approval contrasts with Bertrand’s rejection: those who experience her rule value her as a capable and generous lady, while the husband whose title and lands she sustains remains away.

Gillette sends two knights to ask whether her presence is keeping Bertrand from returning and offers to leave if it is. Bertrand replies that he will return to live with her only when she has his ring on her finger and a son of his in her arms. He treasures the ring because he has been led to believe it possesses a special virtue, and he never parts with it. His demand places the burden of reconciliation on Gillette, setting two apparently formidable tests: she must acquire an object he guards closely and bear his child while he refuses to live with her.

Rather than use her authority to hold the county or continue waiting, Gillette summons its leading men and explains what she has done for love of Bertrand and what has followed. She says she does not wish her residence there to condemn him to perpetual exile. She asks the men to assume the county’s governance, tells them to inform Bertrand that she has left him free possession, and declares that she means to spend her remaining life in pilgrimage and works of charity. The people weep and urge her to change her mind, but she departs in pilgrim’s clothing with a cousin and a chamberwoman, carrying money and precious jewels. Her departure is both a sacrifice and a strategy: it removes what Bertrand might claim as a reason to stay away and allows her to seek another way to meet his conditions.

The Ring, the Twins, and Recognition

In Florence, Gillette stays at an inn and learns that Bertrand is enamored of the daughter of a widow who lives there. She tells the widow who she is and offers to provide the young woman with a dowry sufficient for an honorable marriage. In return, she asks the widow to obtain Bertrand’s ring by having him believe that her daughter is willing to receive him, then secretly place Gillette in the daughter’s bed. The plan depends on secrecy and on the widow’s cooperation; the widow initially recognizes the danger of possible blame, but decides that helping Gillette recover her husband is an honorable purpose.

Following Gillette’s instructions, the widow secures the ring, though Bertrand parts with it unwillingly, and arranges for Gillette to take her daughter’s place. Bertrand believes he is meeting the young woman he desires. Gillette conceives twins. The same substitution is repeated on other occasions, and Bertrand continues to think that he is visiting the widow’s daughter, while Gillette keeps the jewels he gives her. The deception is consequential: Bertrand’s own stated conditions are fulfilled without his knowing that the woman with him is his wife.

Gillette does not treat the widow’s help as a service to be left unpaid. When she knows she is pregnant, she tells the widow she has obtained what she sought and intends to leave. The widow says she did not act for reward, but, constrained by need, asks for one hundred pounds to marry her daughter. Gillette gives her five hundred pounds and precious jewels estimated to be worth about as much again. The gift acknowledges the widow’s poverty while exceeding her request. The widow then moves away with her daughter, removing any further occasion for Bertrand to visit her house.

Bertrand is recalled by his vassals after hearing that Gillette has left the county, and returns to Roussillon. Gillette remains in Florence until the twins are born, then raises them carefully. When she learns that Bertrand will hold a great entertainment at his palace on All Saints’ Day, she travels to Montpellier and then to the gathering, still dressed as a pilgrim. At the banquet, she approaches Bertrand with both children in her arms, kneels at his feet, and presents the ring. She identifies herself as his wife and asks him to keep his promise: she has brought not one son but two, and has recovered the ring he required.

Reconciliation and the Marriage’s Meaning

Bertrand is confounded, recognizes the ring, and sees that the children resemble him, but asks how the events could have come to pass. Gillette explains the whole sequence before him and the assembled guests. Confronted with her account, her constancy and ingenuity, the ring, and the twins, Bertrand abandons his obstinate resistance. His vassals and the women present urge him to receive and honor Gillette as his lawful wife. He raises her, embraces and kisses her, acknowledges her as his wife and the boys as his children, and orders her to be dressed according to her rank. The recognition is public, and the festival continues for that day and several more; from then on he honors and cherishes her as his bride and wife.

The relationship’s course is therefore marked by reversals in who possesses power and who grants recognition. At first, Gillette can reach Bertrand only through her cure of the King, and the King’s promise produces a formal match that Bertrand rejects. During his absence, she exercises authority in the county and then abandons it rather than let her presence become an excuse for his exile. In Florence, she uses a widow’s household and her own wealth to obtain the ring and conceive the children he has demanded. At the final feast, the signs of his conditions are no longer private or deniable: she displays the ring and the twins openly, and the assembled community witnesses Bertrand’s acceptance.

The ending reconciles the couple, but it does not erase the coercion and concealment that precede it. Bertrand’s initial marriage is compelled by the King’s promise, while his return is secured through a bedmate substitution he does not recognize. The story resolves that tension through his public acknowledgment of Gillette and their children, and through his subsequent treatment of her as his wife. Gillette’s medical knowledge begins the plot, her governance sustains Bertrand’s county, and her persistence supplies the means of reunion; the marriage is restored only when her abilities and claims become impossible for Bertrand and his community to disregard.