III

MORGAN LE FAY, EMPRESS OF THE WILDERNESS:

A NEWLY RECOVERED ARTHURIAN TEXT IN
LONDON, BL ROYAL 12.C.IX
Michael Twomey
London, British Library MS Royal 12.C.ix is a collection of astronomical
treatises and tables copied in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The
provenance of the manuscript before it belonged to John, Lord Lumley
(1534?1603), whose ex libris is on folio 1, is unknown. Like many
medieval books, Royal 12.C.ix contains notes by various hands written
both in ink and in plummet (lead) on the flyleaves, spare folios, and blank
spaces of the manuscript. Except for one note to be discussed momentarily, the notes are in Latin. At least one writer in this manuscript is
responsible for astronomical and astrological notes on several folios.
The hands of the notes and the dates mentioned in them fall within the
first half of the fourteenth century. The presence of several hands in the


Lumleys manuscripts came from several sources: (1) Lumley Castle, Durham, the ancestral home
of the Lumleys; (2) the Earl of Arundels Palace of Nonesuch, Surrey, built under Edward III
and acquired by John, Lord Lumley (c. 15331609), by virtue of his marriage to Jane Fitzalan,
daughter of the twelfth Earl of Arundel; (3) acquisitions made for the Lumleys by Humphrey
Lloyd of Denby, who married Lumleys sister Barbara; (4) additional acquisitions resulting from
the Dissolution, via Archbishop Cranmer. As payment of debts inherited from Arundel, Lumley
ceded Nonesuch Castle and its manuscripts to Elizabeth I, whence the books ultimately passed
into the Royal Library. Given Lloyds practice of co-signing the books he acquired for Lumley,
we can probably assume that Royal 12.C.ix, unsigned by Lloyd, was not acquired by Lloyd for
John Lumley. See K. Barron, Lumley, John, first Baron Lumley (c. 15331609), Collector and
Conspirator, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew and B. Harrison
(Oxford, 2004), 34, pp. 75053 (henceforth ODNB); and S. Kelly and J. ORourke, Culturally
Mapping the English Brut A Preliminary Report from the Imagining History Project, Journal
of the Early Book Society 6 (2003), 4160 (pp. 5052).
Fols. 18v, 19v, 22r22v, 34v, 38r, 40v41r, 91v, 155v157r, and 177v; a set of golden letters
and rules for prognosticating with names on fols. 161r162v are continued on 179v. Other notes
are a list of moveable feasts and a note on the day and hour Edward II departed from York, 21
July 1322, to do battle with the Scots, both in Latin (fol. 18r); and proverbs and sententiae (fols.
178v179r).
The manuscript has at least two parts, both numbered in post-medieval hands: fols. 161v and
fols. 62r197r. Present page-numbering begins on fol. 1, such that present fol. 62r also bears its
earlier number as fol. 1. Dates referred to in the notes range from 1322 (fol. 18r) to 1340 and

67

MICHAEL TWOMEY

notes suggests that the manuscript passed through several owners in the
fourteenth century, although it is also possible that variations among the
annotators hands are due to changes in the handwriting of only one or
two annotators. A few of these notes will be discussed as they become
relevant later in this essay.
One note stands out as the only note in the manuscript that is written in
a vernacular language: a letter in Anglo-Norman French purportedly by
Morgan le Fay, written in ink, that straddles the bottom of folios 165v and
166r below a set of lunar tables. It is one of the few medieval Arthurian
texts in which Morgan speaks in her own voice, and it is the only example
in medieval Arthurian literature of a text presented as being composed
by Morgan. As the Morgan letter is noted neither in the standard Arthurian bibliographies nor in the handlist of Anglo-Norman French texts by
Dean and Boulton, there is good reason to assume that it is unknown to
Arthurian scholars. The two insertions on folio 166r suggest that the
scribe copied from an exemplar and corrected himself. The beginning of
the letter on folio 165v follows five lines of other notes in plummet that
were either rubbed out or were written very faintly to begin with, as only
a few traces of them are now visible. It was perhaps to avoid these notes
in plummet that the writer of the Morgan letter was constrained to use
two folios for a text that could easily have fit in the space at the bottom
of either folio; the question of why the writer chose these particular folios
must be deferred for the moment.
The letter is addressed to Pomelyn, a bachelor in Morgans court, for
whom Morgan draws a lesson about the power of Fortune based on the
example of a knight called Piers the Fierce. In this essay I will present
a transcription and translation of the letter followed by some preliminary
suggestions about its significance as an Arthurian text, together with a
hypothesis about the author and his motive, to wit, that the author was
likely a secretary familiar with the protocols of royal correspondence who

1341 (fol. 155b). The presence of astrological and astronomical notes by the same hand in both
parts implies that the parts were assembled by about the mid-fourteenth century. The manuscript is described in F. S. Pedersen, The Toledan Tables: A Review of the Manuscripts and the
Textual Versions with an Edition, Historisk-filosofiske Skrifter 24.14, Royal Danish Academy of
Sciences and Letters, 4 vols. (Copenhagen, 2002), I, 12829; and by G. F. Warner and J. P. Gilson,
Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and Kings Collections, 4 vols. (London,
1921), II, 256.
R. J. Dean, in collaboration with M. B. M. Boulton, eds., Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to
Texts and Manuscripts, Anglo-Norman Text Society, Occasional Publications Series 3 (London,
1999). My title deliberately avoids calling the Morgan letter a newly discovered text because it
is mentioned in the Royal catalogue, although there it is incorrectly identified (p. 26) as verse. The
letter is ignored in Pedersen, Toledan Tables. I am grateful to Nicole Clifton (Northern Illinois
University) for calling my attention to the manuscript, and to the British Library for allowing me
to see the manuscript on several occasions, as well as for supplying microfilm and slides of the
manuscript.
Visible are several sequences of numbers similar to the astronomical calculations on fols. 155v
157r.

68

mORGAN LE FAY, EMPRESS OF THE WILDERNESS

lived during the reign of Edward II, and his motive was to draw a moral
from the downfall of Piers Gaveston, special friend of Edward, in 1312.

Transcription
[folio 165v]
Morgayne par la grace deu emperisse de desert Reine de puceles dame des
illes
Long tens guuernere des undes grandmer. A nostre Real bacheler Pomelyn
gardeyn de poynt perilos. Salutz quant perys le fers fust per a pers Lores
oblia peris tus ses pers ore est peris saun per e pers. Par ly hom peut
aprendre kar celi ceo pert a pers que son temps ne volt atendre. Sode
5
nement ceo comense a voler e mult ceo peyne a despleicer quant la Lune
vodra prendre pur ceo que il fist ses vols a voler sanz a valer ore vus
[folio 166r]

valt
atendre
reyson Rendre mult melz ^ fortune ^ que hastiuement ramper e so
deynement dessendre. Done a nostre chastel de dyamant en
la Roche door sur la rue de Rubie en coste la preirie de
10
Saphir

Translation
[Salutation: ] Morgan, by the grace of God empress of the wilderness, queen of
the damsels, lady of the isles, long time governor [or helmsman]of the waves
(of the) great sea; to our royal bachelor Pomelyn, guardian [or warden] of the
Perilous Point: Greeting.
[Text: ] When Piers the Fierce was peer to peers, then Piers forgot all his peers.
Now is Piers without peer and peers. By the man one is able to learn, for he
loses this plainly who does not want to wait his time. Suddenly he begins to
fly and greatly he pains [himself] to change his place [i.e., his station in life?]
when he wants to take the moon, because he makes his flights at will without
avail [with pun on to fly without coming down]. Now to explain [lit. give the
reason] to you: It is much better to wait for Fortune than hastily to ascend and
suddenly to descend.

Expanded abbreviations are indicated by italics. Line breaks, punctuation and capitalization are as
in the MS. Insertions are in the original hand and are indicated by the symbol ^. Here I wish to
thank Ian Short (University of London), Alice Colby-Hall (Cornell University), Kirsten Fudeman
(University of Pittsburgh), and Kristen Figg (Kent State University) for their assistance with the
Anglo-Norman French of the text. This and all subsequent translations into Modern English are
my own unless otherwise noted.

69

MICHAEL TWOMEY

[Closing: ] Issued [lit. given] at our Castle of Diamond, on the Rock of Gold,
above the Ruby Road, alongside the Plain of Sapphire.

Notes to the text

2 Pomelyn little apple or perhaps little pommel.
3 perys le fers] Piers the Fierce; var. pers 4.
3 per a pers] Lit. peer to peers hence equal to equals or possibly man to men
(as also in 4 per e pers). Usually per a per (sg.) or pers a pers (pl.) elsewhere in
Old French and Anglo-Norman French.
4 saun] = sanz, which often effaces final sibilant before consonant; an > aun in
later Anglo-Norman French.
4 Par ly hom] By the man; i.e., from the example of Piers the Fierce.
5 celi] Modern French celui; refers to Piers the Fierce as subject of relative
pronoun que 5.
5 ceo] Anglo-Norman French variant of ce; object of pert 5.
5 a pers] apers openly, plainly; -s is adverbial; divided syllabically perhaps to
emphasize pun; cf. a valer.
5 que] In Anglo-Norman French, que is generally used in place of qui after the
thirteenth century.
6 despleicer] Cf. Modern French dplacer move about, change place.
7 a voler] at will, with pun on to fly.
7 a valer] to avail, with pun on a valer to come / go down.
7 vus] MS v9 = vus has been made into the connector to the next page.

Arthurian Themes and Motifs

The author (and, one assumes, the writer) shows his familiarity with
Morgans literary ontogeny in a number of ways. He spells her name
Morgayne, an orthographic variant of a common French form
Morgaine.10 Morgans titles empress of the wilderness, queen of the
damsels, lady of the isles, and governor of the waves of the great sea
emphasize her common association with the wilderness, women, and
water in Arthurian literature. Thus, the author epitomizes one of the main
attributes of Morgan le Fay: that as queen of the wilderness she presides
over a territory that exists at the remotest edges within and beyond



10

M. K. Pope, From Latin to Modern French with Especial Consideration of Anglo-Norman

(Manchester, 1934, repr. 1966), 1203.
See Pope, From Latin to Modern French, 1248, 1254.
See Pope, From Latin to Modern French, 1262.
The final -e indicates that stress had not yet moved to the first syllable. A survey of the spelling
and pronunciation of Morgans name may be found in my essay Is Morgne la faye in Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight Or Anywhere in Middle English?, Anglia 117 (1999), 54257 (pp.
54551).

70

mORGAN LE FAY, EMPRESS OF THE WILDERNESS

Arthurs kingdom of Logres.11 Morgans identity as ruler of the wilderness is first and foremost an element of the Avalon motif, which goes back
at least as far as Geoffrey of Monmouths Vita Merlini, in which Telgesinus (Taliesin) describes an island of apples called Fortunata, to which
Telgesinus took Arthur after his death at Camlann in order to be healed
by Morgan and her nine sisters.12 In a number of romances, Morgan is
associated with landlocked wildernesses, as well.13
The Morgan letter shows familiarity with Arthurian onomastic conventions for wilderness place-names. Pomelyn the royal bachelor is identified
as gardeyn de poynt perilos or Warden of the Perilous Point, a name
that recalls Arthurian place-names in the form X Perilous, such as the
11

12
13

Medieval narratives involving Morgan are surveyed in C. Larrington, King Arthurs Enchantresses: Morgan and her Sisters in Arthurian Tradition (London and New York, 2006); M. W.
Twomey, Morgan le Fay, in Verfhrer, Schurken, Magier, ed. U. Mller and W. Wunderlich, Mittel
altermythen III (St Gall, 2000), pp. 693706; E. W. Funcke, Morgain und ihre Schwestern: Zur
Herkunft und Verwendung der Feenmotivik in der mittelhochdeutschen Epik, Acta Germanica:
Jahrbuch des Germanistenverbandes im sdlichen Afrika 18 (1985), 164; L. A. Paton, Studies
in the Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Romance, 2nd edn (1903; repr. New York, 1960); L. HarfLancner, Les Fes au moyen ge. Morgane et Mlusine: La naissance des fees (Paris, 1984);
W.Fauth, Fata Morgana, in Beitrge zum romanischen Mittelalter, ed. K. Baldinger, Zeitschrift
fr Romanische Philologie, Sonderband zum 100-Jhrigen Bestehen (Tbingen, 1977), pp.
41754; J. Wathelet-Willem, La fe Morgain dans la chanson de geste, Cahiers de Civilisation
Mdivale 13 (1970), 20919; F. Bogdanow, Morgains Role in the Thirteenth-Century French
Prose Romances of the Arthurian Cycle, Medium vum 38 (1969), 12333; R. S. Loomis, The
Legend of Arthurs Survival, in Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages: A Collaborative History,
2nd edn (Oxford, 1961), pp. 6471; Loomis, A Survey of Scholarship on the Fairy Mythology of
Arthurian Romance since 1903, in Paton, Studies in the Fairy Mythology, pp. 280307; Loomis,
Morgain la fe in Oral Tradition, Romania 80 (1959), 33767; Loomis, Morgain la Fee and
the Celtic Goddesses, Speculum 20 (1945), 183203, repr. in Wales and the Arthurian Legend
(Cardiff, 1956), pp. 10530.
Geoffrey of Monmouth, Life of Merlin: Vita Merlini, ed. and trans. B. Clarke (Cardiff, 1973), lines
92940, 9547.
Chrtiens Erec and Enide, perhaps the earliest reference to Morgan in an Arthurian romance, has
Morgan living in the Val Perilleus (line 2358, Guiot MS only); see Chrtien de Troyes, Erec et
Enide, ed. M. Roques in Les Romans de Chrtien de Troyes, I, Classiques Franais du Moyen Age
80 (Paris, 1970). Examples of Morgan as ruler of the wilderness, excluding the Avalon motif, are:
La Bataille Loquifer, c. 1170 (Harf-Lancner, Les Fes, pp. 27577); Wolframs Parzival (Fauth,
Fata Morgana, p. 437); Floriant et Florete, c. 1250 (Loomis, The Legend, pp. 6768); Tavola
Ritonda, 132550 (Fauth, Fata Morgana, p. 435); Le Bastard de Bouillon, c. 1350 (Loomis,
The Legend, p. 68); Ogier le Danois, fourteenth century (Harf-Lancner, Les Fes, pp. 27988);
Jean dOutremeuse, Myreur des Histors, fourteenth century (Loomis, The Legend, p. 68); Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight (lines 670784); Pulzella Gaia, fifteenth century (Fauth, Fata
Morgana, p. 436). Lope Garca de Salazars summary of the Post-Vulgate Roman du Graal
relocates Morgans Avalon on the Island of Brasil, west of Ireland, adapting stories told by
sailors from Bristol: see The Legendary History of Britain in Lope Garca de Salazars Libro de
las bienandanzas e fortunas, ed. H. L. Sharrer (Philadelphia, 1979), pp. 7273, and also Sharrer,
The Acclimatization of the Lancelot-Grail Cycle in Spain and Portugal, in The Lancelot-Grail
Cycle: Texts and Transformations, ed. W. W. Kibler (Austin, TX, 1994), pp. 17590 (p. 184), and
the sources mentioned therein. In a fifteenth-century Fastnacht play Morgan is the Queen of
Cyprus (Fauth, Fata Morgana, p. 434). Morgan imprisons Lancelot in a wilderness stronghold
in: Lancelot: roman en prose du XIIIe sicle, ed. A. Micha, Textes Littraires Franais, 9 vols.
(Geneva, 197883), I, xxvxxxi, and V, lxxxvilxxxviii; Le roman de Tristan en prose, ed. P.
Mnard et al., Textes Littraires Franais, 9 vols. (Geneva, 198797), III, sections 16782 and
VI, sections 35, 6768; Malorys Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake.

71

MICHAEL TWOMEY

Val Perilous (Perilous Valley) in the prose Lancelot du Lac and the Pont
Perellous (Perilous Bridge) in the Second Continuation of Perceval.14 In
the Vulgate Cycle and Prose Tristan, Morgan imprisons knights such as
Lancelot and Tristan in her wilderness castles. One of these castles has
a name that is possibly recalled by la Roche door in the Morgan letter:
Chastel de la Roche Dure, where Morgan imprisoned Tristan and where,
according to the Prose Tristan, Morgan imprisoned Lancelot when he
painted the walls with frescoes about his affair with Guenevere.15 In Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight, Morgan lives in a wilderness castle whose
very name means High Wilderness (Hautdesert); and Gawain must pass
through the wilderness of North Wales (line 697) in order to find it.16
As queen of the damsels, lady of the isles (and) long time governor
of the waves (of the) great sea, Morgan is implicitly the ruler of Avalon,
which is conventionally a female realm. In Geoffrey of Monmouths Vita
Merlini, mentioned earlier, Morgen is the fairest of nine sisters living on
the insula pomorum (isle of apples). In Claris et Laris (c. 1270) Morgan
lives in a wilderness palace with twelve ladies.17 In Malorys Morte
Darthur, Morgan brings the Queen of North Wales, the Queen of the
Waste Lands, and Nynyve with her when she fetches the dying Arthur to
Avalon. Finally, an additional Avalonian motif occurring in the Morgan
letter is that of Avalon as a jewelled paradise. For example, in Ly Mysteur
des Histors by Jean dOutremeuse of Lige (d. 1400), where Ogier the
Dane, one of Charlemagnes paladins, is shipwrecked on Avalon, Morgans
castle is made of gems and surrounded by jewels and perfumed trees.18 It
is not a great leap of the imagination from there to the Castle of Diamond
in the Morgan letter.

Rhetorical Features
The Morgan letter makes its point via two statements that have a proverbial ring: celi ceo pert a pers que son temps ne volt atendre (line 5), and
mult melz valt fortune atendre que hastiuement ramper e sodeynement
dessendre (line 8). The use of proverbs was recommended in the ars
dictaminis (art of letter-writing), and there are manuscript collections of
14

15
16
17
18

See G. D. West, An Index of Proper Names in French Arthurian Verse Romances (Toronto, 1969),
p. 134, and An Index of Proper Names in French Arthurian Prose Romances (Toronto, 1978), p.
249.
Roman de Tristan en prose, ed. Mnard, III, section 167. The two versions of the Prose Tristan
are distinguished by E. Vinaver in Etudes sur le Tristan en prose (Paris, 1925), pp. 2333.
Also in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Morgans purview is testing the Arthurian court for
pride, the moral focus of the Morgan letters criticism of Piers the Fierce.
Li Romans de Claris et Laris, ed. J. Alton, Bibliothek des Literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart 169
(Tbingen, 1884), lines 35554139 and 1099211245.
Ly Mysteur des Histors, ed. S. Bormans, 7 vols. (Brussels, 186487), IV, 4758; cited in Loomis,
Morgain la fe in Oral Tradition, pp. 36061.

72

mORGAN LE FAY, EMPRESS OF THE WILDERNESS

proverbs for the purpose of writing letters.19 Although these precise statements are not in modern collections of medieval proverbs, similar sententiae exist. Examples are in Appendix II, two of which, Morawski 1248
and Walther 23768, seem particularly close in content and form to those
in the Morgan letter. The point of these proverbial-sounding sentences
in the Morgan letter is essentially that one must wait for the proper time
before acting that is, the age-old idea of taking everything in its season,
an ancient bit of practical and also biblical (e.g. Ecclesiastes 3) wisdom.
This sentiment makes perfect sense in a letter written at the bottom of
astrological tables, since one purpose of astrology is to consult the stars
in order to determine a propitious time to act.
No doubt because they are part of oral culture, proverbs employ wordplay to reinforce their mnemonic quality. There is rhyme, for example, in
some of the proverbs in Appendix II (Walther 23768, 4798, and 7874).
There is rhyme in a proverb at the end of the manuscript, folio 178v
(also Appendix II), written by a hand strongly resembling the hand of the
Morgan letter: Gloria mundana non est nisi visio vana;/ Ut rosa verna
cadit sic mundi gloria vadit (Earthly glory is but a vain imagining;/ As the
spring rose falls, thus the glory of the world passes), where the rhymes are
mundanavana, caditvadit. We can observe parallel syntactical structure
in Walther 4798 and 14107 (also Appendix II), as well as in the proverb
on folio 178v, where the author used chiasmus (reverse syntactical order)
in the first line and regular parallelism in the second. But the writer of
the proverb on folio 178v also used alliteration in his proverb: visio vana,
vernavadit.
The Morgan letters use of proverbs is one aspect of a stunning display
of rhetoric that features puns, alliteration, assonance, balanced coordinated constructions, and syntactical parallelism (Appendix IV). So skilful
is the author of the Morgan letter that his syntactic parallelism has a
semantic dimension as well, such that ideas, and not only grammatical
units, are thrown into relief: Morgans titles; Piers the Fierces behavior;
the proverbial importance of waiting ones time and not trying to control
Fortune. In the opening formula, the author arranges Morgans titles in
order of descending hierarchical significance: from empress to queen to
lady to governor. At the same time, he moves from land to sea. Like the
opening formula, the closing formula also has geographical movement.
In the closing formula, the author arranges Morgans address in order of
increasing geographical space: from castle to rock to road to plain.

19

J. J. Murphy, Rhetoric in the Middle Ages: A History of Rhetorical Theory from St Augustine to
the Renaissance (Berkeley, 1974), pp. 194268 (pp. 23335). See also G. Constable, Letters and
Letter-Collections, Typologie des Sources du Moyen ge Occidental 17 (Turnhout, 1976). I am
grateful to John B. Friedman (emeritus) and Martin J. Camargo, both of the University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign, for sharing their knowledge of medieval ars dictaminis with me.

73

MICHAEL TWOMEY

If the author of the Morgan letter was familiar with the rhetorical ploys
of epistolary art, he was also familiar with the medieval genre of the
fictional letter.20 Famous examples include the letter of Prester John and
the letter of Alexander to Aristotle.21 An Arthurian example occurs in
the Latin Draco Normannicus, a chronicle written by Etienne de Rouen
in Latin verse between 1167 and 1169, which contains a fictional letter
that purports to be from King Arthur to the English King Henry II. The
letter regards Henrys campaign in 1167 to enforce his claim to Brittany. In it, Arthur accuses Henry of attacking Brittany without declaring
war. He claims that he has been healed of his wounds (from his battle
with Mordred) by his sister Morgan, the deathless nymph, on the sacred
island of Avalon, and has been made immortal. Now lord of the Antipodes, Arthur commands half the world, and he can return to rule again in
Britain when he chooses and will do so immediately if Henry does not
abandon his claim to Brittany.22
Taken in its larger context as royal propaganda for Henry II, the
purpose of the fictional letter from Arthur in the Draco Normannicus is
to discredit the myth of Arthurs return.23 But as the example of the Draco
Normannicus suggests, fictional letters could have local, political, and
even satirical significance. Thus, perhaps the most significant parallel to
the Morgan letter is a fictional letter (Appendix III) addressed to Philip the
Good of Burgundy purportedly from a Muslim king named Belshazzar,
supposedly descended from the Assyrian king in Daniel 5 who receives

20

21

22
23

Constable, Letters, p. 13, uses the term fictional letter to describe model letters and treatises in
epistolary form, which were not intended to be sent but which were considered letters by contemporaries. Further, Many fictional letters circulated under the names of divine, mythological, or
deceased persons, and of real people to whom they were fictitiously attributed, like the famous
crusading letters from the Emperor Alexius to Count Robert of Flanders. Others were written
as model-letters or in order to lend verisimilitude to historical and other works These letters
were certainly not forgeries in the usual sense of the term and might indeed have been accepted
by contemporaries as authentic, but they had no connection with their ostensible writers (pp.
4950).
On Prester John see B. Wagner, Die Epistola presbiteri Johannis lateinisch und deutsch: berlieferung, Textgeschichte, Rezeption und bertragungen im Mittelalter, Mnchener Texte und
Untersuchungen zur deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters 115 (Tbingen, 2000); M. Gosman, La
lettre du Prtre Jean: Les versions en ancien franais et en ancien Occitan: Textes et commentaires (Groningen, 1982); V. Slessarev, Prester John: The Letter and the Legend (Minneapolis,
1959). On Alexanders letter to Aristotle see L. L. Gunderson, ed., Alexanders Letter to Aristotle
about India (Meisenheim am Glan, 1980), and W. W. Boer, ed., Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem
(Meisenheim am Glan, 1973). A Middle English version exists in Worcester Cathedral Library
MS F.172, fols. 138r146v, written by one scribe in the third quarter of the fifteenth century;
edition: see V. DiMarco and L. Perelman, eds., The Middle English Letter of Alexander to Aristotle
(Amsterdam, 1978).
Etienne de Rouen, Draco Normannicus, ed. R. Howlett, in Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen,
Henry II, and Richard I, Rolls Series 82 (London, 18841889), II.
See the discussion in S. Echard, Arthurian Narrative in the Latin Tradition (Cambridge, 1999),
pp. 8593. Here I wish to thank Judith Weiss (Cambridge) and Sin Echard (British Columbia)
for suggesting a parallel to the Draco Normannicus.

74

mORGAN LE FAY, EMPRESS OF THE WILDERNESS

the prophecy of the Handwriting on the Wall. Since Philip died on 15 June
1467, the letter is probably from before the middle of 1467.24 Both of the
manuscripts in which the letter occurs resemble Royal 12.C.ix as miscellanies. Brogyntyn II.1 is a Middle English miscellany containing texts of
the romances Sir Gawain and the Carl of Carlisle and the prose Siege of
Jerusalem, plus lyrics such as Erthe upon erthe, political prophecies such
as The Cock in the North, prognostications, tables of planetary hours
and influences, tables of eclipses, and medical recipes. Additional 46846,
a multilingual assemblage of texts in English, Welsh, Latin, and French,
contains satirical verses, a formulary for deeds, royal letters, agreements
pertaining to the war of Owen Glendower, various legal documents, a
meditation on the Lords Prayer, and notes on the care of hawks.
The Belshazzar letter uses epistolary formulas that resemble the ones
used in the Morgan letter, and like the Morgan letter it bears witness
to a satirical, current-events sub-genre of the fictional letter. In editing
the Belshazzar letter, Robert Raymo argued that the context of the Belshazzar letter was the period following the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453, after which Pope Pius II wrote the Epistola ad Turcorum
imperatorem Mahumetam (Letter to Mohammed, Emperor of the Turks),
in which the pope urged Mohammed II to give up Islam and convert to
Christianity, just as the Roman emperor Constantine had converted from
paganism to Christianity in the fourth century. Piuss letter generated at
least one spurious reply and several parodies, of which the Belshazzar
letter apparently is one. The Belshazzar letter is addressed to Philip the
Good because between 1453 and 1460 Philip led the initial attempts to
raise an expedition against the Turks; eventually Pope Pius II himself took
charge of the effort. Problems in the Middle English of the letter suggest
that the copy in Brogyntyn II.1 may be defective, hence, like the Morgan
letter, a copy of an earlier, lost original.

24

There are two known manuscripts of the letter. (1) Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales MS
Brogyntyn II.1 (formerly Porkington 10), compiled West Midlands c. 1470, fols. 193v194v.
The manuscript is described in D. Huws, Porkington 10 and its Scribes, in Romance Reading
in the Book: Essays on Medieval Narrative Presented to Maldwyn Mills, ed. J. Fellows et al.
(Cardiff, 1969), pp. 188207, and in W. Marx, Index of Middle English Prose 14: Manuscripts
in the National Library of Wales (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru), Aberystwyth (Cambridge and
Rochester, NY, 1999), pp. 1927. An edition of the Belshazzar letter based on Brogyntyn II.1 is in
Appendix III, below. (2) London, BL Additional 46846, a miscellany compiled by John Edwards,
Receiver of Chirk of Northeast Wales and dated 1498. The Additional MS is described in the BL
catalogue of Additional MSS, available online at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/manuscripts/. I am
grateful to Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan (National Library of Wales) for sending me a copy of the
NLW catalogue description and for alerting me to the existence of the Belshazzar letter in BL
Additional 46846, as it is not noted in the BL catalogue description of the manuscript.

75

MICHAEL TWOMEY

Manuscript Context
As a dictated text, the Morgan letter does not in itself indicate that
Morgan le Fay is to be regarded as literate, since the act of royal writing
was performed by a secretary. Nevertheless, in the Vulgate Cycles Prose
Merlin, Morgan is not only literate, hence capable of drafting a letter, but
she is schooled in astronomy. This is disclosed at the wedding of Uther
and Ygraine, which is accompanied by the marriage of Ygraines unnamed
elder daughter (from her previous husband, the Duke of Tintagel) to King
Lot. Morgan is married to King Neutres de Garlot, whereupon
On the advice of all his friends together, the king [Neutres] put her to study
letters at a religious house, where she learned so much and so well that she
learned the [seven liberal] arts, and she became wonderfully adept at an
art called astronomy. And she worked hard all the time and knew a great
deal about the healing arts, and because of her mastery of learning she was
called Morgan the Fay.25

Morgans astronomical expertise could have given the writer of the

Morgan letter the idea to use the blank space on a page of tables for his
epistolary exercise. However, with so much white space available on other
folios in the manuscript containing tables, one wants to assume that the
writer chose to put his letter from Morgan le Fay on folios 165v166r
specifically because they contain lunar tables.
One possibility is that the writer associated the moon with the Morgan
letters theme of Fortune. In Ptolemaic astronomy, the moon divides the
heavens into two regions. Above the moon, the universe is stable and
orderly, reflecting the perfect order of God. Below the moon, the territory governed by Fortune, the universe is by nature fickle, transitory, and
mutable, reflecting the fallen nature of man. Fortunes association with
the moon is found in numerous classical and medieval proverbs, often in
distichs that employ the kinds of rhetorical devices found in the Morgan
letter. Some examples are in Appendix II, and more could be added
from Middle English and French.26 Fortunes dwelling-place, when it is
described or depicted, is often in a wilderness, by the water, or even on a

25

26

Et par le consoil de touz les amis ensemble la fist li rois aprendre letres en une maison de religion et celle aprist tant et si bien quelle aprist des arz, et si sot merveille dun art que len apele
astronomie et molt en ouvra toz jorz et sot molt de fisique, et par celle mastrie de clergie quele
avoit fu apelee Morgain le faee; Robert de Boron, Merlin: Roman du XIIIe sicle, ed. A. Micha,
Textes Littraires Franais (Geneva, 1979), p. 245.
For examples see B. J. Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases from English Writings mainly before 1500 (Cambridge, MA, 1968), C114, E105. Examples in French are in the
collections of Morawski and Hassell (Appendix I). Also see the Middle English Dictionary, sv
mn(e), senses 4, 5, 6. I am grateful to Alice Colby-Hall and T. D. Hill (both of Cornell University) for their suggestions regarding Old French proverbs.

76

mORGAN LE FAY, EMPRESS OF THE WILDERNESS

cliff. Such is the landscape of Arthurs dream about Fortunes wheel on the
eve of his battle with Mordred, found in canonical versions of Arthurian
legend such as the Vulgate Mort Artu, the Alliterative Morte Arthure, and
Malorys Morte Darthur.27 Alain de Lilles prototypical depiction of the
house of Fortune in Book VIII of the Anticlaudianus establishes the location as a cliff on an island beaten by the waves. Neither the land nor the
dwelling of Fortune ever keeps the same shape, but always changes. One
moment Fortunes house is a jewelled palace, the next a hovel.28 Fortunes
island, like Morgans Avalon, is an instance of the ancient commonplace
of the island paradise that goes by names such as the Hesperides, Isles
of Blessed, Isle of Ladies, and the Fortunate Isles. Again, in her earliest
appearance in literature, Geoffrey of Monmouths Vita Merlini, Morgan
presides over just such a place, called both insula pomorum [isle of
apples] and Fortunata.29 In the Morgan letter, Morgans association
with Fortune is therefore suggested by the wealth of her dwelling and her
surroundings: a crystal castle, a rock of gold, a ruby road, and a plain of
sapphire.
It is also possible that the writer of the Morgan letter intended to connect
Morgan le Fay, Piers the Fierce, and the theme of Fortune to the tables on
folios 165v and 166r themselves. The tables on these folios are Toledan
tables, originally compiled in Toledo in the late eleventh century from
Arabic sources.30 Toledan tables were out of date by the early fourteenth
century, having been superseded by the Alfonsine tables, compiled in
about 1272 by a group of astronomers convened by Alfonso X el Sabio
(the wise). Nevertheless, the Toledan tables, particularly the tables used
with the canon known from its incipit as Quoniam cuiusque actionis
quantitatem (Because the quantity of every action), were at the height of
their popularity in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, the
date of the astronomical/astrological canons and tables in Royal 12.C.ix.
The canon Quoniam cuiusque actionis quantitatem, written in Paris

27

28
29
30

Vulgate Cycle Mort Artu: La mort le roi Artu, roman du XIIIe sicle, ed. J. Frappier, 3rd edn
(Geneva, 1964), pp. 22627; Alliterative Morte Arthure, lines 32233455, in Morte Arthure: A
Critical Edition, ed. M. Hamel (New York, 1984); Malory, The Works of Sir Thomas Malory,
ed. E. Vinaver, 3rd edn, rev. P. J. C. Field, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1990), III, 1233 (Caxton XXI.3,
Winchester MS fol. 478r).
Patrologia Latina 210:55760; translated in H. R. Patch, The Goddess Fortuna in Mediaeval
Literature (Cambridge, MA, 1927), pp. 12627.
Life of Merlin, ed. and trans. Clarke, lines 92940, 9547.
The tables in Royal 12.C.ix are described in Pedersen, Toledan Tables, I, 1289. I am grateful to
John Friedman and to John North (Oxford University) for sharing their knowledge of medieval
astronomy with me. North has suggested to me that the hand of the tables on fols. 165v166r
might be Oxfordian, which would put these pages, and possibly the Morgan letter, in the context
of Merton College, as Merton was the centre of astronomical study at Oxford. Norths Chaucers
Universe (Oxford, 1988), pp. 7259, contains a highly accessible and reliable introduction to the
principles of calculation.

77

MICHAEL TWOMEY

in the 1270s or 1280s, is in effect the vulgate version of the Toledan

Tables.31
The canons and tables in Royal 12.C.ix, folios 164r179r, are an
eclipse tract, together with its accompanying tables, that was mostly
excerpted from Quoniam cuiusque actionis quantitatem and known by
its incipit as Ut autem annos Arabum (In order [to determine] Arabic
years). According to Pedersen, it was probably composed in Paris (which
it mentions) in 1277 or a few years earlier.32 Ut annos Arabum and its
tables were used specifically for determining oppositions and conjunctions of the sun and moonhence, chiefly for determining eclipses.
In Royal 12.C.ix, the text of the canon is on folios 172v179r, which
Pedersen dates to the early fourteenth century. In Royal 12.C.ix, the
canon lacks a heading, which is usually something like Canones eclipsium cum tabulis (Canons of eclipses with tables), but it has one of
the standard explicits: Explicit quod sufficit de utroque eclipsi, scilicet
tam solis quam lune. The tables for Ut annos Arabum occupy folios
164r172r in Royal 12.C. ix.33
The tables on folios 166v and 166r were used for related purposes.
Folio 165v contains a table of mean conjunctions and oppositions (also
called syzygies) of the sun and moon used for determining eclipses and for
converting dates from Islamic to Christian. It bears the heading, Tabula
medie conjunctionis et oppositionis solis et lune ad menses lunares.34 In
the first row of subheadings are months (mensium), numbered one through
twelve; these are followed by the time of mean conjunction and opposition
(tempus medie conjunctionis et oppositionis) expressed in days, hours,
and minutes (dies, hore, minuta); then by mean motion of the sun and
moon (medius cursus solis et lune) expressed in signs, degrees, minutes,
and seconds (signa, gradus, minuta, secunda); then by the argument of the
moon (argumentum lune) and the argument of the moons latitude (argumentum latitudinis lune) both also expressed in signs, degrees, minutes,
and seconds. Folio 166r contains a two-column table of equations of
the sun and moon that were used for finding their ecliptical longitude at
any desired time, or for converting ecliptical and equatorial coordinates,
as well as for computing the times of astrological houses. It bears the
heading, Tabula equacionis solis et lune tempore coniunctionis et oppositionis.35 In the first row of subheadings are lines of numbers (linee
numeri), expressed in two columns of signs and degrees; this is followed
by the equation of the sun (equacio solis), expressed in degrees, minutes,

31
32
33
34
35

Pedersen, Toledan Tables, I, 1213; and North, Chaucers Universe, pp. 1479.
Pedersen, Toledan Tables, II, 552.
See Pedersen, Toledan Tables, II, 5534, and for variants 5668.
Table GA14 in Pedersen, Toledan Tables, IV, 1340, with a variant heading.
Table EB11.Ear in Pedersen, Toledan Tables, IV, 130607.

78

mORGAN LE FAY, EMPRESS OF THE WILDERNESS

and seconds, and by the equation of the argument of the moon (equacio
argumenti lune), also expressed in degrees, minutes, and seconds.
Perhaps the writer of the Morgan letter associated Morgan with the
moon because the moon is essentially feminine, with a domicile in Cancer,
a feminine sign. When a planet is in its domicile, it is said to be in its
similitude, or greatest strength.36 Thus, the tables on folios 165v and 166r
would reinforce the message of the Morgan letter with the implied astrological power of the moon, linking Morgan as queen of the damsels, lady
of the isles (and) long time governor of the waves (of the) great sea with
the feminine, watery moon as well as with Fortune, ruler of the sublunary
world, as a power not to be ignored. However, we must also consider the
more mundane possibility that as the Toledan tables were beginning to be
out of date, the manuscripts use as an astrological handbook had given
way to its owners need for scrap on which to write. Thus, if the writer
did indeed deliberately put his Morgan letter on folios 165v166r because
these pages contained lunar tables, perhaps the tables functioned only as
a mnemonic device, to help him remember where in the manuscript he
had written the letter.

Authorship of the Letter and Identity of Piers the Fierce

We have already seen that the Morgan letter uses proverbs recommended
in the ars dictaminis. It also reflects the parts for a letter prescribed
by epistolary handbooks: salutation, exordium, narration, petition, and
conclusion.37 The salutation greets the reader; the exordium secures his
goodwill; the narration provides an account of the letters main purpose;
the petition calls for something by supplicating, exhorting, threatening,
urging, warning, reproving, teaching, etc.; and the conclusion gives the
location and date of the letters composition. The Morgan letter begins
with a formal salutation that identifies the sender and the recipient, up
to the word Salutz. It skips the exordium, probably because as a letter
addressed to someone lower in the social hierarchy, the Morgan letter does
not need to secure the goodwill of the addressee in order to get his attention. The letter proceeds directly to the narration about Piers the Fierce,
and from there it goes on to a petition that draw a lesson about Fortune,
after which it closes by identifying the place from which Morgan writes.
Since rulers did not physically write their own correspondence, but rather

36

37

L. Means, Medieval Lunar Astrology: A Collection of Representative Medieval Texts (Lewiston,

1993), pp. 6465. The general theory of essential powers, properties, and natures of the planets,
including the moon, is explained in North, Chaucers Universe, pp. 194213, esp. 20203 and
208.
Murphy, Rhetoric in the Middle Ages, pp. 21625, and passim in Chapter V, Ars Dictaminis: The
Art of Letter-Writing. See also Constable, Letters and Letter-Collections, pp. 1620, 3138.

79

MICHAEL TWOMEY

dictated to secretaries, even though the voice of the letter is Morgans,

the writer of the letter, who is not necessarily its author, is present in his
fictional capacity as court scribe recording the words of his ruler, which
are primarily in the narration and the petition of the letter, rather than in
the formulaic salutation and conclusion.
More tellingly, the author of the Morgan letter was familiar with
the opening and closing formulas of British royal correspondence. The
opening and closing formulas of the following privy-seal writ by Edward
II to his butler Stephen of Abingdon (6 September 1322, in which Edward
instructs Stephen about the distribution of wine), are strikingly similar to
those of the Morgan letter:
Edward par la grace dieu Roi Dengleterre Seignur Dirlande et Ducs Daquitaine; A nostre cher sergeant Estephne Dabyndon nostre Botiller salutz
Don souz nostre priue seal a Fenham le . vj . iour de Septembre Lan de
nostre regne . xvjme.38
(Edward, by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland, and
Duke of Aquitaine; to our dear royal servant Stephen of Abingdon, our
butler, greeting. Issued under our privy seal at Fenham, the 6th day of
September, in the 16th year of our reign.)

Like the Morgan letter, Edwards is from a royal to a member of the royal
household. The salutation begins with the royal sender stating his name
and his title, which he holds by the grace of God. From there he identifies
the addressee with a formula beginning to our so-and-so in which he
identifies the addressee in terms of relationship, name, and titles, if any.
The closing formula begins with the word Done (issued), immediately
identifying the royal residence and the date of the documents issue. The
Morgan letter uses the same opening and closing formulas as this letter
from Edward II, albeit with a fictional place and with no reference to a
date perhaps because Morgan writes as of the Other World, which does
not reckon time in human terms.
The opening and closing formulas used in the Morgan letter were used
in documents issued by English kings in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries under both the great and privy seals, such as writs and letterspatent, as well as in royal correspondence (Appendix I).39 The use of
formulas found in chancery documents strongly suggests that the author
was either a chancery clerk whose job was to produce documents for the
38
39

P. Chaplais, ed., English Royal Documents, King John-Henry VI, 11991461 (Oxford, 1971), p.
64, no. 11a.
Further examples are in H. Hall, ed., A Formula Book of English Official Historical Documents,
2 vols. (Cambridge, 1908), I, no. 23 (p. 33, Henry III); no. 26 (p. 35, Edward I); no. 22 (p. 32,
Edward II); and Pierre Chaplais, English Medieval Diplomatic Practice, 2 vols. + facsimiles
(pages numbered consecutively) (London, 197582), no. 324 (p. 704, Edward III). The basic
Latin form is <name> rex Anglie (or rex Anglie et Francie), dominus Hibernie, et dux Aquitannie, discussed by Chaplais, pp. 15455.

80

mORGAN LE FAY, EMPRESS OF THE WILDERNESS

king, or a secretary working for a bishop or magnate who exchanged

correspondence with the crown. The anglicana hand used in the Morgan
letter is common in documents written in the later Plantagenet period.40
Whoever he was his identification must await further investigation this
professional scribe or secretary was versed in Latin and French, the ars
dictaminis, proverbs, and very likely astrology. The author would perhaps
be someone like the scribe of a similar manuscript, London, BL MS Royal
12.C.xii, who kept a commonplace book that reveals an interest in letters,
proverbs, prognostication, and astrology. The notes in Royal 12.C.xii
reflect the topics in the notes written in Royal 12.C.ix. Coincidentally,
in the sixteenth century both Royal 12.C.ix and Royal 12.C.xii were in
the possession of the same person, John Lord Lumley, and they may have
been together even earlier if they were part of the Earl of Arundels estate,
which Lumley inherited by his marriage to Arundels daughter Jane.41
Another possible link is to the scribe or scribes of Harley 2253, the manuscript of so-called Harley Lyrics in Middle English. Carter Revard argues
that Harley 2253 and Royal 12.C.xii were by the same scribe who was
active in the first half of the fourteenth century.42 It is much too soon to
say whether the notes in Royal 12.C.ix are by the same person as either
of these two manuscripts, although the hands are generally similar as is
to be expected if the writers were all chancery scribes. What does seem
likely so far is that the hand that wrote the Morgan letter also wrote the
proverbs at the end of the manuscript. If the hand that wrote the Morgan
letter also wrote at least some of the astrological notes and proverbs in
Royal 12.C.ix, then he was a person very much like the Harley scribe
in terms of interests; but more investigation is needed before it will be
possible to say what else in Royal 12.c.ix is by the writer of the Morgan
letter.
The identity of Piers the Fierce is a much less difficult problem.
Although the author characterized Morgan le Fay with familiar Arthurian motifs, neither the name of Morgans bachelor, Pomelyn (perhaps
meaning little pommel) nor the name of her subject, Piers the Fierce,
is found elsewhere in Arthurian romance. As a fictional Arthurian name,
Perys le fers anticipates Perys de Forest Savage in Malorys Tale of
Lancelot du Lake. However, if the name is meant to refer to an historical
personage, Piers the Fierce might well be Piers Gaveston, the social
40
41
42

Examples may be found in Chaplais, English Royal Documents and in the facsimiles volume
accompanying English Medieval Diplomatic Practice.
See Barron, Lumley, John, First Baron Lumley (c. 15331609), ODNB, 34, pp. 75053; and
S.Hodgson-Wright, Lumley, Jane, Lady Lumley (15371578), ODNB, 34, p. 749.
C. Revard, Scribe and Provenance, in Studies in the Harley Manuscript: The Scribes, Contents,
and Social Contexts of British Library MS Harley 2253, ed. S. Fein (Kalamazoo, 2000), pp.
21110. I am grateful to Keith Busby (University of Wisconsin, Madison) for calling my attention
to the possible similarity with the hand of Harley 2253 and for suggestions about reading the hand
of the Morgan letter.

81

MICHAEL TWOMEY

climber extraordinaire who was putatively the homosexual lover of

Edward II.43 Gaveston, a native of Gascony in France, was a member of
Edward IIs household after about 1300, when Edward was still Prince
of Wales. The Vita Edwardi II, which introduces Gaveston together with
young King Edward II at its very outset, calls Gaveston the most familiar
and beloved of Edwards chamberlains (camerarius familiarissimus et
valde dilectus) during this period.44 Edward himself was said to refer
to Gaveston as brother, and he gave Gaveston his niece Margaret de
Clare in marriage on 1 November 1307.45 Edward elevated Gaveston to
Earl of Cornwall at his accession in 1307, then in January 1308 Edward
appointed Gaveston regent (custos regni) for a brief period while he was
in France for his wedding to Isabelle. Contemporary sources allege that
Gaveston rose to power suddenly and undeservedly, and they refer to him
as arrogant and contentious. The Vita Edwardi Secundi, which like the
Morgan letter relates the story of Gaveston as a moral lesson, even reinforcing its message with a proverb, puts it this way:
A verse: For he who hunts two hares together,/ Will lose now one, and
then the other. But if anyone asks how Piers had come to deserve such
great baronial displeasure, what was the cause of the hatred, what was the
seedbed of the anger and jealousy, perhaps he will be very surprised, since
it happens in almost all noble households today that some one of the lords
household enjoys a prerogative of affection. So, then, that the condemnation of one may instruct others, and the downfall of the one condemned
become a lesson to others, I shall endeavor to explain the causes of this
hatred and envy as best I can Piers, no earl of Cornwall, was unwilling
to remember that once he had been Piers the humble esquire. For Piers
reckoned no one his fellow, no one his equal (Lat. parem peer), except
the king alone.46
43

44
45

46

Andrew Galloway (Cornell University) deserves credit for musing aloud in my presence whether
Piers the Fierce might refer to Piers Gaveston. The following discussion of Gavestons life and
his relationship with Edward is based on R. M. Haines, King Edward II (Montreal, 2003); J. S.
Hamilton, Gaveston, Piers, Earl of Cornwall (d. 1312), ODNB, 21:65456; P. Chaplais, Piers
Gaveston: Edward IIs Adoptive Brother (Oxford, 1994); J. S. Hamilton, Piers Gaveston: Earl of
Cornwall 13071312: Politics and Patronage in the Reign of Edward II (London, 1988).
Vita Edwardi Secundi: The Life of Edward the Second, ed. and trans. W. R. Childs (Oxford, 2005),
p. 4.
On Gaveston as Edwards brother, see the Vita Edwardi Secundi, for example, Edwards
response to the Ordainers demand that Gaveston be banished: Verum a persecucione fratris mei
Petri desistatis (But you shall stop persecuting my brother Piers); Vita, ed. and trans. Childs, pp.
3233. The Lanercost Chronicle reports that Edward referred to Gaveston as his brother even
before his coronation: Meanwhile [in 1307] there came in great pomp to the king a certain
knight of Gascony, Piers de Gaveston by name, whom my lord, the elder Edward, had exiled
from the realm of England, and in accordance with the unanimous advice of parliament had
caused solemnly to swear that he would never re-enter England; this because of the improper
familiarity which my lord Edward the younger entertained with him, speaking of him openly as
his brother; The Chronicle of Lanercost, trans. H. Maxwell (Glasgow, 1913), p. 184; original
text in Chronicon de Lanercost, ed. J. Stephenson, Bannatyne Club Publications 65 (Edinburgh,
1839), p. 210.
Versus: Nam qui binas lepores una sectabitur hora,/ Vno quandoque, quandoque carebit

82

mORGAN LE FAY, EMPRESS OF THE WILDERNESS

The Morgan letters statement that When Piers the Fierce was peer to
peers, then Piers forgot all his peers, could easily refer to Gavestons relationship as brother to the king, his sudden rise to the position of custos
regni, and his arrogance once in power.
Despite or perhaps because of his long and intimate association with
the new king, Gaveston was deeply resented. Although some chronicles
praise his military prowess for example, in the Scottish campaign of
1300, he was said by Swynebroke to be graceful and agile in body, sharp
witted, refined in manners, [and] well-versed in military matters47
Gavestons swaggering at tournaments and his superior airs everywhere
else were the subject of gossip. The very name Piers the Fierce may
allude to Gavestons fondness for assigning scurrilous names to prominent
lords, such as the alliterating epithet Burst-Belly he devised for Sir Henry
de Lacy.48 The Morgan letter proceeds directly from Piers the Fierces
arrogance to his sudden rise and downfall Now is Piers without peer
and peers concluding with the lesson that It is much better to wait for
Fortune than hastily to ascend and suddenly to descend. In fact, Gaveston
suffered not one but three political downfalls. The first was in 1307, at
the hand of Edward I, when Gaveston deserted Edward Is ongoing Scottish campaign in order to participate in tournaments at home in France.
At first Edward forgave Gaveston, but then he banished him, most likely
because of Gavestons influence on the crown prince. Young Edward II
revoked the sentence as soon as he became king later in the same year. By
this time, Edward II and Gaveston were so close that scholars cannot be
sure whether they were homosexual lovers or adoptive brothers a term
for a formal compact of sentimental friendship between two males that
(only presumably) stopped short of sexual contact.49 Gavestons second

47
48

49

utroque. Queret autem aliquis unde tantam indignacionem baronum meruerat Petrus; que causa
adii, quid seminarium ire et inuidie extiterit, uehementer forsan admirabitur, cum in omnium
fere magnatum domibus optentum sit hodie ut unus aliquis de familia dominice dileccionis
gaudeat prerogatiua. Sane ut reprobacio unius alios instruat, et ruina reprobati ad aliorem cedat
documentum, causas odii et inuidie pro posse meo curabo exprimere. Set Petrus iam comes
Cornubie olim se fuisse Petrum et humilem armigerum nouit intelligere. Nullum suum comitem,
nullum suum parem reputabat Petrus, nisi solum regem: Vita, ed. and trans. Childs, pp. 26/27.
Childs identifies the proverb as Walther no. 23863.
Geoffrey le Baker de Swynebroke, Galfridi le Baker de Swinbroke Chronicon Angliae temporibus
Edwardi II et Edwardi III, ed. J. A. Giles, Caxton Society 7 (London, 1847), p. 4.
He despisede e grettest lordes of is lande, and callede Sir Robert Clare of Gloucestre, Horessone, and e Erl of Lyncoln, Sir Henry e [i.e. de] Lacy, Broste bely, and Sir Guy Erl of
Warrwyk, blanke [Blake, MS O] hounde of Arderne. And also he callede e noble Erl and
gentil, Thomas of Lancastre, Cherl, and meny othere shames and scorn ham saide & by meny
oere grete lordes of Engeland, wherefore ai were towards him ful angri and sore annoiede;
The Brut, or The Chronicles of England, ed. F. W. D. Brie, EETS OS 131, 136, 2 vols. (London,
190608), I, 2067. Other sources are cited in Haines, King Edward II, p. 395 n. 151.
Hamilton, Gaveston, Piers, p. 2; Chaplais, Piers Gaveston, pp. 109ff. The Vita Edwardi Secundi
notes that the earls who killed Gaveston Occiderunt enim magnum comitem quem rex adopatuerat in fratrem, quem rex dilexit ut filium, quem rex habuit in socium et amicum (They put to
death a great earl, whom the king had adopted as a brother, whom the king cherished as a son,
whom the king regarded as a companion and friend); Vita, ed. and trans. Childs, pp. 5051.

83

MICHAEL TWOMEY

downfall came in 1308 after the Boulogne declaration (January, 1308)

expressing baronial dissatisfaction with Edwards and Gavestons outrageous conduct. At his coronation, for example, Edward had allowed Gaveston to walk before him and wear the crown of the Anglo-Saxon king
Edward the Confessor. Parliament called for Gavestons exile in April,
1308; in June, Gaveston left England under penalty of excommunication
should he return. Edward was able to have Gaveston recalled from exile
in 1309.50
The final and most dramatic downfall of Gaveston was in 1311, at
the hands of the Ordainers, who were so-called because of their role
in passing the Ordinances of 1311, which accused Gaveston of stealing
the crown jewels. If the Morgan letter is about Piers Gaveston, then his
alleged theft of the jewels, condemnation by the Ordainers, capture, and
execution would be summed up by the clause, Now is Piers without peer
and peers. According to contemporary chronicles, Gaveston stole Edward
Is treasure of jewels the original crown jewels and stashed them at
one of his properties in France. Somehow, when Gaveston was arrested
in 1312, he was said to have the jewels in his possession at his property
in Newcastle. Gaveston maintained that he was merely keeping the jewels
safe, and that he had them with Edwards permission. Lancaster made an
inventory of the jewels upon Gavestons capture. It is very tempting to
think of the jewels mentioned at the end of the Morgan letter diamond,
gold, ruby, and sapphire as an allusion to the jewels that Piers was
accused of stealing. For example, the inventory mentions A gold brooch
with two emeralds, two rubies, four pearls, and a sapphire in the centre;
valued at 160 livres tournois.51 In contemporary Latin documents, Gavestons first name is Petrus, which raises the further possibility that the
precious stones at the end of the Morgan letter are also a punning reference to Gavestons Christian name.
Two Arthurian associations with the theft of the jewels and with Gavestons death may be reflected in the Morgan letter. Some accounts have it
that the jewels taken by Gaveston included gold tables and trestles once
belonging to King Arthur.52 His decapitation, possibly at the instruction
of Guy Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, or Lancaster himself, took place
on 19 June 1312 while Gaveston was in Lancasters custody. The Morgan
letters observation Now is Piers without peer and peers finds an interesting echo in an anonymous chronicle that noted with disapproval that
50
51
52

Hamilton, Gaveston, Piers, pp. 34.

Quoted from Chaplais, Piers Gaveston, p. 91.
And is Piers of Gauaston made so grete maistries, at he went into e Kyngus tresorie in e
Abbay of Westminster, and toke e table of golde, wi e tresteles of e same, and meny oere
riche gewelles at some tyme wer e noble Kyng Arthures: The Brut, ed. Brie, I, 206. Haines,
King Edward II, p. 385 n. 16 also cites Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 174, fol. 123r.
The belief that these items were King Arthurs was repeated in post-medieval histories, e.g. the
anonymous History of the Life and Reign of Edward II (London, 1713), p. 7.

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mORGAN LE FAY, EMPRESS OF THE WILDERNESS

Gaveston was put to death without the benefit of a defence by his peers:
The aforementioned earls of Lancaster and Warwick assumed the power
of the king to themselves, thus slaying the aforementioned Piers without
the justice of law or of peers of the kingdom as previously mentioned.53
Lancaster afterwards styled himself King Arthur, for which he was
mocked by the crowd at his own ignominious and poetically just execution by decapitation on 22 March 1322, when Edward finally got his
revenge.54 One possible explanation for the authors inspiration of using
Morgan le Fay as the voice for his political criticism of Piers Gaveston
is therefore that the author was adopting a stance parallel to Lancasters,
albeit in the persona of Morgan le Fay rather than Arthur himself.
After his death, Gavestons body could not be buried in hallowed
ground because he had died excommunicate. Not until 1314/15 did
Edward secure the body and transfer it to his manor at Langley for burial
in the royal chapel on 2 January.55 The Vita Edwardi Secundi draws a
moral from the fate of Gavestons earthly remains that echoes the Morgan
letters comment about hastily ascending and suddenly descending:
The Dominican Friars, however, gathered up Piers, and, sewing the head
to the body, they carried it to Oxford; but because he was excommunicate
they dared not bury the body in church. Such Pierss end, who, climbing
up too high, Crashed into nothingness from whence he came.56

There is even an astrological event associated with the final downfall of

Piers Gaveston that may help to explain why the Morgan letter was written
at the bottom of lunar tables used for calculating eclipses. According to
the Lanercost Chronicle, shortly after Gavestons execution there occurred
a solar eclipse:
Having surrendered [to Thomas, earl of Lancaster], he was committed to
the custody of Sir Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, who had ever
before been his chief enemy, and about the feast of the nativity of John the
Baptist [24 June], in the absence of Aymer de Valence, he was beheaded
on the high road near the town of Warwick by command of the Earl of
Lancaster and the Earl of Warwick.
On the third of the nones of July [5 July], on the vigil of the octave of the
Apostles Peter and Paul was a new moon [luna tricesima], and an eclipse of

53

54
55
56

predicti comites de Lancaster. et Warr. in se regiam potestatem assumebant prefatum Petrum

sine legis iudicio aut parum regni sic ut premittitur perimendo: Haines, King Edward II, p. 396
n. 155, from Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Dugdale 12, p. 53, a transcript of folio 50v of a
Stoneleigh Abbey register not known to be extant.
Haines, King Edward II, pp. 141, 269, and 427 n. 363.
See Haines, King Edward II, pp. 86, 94.
Fratres autem Iacobini collegerunt Petrum, et caput corpori consuentes detulerunt illud Oxoniam;
set quia innidatus erat sentencia, non sunt ausi sepelire corpus in ecllesia. Exitus hic Petri qui,
dum conscendit in altum, labitur in nichilum qui fuit ante nichil: Vita, ed. and trans. Childs,
pp. 489. Childs finds no source for the proverb.

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MICHAEL TWOMEY

the sun about the first hour of the day [6 a.m.], and the sun appeared like a
horned moon, which was small at first and then larger, until about the third
hour it recovered its proper and usual size; though sometimes it seemed
green, but sometimes of the colour which it usually has.57

If all of this very suggestive and circumstantial evidence adds up, then
the Morgan letter is the moralistic and satirical product of a professional
scribe who knew, quite possibly at first-hand, the ruinous career of Piers
Gaveston. Like the Draco Normannicus, the Morgan letter uses the legend
of King Arthur to comment on contemporary events. If it indeed refers
to Piers Gaveston, the Morgan letter would have been composed at some
point after Gavestons death and copied onto folios 165v166r of Royal
12.C.ix in the middle of the fourteenth century, going by the approximate
date of the hand. Indeed, most commentary about Gaveston was written
after his demise. All such commentary emphasized his sudden rise, his
arrogance, and his deserved fall. A fifteenth-century poem about him from
Cambridge, Trinity College O.9.38 that parodies the Latin hymn Pange
lingua begins Celebrate, my tongue, the death of Piers who disturbed
England,/ Whom the king in his love placed over all Cornwall./ Hence
in his pride he would be called earl, not Piers. Later it criticizes
Gavestons arrogant belief that he was peerless, a notion found also in the
Morgan letter: He who was unwilling to have an equal (Lat. nulli volens
comparari), clothed in the extreme of pride against his will bends his
neck to the executioner.58 An ex eventu Merlin prophecy known as The
Six Last Kings, existing in eight versions, the first of which was composed
shortly after Gavestons downfall and the second of which was incorporated into the Anglo-Norman and English Brut chronicles, predicts,
And in the time of the aforesaid Goat [i.e., Edward] an eagle will rise
up in Cornwall and will have feathers of gold [a reference to Gavestons
coat of arms], and will come to its end in Saverne [i.e. Gaversiche, the
name reported in other chronicles].59 Into the eighteenth century, literary
and historical writing about the reign of Edward II continued to see an
57

58

59

Redditus autem traditus est in custodia domini Eymeri de Valence, comitis de Penebroke, qui
semper antea inimicus suus fuerat capitalis, et circa festum nativitatis sancti Johannis baptistae
decollatus est ex praecepto comitis Loncastriae et comitis Warwici, in absentia Eymeri de Valence,
in alta via juxta villam Warwici. Tertio autem nonas Julii, scilicet, in vigiliis octavarum apostolorum Petri et Pauli, fuit luna tricesima et eclipsis solis circa primam horam diei, et apparuit sol
quasi luna cornuta, quae primo fuit parva, postea major, donec circa tertiam horam diei perveniret
ad debitam et solitam quantitatem; apparuit autem aliquando viridis aliquando vero caloris quem
solebat habere: Chronicon de Lanercost, ed. Stevenson, pp. 21819. English translation from
Maxwell, Chronicle of Lanercost, p. 198.
Pange lingua necem Petri qui turbavit Angliam,/ Quem rex amans super omnem praetulit Cornubiam;/ Vult hinc comes, et non Petrus, dici per superbiam (lines 13); Nulli volens comparari,
summon fastu praeditus, Se nolente subdit collum passion deditus: The Political Songs of
England, ed. and trans. Thomas Wright, with a new introduction by P. Coss (Cambridge, 1996),
pp. 25961 (pp. 25960). Hymns titled Pange lingua were written in the same metre by Venantius Fortunatus and by Thomas Aquinas.
See T. M. Smallwood, The Prophecy of the Six Kings, Speculum 60 (1985), 57192 (p. 575).

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mORGAN LE FAY, EMPRESS OF THE WILDERNESS

exemplum of arrogance in Gaveston.60 By sounding a warning about pride

going before a fall, the Morgan letter, written perhaps by a chancery clerk
or by a secretary to one of the Ordainers, draws Piers Gaveston as Piers
the Fierce out of his immediate historical circumstances into the timeless
world of proverbial truth, a truth pronounced by Morgan le Fay, empress
of the wilderness, from her jewelled stronghold, in Avalon.61
APPENDIX I
Opening and Closing Formulas in
Fourteenth-Century British Royal Documents
Great seal writ of certiorari of Edward II, Westminster, 6 May 1309:
Edwardus dei gracia Rex Anglie Dominus Hibernie et Dux Aquitannie dilecto
et fideli suo Hugoni de Neyuile salutem apud Westm .vj. die Maij . anno .
regni . nostri . secundo.
(Edward by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Aquitaine, to his beloved and faithful Hugh Neville At Westminster, the 6th of May,
in our second regnal year.)
Source
Chaplais, Pierre, ed., English Royal Documents, King John Henry VI, 1199
1461 (Oxford, 1971).

60

61

The English Couplet Version of the prophecy (c. 137080) identifies the eagle as Gaveston
(Smallwood, pp. 57879).
For example: Michael Drayton, Peirs Gaueston Earle of Cornvval: His Life, Death, and Fortune
(London, 1594; reissued 1595, 1596); Sir Hubert Francis, The Deplorable Life and Death of
Edward the Second, King of England: Together with the Downefall of the Two Vnfortunate
Fauorits, Gauestone and Spencer. Storied in an Excellent Poem (London, 1628; reissued 1631,
1721); Lady Elizabeth Cary, The History of the Life, Reign, and Death of Edward II, King of
England, and Lord of Ireland: With the Rise and Fall of his Great Favourites, Gaveston and
the Spencers (London 1680; reissued 1689, 1808); J. Adamson, The Reigns of King Edward II
and so far of King Edward III as Relates to the Lives and Actions of Piers Gaveston, Hugh de
Spencer, and Roger, Lord Mortimer (London, 1732); The Life and Death of Pierce Gaveston, Earl
of Cornwal; Grand Favorite, and Prime Minister to that Unfortunate Prince, Edward II, King of
England. With Political Remarks, by way of Caution to All Crowned Heads and Evil Ministers.
By a true patriot (London, 1740).
The existence of the Morgan letter is announced in my essay Morgan le Fay at Hautdesert,
in On Arthurian Women: Essays in Memory of Maureen Fries, ed. B. Wheeler and F. Tolhurst
(Dallas, 2001), pp. 10319. In addition, I have presented earlier versions of the present argument
at the 20th International Congress of the International Arthurian Society (Bangor, Wales, July
2002); Cornell University (March 2004); the Medieval Symposium of the International Association of University Professors of English (Vancouver, August 2004); the University of Leeds
(March 2005); and Ithaca College (March 2006). Besides those acknowledged in notes above,
I wish to thank Catherine Batt (University of Leeds and Fordham University), Andrew Wawn
(University of Leeds), Linda Gowans (independent scholar), and the Ithaca College Medieval and
Renaissance Colloquium, especially Wendy Hyman, Daniel Breen, and Stephen Clancy, for their
suggestions.

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MICHAEL TWOMEY

APPENDIX II
Sententiae in MS Royal 12.C.ix
1. Morgan letter line 5, celi ceo pert a pers que son temps ne volt atendre:
Morawski 1248 / Singer warten 2.1.7 / Singer eile 3.14.141
Meauz vaut bons atendre que folement enchaucier/ Mieux vault bien attendre
que folement eschanger/ Meulz valt un (sic) bon atente que malveis
(=malveise) haste.
(It is better to await a good (or goods) than to chase after it (or them) foolishly/
It is better to wait well than to foolishly exchange/ It is better to have a good that
has been awaited than an evil that has been obtained hastily.)
Content: cf. text 5: celi ceo pert a pers que son temps ne volt atendre.
Structure: cf. text 8: mult melz valt fortune atendre que hastiuement ramper e
sodeynement dessendre.
(Morawski 1248 is from Paris, BnF lat. 18184 (s. xiiiex.xivin.), fol. 143v; Walther
23768 is from Vienna 4201 (s. xv), fol. 8vb .)
2. Morgan letter line 8, mult melz valt fortune atendre que hastiuement
ramper e sodeynement dessendre:
Walther 23768
Quem rota fortuna violenter tollit in altum
Temporibus lune grandem dat ad infima saltum.
(The person whom the wheel of fortune violently raises on high
Makes a big leap down on account of the phases (lit. times) of the moon.)
Hassell F 123
Fortune fait monter ceuls dem bas en haut et ceulz den haut fait desmonter.
(Fortune makes those from below to climb on high and makes those on high to
fall down.)
Walther 4798
Cursus fortune variatur in ordine lune.
(The course of fortune varies according to the moon.)

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mORGAN LE FAY, EMPRESS OF THE WILDERNESS

Walther 7874
Est rota fortuna rota mobilis ut rota lune:
Crescit, decrescit, in eodem sistere nescit.
(The wheel of fortune is as changeable as the wheel (i.e, phases) of the moon:
It waxes, it wanes, it is unable to remain the same.]
(cf. Walther 14070 Ludus fortune variatur imagine lune/ Crescit, etc.; Walther
15320a Motus fortune variatur imagine lune; Walther 27769 Se rotat in medio
fortune luna/ Recrescit, etc.; Walther 34264 Vultus fortune variatur imagine lune/
Crescit, etc.)
3. Royal 12.C.ix, fol. 178v:
Gloria mundana non est nisi visio vana;
Ut rosa verna cadit sic mundi gloria vadit.
(Earthly glory is but a vain imagining;
As the spring rose falls, thus the glory of the world passes.)
(Line 1: Walther 10326, many similar; line 2: cf. Walther 32450 Ut rosa pallescit
cum solem sentit adesse/ Sic homo vanescit; nunc est, nunc desinit esse.)
Sources
Hassell, James Woodrow, Jr., Middle French Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial
Phrases (Toronto, 1982).
Morawski, Joseph, ed., Proverbes franais antrieurs au XVe sicle (Paris,
1925).
Singer, Samuel, and Kuratorium Singer der Schweizerischen Akademie der
Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften, Thesaurus Proverbiorum Medii Aevi/
Lexikon der Sprichwrter des romanisch-germanischen Mittelalters,14 vols.
(Berlin and New York, 19952002).
Walter, Hans, ed., Proverbia Sententiaeque Latinitatis Medii Aevi / Lateinische
Sprichwrter und Sentenzen des Mittelalters in alphabetischer Ordnung,
Carmina Medii Aevi Posterioris Latina II/16 (Gttingen, 196369). Vols. 79
ed. Paul Gerhard Schmidt from Walthers Nachlass as ac Recentiores Aevi
/ und der frhen Neuzeit (Gttingen, 198386).

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MICHAEL TWOMEY

APPENDIX III
Belshazzars Letter
(National Library of Wales, Brogyntyn II.1 [c. 146070],
fols. 193v4v)
Balteser, be the grace of Mahounde, son of e kynge of Sarsyn of Clefery
[Caliphate; cf. OED caliphate], dyssendynge of e of e kynge profet, Ihesu
of Nazarethe, provoste of Iereco and of paradys terrestre, neve of e gret Gode,
Kynge of kyngys, Prynce of prynsys, soudan of Babylon, governor of porrey
[country] of Calde, rex of Ierusalem and of all Barbar, gret cane of Surrey,
pryncypall of Turkys and norence [beginning of word blotted with ink], lorde
of all e londe of Iuis, conqueror of all roalmes, also conqueror conquerynge al
e large ryt Cryst to conquer all of Lattayn tounge callyng em Crystyndom,
lorde of Italy and of Venysyann, master of Antyporttys, warden of Romeyn and
of e ilys of e see, master abbas and commander of Tempull, lers [probably
fers] breker of helmes and of harmes and of lanncces, cleyn dystryer of castellis,
cetteis and tourris and of tounnis to hem beynge conterarr, lorde of armis, erle
of largnus [perh. largeness], sleyer of Crystyn men, of Sarysons champyon,
and protecter all o at beleve on Cryst mahe [maw?], lorde of all e worde
[world?], to e Duke of Borgeyn sendy[] wryttynge, us sayinge: we woll
understonde at we have verry knowlage for trewe at ou art agaynst us;
wherfor we wolle and warne e at ou sese thy mallys purpo[s?] agaynste us
hade, or ellys we sertyfy e at we woll our oune person witt all our oer remmys
and porvyaunce com to thy sayde londe and do smyt of i hed witt in i best cetty
or toun beynge under i obeysaunce befor all e lordes and barronns of i sayde
londe or at hit be e first day of May next coImmynge or son uppon. Wryttyn
in our cetty last conquest callyde Costantyn e nobull in precens of xlvj kyngys
under our obeysyence.
Source
Raymo, Robert R., A New Satirical Proclamation, Modern Language Notes 71
(1956), 24344.

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mORGAN LE FAY, EMPRESS OF THE WILDERNESS

APPENDIX IV
Rhetorical Analysis
Puns
guuernere helmsman / governor 2.
Pomelyn little apple / little pommel 2.
per-/ per / pers perilous / Piers / peer; blue (i.e., perse) hence bruised?
/ stone?: perilos 3, perys le fers 3, per a pers 3, peris 4, tus ses pers 4, per e pers 4,
pert a pers 5.
volt will / vols flights / voler fly, will: volt 5, a voler 6, vols 7, a voler
7; cf. vodra 7.
Alliterative groups
per a pers 3, per e pers 4, pert a pers 5, vols a voler sanz a valer 7, rue de
Rubie 10.
guuernere grandmer gardeyn 23.
Pomelyn poynt perlios 23.
Assonating groups
perys fers 3, Lores ore 34, peut pert 45, aprendre atendre
prendre Rendre atendre dessendre 5789.
Balanced coordinated constructions
quant when lores then ore now ore now: quant perys Lores
oblia pers ore est pers ore la reyson Rendre 3, 34, 78.
Syntactical parallelism
[From] name + title a + name + title: Morgayne, etc. A nostre Real
bacheler Pomelyn, etc. 1,3.
title + de + location: emperisse de desert 1, Reine de puceles 1, dame des illes
1, guuernere des undes 2, gardeyn de point perilos 3.
volt / valt + atendre: ne volt atendre valt fortune atendre 5, 8; cf. vodra
prendre 7.
pronoun ceo he + auxiliary + -er infinitive expressing motion: ceo comense
a voler ceo peyne a despleicer 6.
adverb expressing kind of motion + verb expressing up/down motion: hastiuement ramper e sodeynement dessendre 89.
preposition + place + de + precious stone/metal: a nostre chastel de dyamant
9, en la Roche door 910, sur la rue de Rubie 10, en coste la preirie de Saphir
1011.

91