Treason

Larissa Tracy, Ph.D. (2000), Trinity College Dublin, is Professor of Medieval Literature at Longwood University. She has published monographs, edited collections, and several articles on medieval violence including Torture and Brutality in Medieval Literature (D. S. Brewer, 2012).

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsList of IllustrationsAbbreviationsNotes on ContributorsIntroduction: The Shameful Business of Betrayal and TreasonLarissa TracyPart 1: The Politics of Treason1 Wiglaf’s Sword: The Coming of the StateFrank Battaglia2 In Sickness and in Health: the Boethian Narrative of the Two Geralds of BreconSarah J. Sprouse3 Treasonous and Dishonorable Conduct: the Private Dimension of Treason and Chivalric Reform in Late Medieval FlorencePeter Sposato4 Royal Punishment and Reconciliation in Trastámara CastileSamuel A. Claussen5 “A somewhat too cruel vengeance was taken for the blood of the slain”: Royal Punishment of Rebels, Traitors, and Political Enemies in Medieval Scotland, c. 1100–c. 1250Iain A. MacInnesPart 2: Religious Treason and Heresy6 Revolt in Heaven: Lucifer’s Treason in Genesis BDaniel Thomas7 Blessed Betrayal: The Opportunity of Treachery in Anglo-Latin Ecclesiastical TextsSally Shockro8 Legal Ramifications of Ordeals and Treason in Morant und GalieTina Boyer9 Religious Identity, Loyalty, and Treason in the Cycle du RoiAna Grinberg10 Traitors Respond: English Catholic Polemical Strategies against Accusations of Treason at the End of the Sixteenth CenturyFreddy C. DomínguezPart 3: Treasonous Love: Adultery and Shame11 Treason and Deception in Late Medieval German Romances and Novels Königin Sibille, Melusine, and MalagisAlbrecht Classen12 Treacherous Women at King Arthur’s Court: Punishment and ShameInna Matyushina13 Treason and the Feast in Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte DarthurMelissa Ridley Elmes14 ‘Tis Fearful Sleeping in a Serpent’s Bed’: Arden of Favershamand the Threat of the Petty TraitorDianne Berg15 The Spatial Configuration of Shame in La Princesse de ClèvesSusan SmallConclusion: the Shame Game, from Guinevere to Cersei: Adultery, Treason, and BetrayalLarissa TracySelect BibliographyIndex

'Tracy’s volume offers a great deal to those interested in the workings of treason (and loyalty) in the medieval and early modern periods, not least for anyone interested in German and French literature and history, as well as in religious forms. I have left discussion of other fine chapters outdue to constraints of space, but let those mentioned here recommend the others, as well. Tracy is right that an understanding of the history of treason is useful to thinking about the uses and abuses of accusations of treason today. The chapters assembled in this collection testify to theenduring struggle with how treason was defined, punished, used in the interest of the state, and sometimes deployed as a legitimate form of rebellion against the tyrant.' Cristina León Alfar, in Journal of British Studies 59.4, October 2020.