The Cornerstone by Zoé Oldenbourg

First published:La Pierre Angulaire, 1953 (English translation, 1955)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Historical

Time of plot: Early thirteenth century

Locale: France and the Holy Land

Principal characters

• Ansiau, the old lord of Linnières and a pilgrim to the Holy Land
• Lady Alis, his wife
• Herbert le Gros, Ansiau’s son and heir
• Dame Aelis, his wife
• Haguenier of Linnières, Herbert’s oldest son
• Eglantine, Herbert’s half sister and lover
• Ernaut, Herbert’s bastard son
• Lady Marie de Mongenost, the object of Haguenier’s chivalric love
• Auberi, Ansiau’s young squire
• Riquet, a renegade monk and Ansiau’s traveling companion
• Gaucelm of Castans, called Bertrand, another traveling companion

The Story:

Ansiau, an old crusader, leaves his fief in Champagne and his family to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The half-blind lord hopes that at the grave of his eldest son and in the holy city of Jerusalem, he will find release from his grief. He is given a twelve-year-old boy, Auberi, as his squire.

The new lord of Linnières is another son, the licentious and unscrupulous Herbert le Gros. Herbert’s mother, the Lady Alis, so disapproves of his behavior that she refuses to live with him. She moves to a farmhouse, along with her husband’s illegitimate daughter Eglantine, who is having a clandestine affair with her half brother.

Herbert sends to Normandy for his son Haguenier, who for years was training to be a knight. On his way home, Haguenier meets the beautiful, bored Lady Marie of Mongenost and swears allegiance to her, hoping that devotion will propel her into his arms.

After ten years of absence, Haguenier feels like a stranger in his own home. However, he soon finds friends, including his brother Ernaut, who was refused the hand of a cousin’s daughter because of his illegitimate birth. Ernaut is threatening to kill himself. Herbert decides to send Ernaut for a papal document that might help his case. Meanwhile, Herbert proceeds with his other plans. Haguenier and his two illegitimate brothers are knighted, and Haguenier is married to a wealthy, older widow. After Haguenier makes a poor showing in a tournament, Herbert sends him to prove himself in the crusade against the Albigensians.

On the road to Marseilles, Ansiau is joined by a lighthearted runaway monk, Riquet, and by Bertrand, or Gaucelm of Castans, who, because of his wife’s Albigensian enthusiasm, was blinded as punishment for heresy. Riquet leaves the party to remain with a village girl, and the other three proceed through the war-ravaged countryside. At Pamiers, Bertrand is reunited with his son but finds him determined to die for his new faith. In despair, Bertrand departs.

Fearful of his mother and, to a lesser degree, of damnation, Herbert breaks off his affair with his half sister. Eglantine aborts their child and, bent on destroying Herbert, haunts the forest, experimenting with witchcraft.

After distinguishing himself in battle, Haguenier becomes ill and has to abandon the crusade. His wife produces a beautiful little girl. Haguenier is captivated, but because the child is not a male to carry on the line, Herbert is furious. Despite Haguenier’s objections, Herbert has the marriage annulled. However, Haguenier says that unless Marie becomes available, he will not marry again. Marie continues to test her lover, pushing him into a battle with a rival, which Haguenier loses, then insisting that he fight in a tournament using only a mirror for a shield. Amazingly, he survives and triumphs over four knights. By now, Haguenier is the complete chivalric lover. To show his devotion to Marie, he even forswears physical love.

One disaster after another comes upon Herbert and those associated with him. Ernaut is heartbroken when, despite the papal document, he is once again rejected and the girl he loves is betrothed to another man. Haguenier tries desperately to get his half brother through this crisis, but, when the marriage takes place, Ernaut hangs himself, just as he threatened to do.

Discovering his affair with Eglantine, the Lady Alis disowns Herbert and places a curse upon him. Then comes a bitter drought. When rain falls everywhere except on Herbert’s lands, the peasants blame Eglantine’s witchcraft. A mob sweeps down upon Lady Alis’s farmhouse, injuring her and killing Eglantine. Convinced that his mother’s curse is working, Herbert confesses his many sins to a priest and is given a number of penances. Herbert does make a fairly short pilgrimage. However, he hires someone else to go to the Holy Land in his place.

In Marseilles, Ansiau and his two friends are delighted to have Riquet rejoin them. The monk promptly begins making money to pay their way to the Holy Land and turning it over to Ansiau for safekeeping. When Ansiau is robbed, Riquet begins all over again. In desperation, he goes into a church to pray. While he is there, a woman leaves a necklace of precious stones at the shrine of Saint Mary Magdalene. Assuming that his prayer is answered, Riquet takes the necklace, sells it, and procures passages to the Holy Land for his friends and himself.

In Acre at last, Ansiau searches for his son’s grave without success. He decides to continue on his way to Jerusalem. Unfortunately, Bertrand is now too ill to walk but, fearful of remaining behind alone. Ansiau and Riquet decide to take turns carrying him. The four leave Acre with a large convoy, accompanied by armed men. However, a band of Muslim warriors sweeps down from the hills, kills the guards, and takes the rest captive. Young, strong men such as Riquet are sent to be sold as slaves. Those not of much use, such as Bertrand, are marched until they die of exhaustion. In fact, Bertrand chooses to die; he leaves the line of prisoners and is decapitated. Seeing that Ansiau, though blind, still has considerable physical power, the Muslims set him to work turning a mill. Because they believe that Auberi is Ansiau’s son, they permit the boy to remain with the old man.

While Herbert is away, his wife Aelis is so indiscreet that Haguenier is forced into a duel with her lover. On his return, when Herbert learns about the scandal, he begins beating his wife. Chivalrously, Haguenier goes to her defense. In the ensuing scuffle, Herbert’s back is broken. During the days that follow, Herbert forgives his son, and the Lady Alis, regretting her curse upon him, forgives Herbert. On his deathbed, Herbert asks Haguenier to marry off his one-year-old daughter and turn over the family estates to her husband. Haguenier, he says, should enter a monastery. Haguenier obeys his father’s wishes and becomes Brother Ernaut. When his wife dies, Haguenier has his daughter sent to Marie to be reared.

In the Holy Land, Ansiau persuades the faithful Auberi to make his escape, and, eventually, the boy finds his way to a group of Christian pilgrims. Among the Muslims, Ansiau gains the reputation of being a holy man and a healer. He dies on a hill above Jerusalem.

Bibliography

Ames, Alfred C. “Mounting Power in Rare Novel.” Chicago Sunday Tribune, January 9, 1955. Praises the author for her “proud lack of compromise” in treating a complicated subject. Even though the characters’ way of life and modes of thought may be foreign to readers, they all come to life in this book and become objects of concern.

Christensen, Peter G. “Zoë Oldenbourg, the Albigensian Crusade, and Terrorist Repression.” In Correspondences: Medievalism in Scholarship and the Arts, edited by Tom Shippey and Martin Arnold. Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 2005. Focuses on Oldenbourg’s writings about the Albigensian Crusade, including two of her other novels, Les Brûles (1960; Destiny of Fire, 1961) and Les Citës charnelles (1961; Cities of the Flesh, 1963). Mentions her other works about the Middle Ages, including The Cornerstone.

Janeway, Elizabeth. “Courage and Faith in a Distracted Age.” The New York Times Book Review, January 9, 1955. States that Oldenbourg’s theme is the triumph of “courage and faith” in a period of conflict, violence, and rapid change. Although she reveals the worst side of Christianity, as well as the best, the author sees religion as the only sound basis for existence.

“Medieval Tapestry.” Time, January 10, 1955. States that the novel is “artfully written.” The accounts of vicious behavior and brutality are justified by Oldenbourg’s intention to present a “huge and intricate tapestry” that shows clearly what life was like in the thirteenth century.

Pick, Robert. “Eros in a Wimple.” Saturday Review 38 (January 8, 1955): 10. Argues that The Cornerstone is the first modern novel to re-create the world of chivalric love in all its subtlety and its innocent blasphemy. Additionally, the characters symbolize historical change; Herbert is a man of the Middle Ages, and the son who kills him is a Renaissance humanist.

Raymond, John. Review of The Cornerstone, by Zoé Oldenbourg. New Statesman and Nation, December 4, 1954. Raymond argues that by blending historical events with her characters’ very human reactions to them, Oldenbourg produced a “great historical novel.” The three major figures—Crusader, son, and grandson—are seen not merely as individuals but also as representatives of an era.