Remembering Kings Past: Monastic Foundation Legends in Medieval Southern France

by Amy G. Remensnyder

The rich legends spun between 1000 and 1250 and by the monks of southwestern France to explain the origins of their communities are the subject of this provocative study. Amy G. Remensnyder explores the monastic foundation legends in all their variety - including forged charters, hagiographic texts, chansons de geste, architecture, and sculpture - to show how such imaginative rememberings of the past worked to affirm the liberty and identity of the abbeys in the present. At the center of the legends stand three kings whom the monks favored as Clovis, Pippin the Short, and, above all, Charlemagne. Remensnyder reveals the many implications of this legendary affection for kings, a startling predilection on the part of monks living in a region where actual rulers hardly ventured during the period.

355 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996