Tag: medieval literacy

What caused the shift from the early medieval court where noble literacy was nonexistent or merely functional and scorned as the arena of clerks, to the post-Renaissance courts of rulers such as Elizabeth I, where courtiers and powerful nobles were praised for their poetry and song-writing?

Largely it had to do with administration and law. Taking England for an example, we see a major change between the reigns of Henry I (named “Beauclerc” because he was actually literate) and Henry II. (I.E, between 1100-1189)

Henry I either created the Exchequer or massively reformed it, so that you now had an audtiting system whereby the Exchequer sent written summons to the sheriffs and other royal officials, requiring them to send accounts for their shire as to tax collection, incomes from royal lands, etc. Now, if you want to be a Sheriff of your shire (which is kind of big deal for your local nobility), or you’re a taxpayer, or you rent land from the king or owe the king money, you need to be able to read when the tax man starts writing to you…

Henry II’s legal reforms massively expanded the system of bailiffs, sheriffs, justices, and courts, all of whom had to send written reports, read royal writs and warrants, and keep written records. Now if you want to get a judicial office (which is also super-important for your local nobility), or if you need to go to court over a land dispute, or if you get sued by somebody, you need to be able to read. 

It also helped that following the killing of Thomas Becket, Henry II agreed to the Compromise of Avranches, which allowed people to claim “benefit of clergy” and be tried by the more lenient ecclasiastical courts, but only if you could prove your literacy by reading Psalm 51.

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The net result of these changes was that reading became a lot more important – now reading is no longer the province of clerks and other servants (although yes, the clergy had always had a much stronger impetus to be literate, so younger sons of the nobility would be more likely to be literate, etc.) but the path to royal favor and political prominance. 

It also helps that in a medieval society, the monarch is a very strong influence on fashion, extending from their person to their court and from their court to everyone who would really like to be part of the court. So when the Kings of England began to be literate starting with Henry Beauclerc, you can’t really get away with saying that reading is for nerds, because that’s lese majeste.

Now, this kicks even more with the Renaissance, where the cultural ideals shift. Now it’s not enough to be a knight holding up the best ideals of chivalry and courtly love, if you want to be fashionable, you need to fit Castiglione’s ideal of the courtier – which literally wrote the book on how to be a “Renaissance Man.” In addition to being athletic and a good soldier, you also had to be genteel in your manners, have a good voice, show good comportment, to be trained in the humanities, classics, and fine arts, and in all of these things, to do them with sprezzatura – i.e, with “nonchelance,” “careful negligence” and “effortlessness and ease.”

In other words, Castilgione invented the idea of being cool.

I missed asking about this when the Dany V essay came out, but how extraordinary is it that Ser Barristan speaks High Valyrian fluently (or for that matter, that he is passable in Ghiscari)? How common was it in the Middle Ages for knights like Ser Barristan to speak a second language like Latin or a third language?

Well, historical parallels are tripping us up here because in the Middle Ages, you were only considered literate if you knew Latin. Being able to read and write in your native language didn’t count. 

The extent to which the lesser nobility learned Latin is a matter of historical debate. Certainly, we know that it was considered unusual and notable that Henry I could read Latin instead of relying on his clerks (hence why his nickname was Henry Beauclerc, or Henry the Good Scholar), but from King John’s reign (1199-1216) onward, royals were routinely educated in Latin. And as Harvey Graff argues, “the example set by the kings inevitably gave the baronage and gentry a motivation to learn some Latin, both to avoid looking foolish at court…and to have sufficient understanding of the written demands” of their king.

How far down that penetrated is hard to say, because evidence is difficult to find. For example, how do we know that documents in Latin from various knights were written by the knights and not by clerks they employed? Best guess is that your average knight knew enough Latin to do their jobs.

As for Ser Barristan, it certainly is a mark of distinction that he can speak so many languages. On the other hand, Ser Barristan was not your average knight – he was born the heir of House Selmy, a principal House of the Stormlands, he served in the Disputed Lands where most of his enemies would have been speaking some form of Valyrian, and he served in the Kingsguard which means spending time in the royal court. So he’s more likely to know a second language than most.

But a lesser landed knight who didn’t rate having a maester in their household? There’s a good chance they’re not functionally literate in the Common Tongue, let alone in Valyrian.