Christine de Pizan, Part 2 of 3

This series is an academic article that I wrote on the life of Christine de Pizan, an extraordinary woman of the medieval era. This is part 2. Part 1 is here.

Christine married Etienne de Castel, a son of a court official, in 1380.[1] It was a love match. Then things took a turn for Christine and her family. Charles V died and the crown’s close association with the academic world came to a close.[2] Tommaso became embroiled in a controversial cure that he had prescribed that “went awry.”[3] This caused the de Pizan family’s economic situation to deteriorate. Tommaso died in 1387.[4] Then in 1390, Christine’s husband died in an epidemic.[5] Christine became the head of a family with three children (one would die in childhood), a widowed mother, and a niece that was living with them. Furthermore, when she tried to settle the estate of her husband, she was met with deception, dishonesty, and lawsuits trying to strip her of her property.[6] Adding to her grief, money that had been reserved for her children’s future and invested was stolen.[7]To make matters worse, she became very ill, describing it as succumbing “like Job.”[8]

Given that Christine was now the head of her family, in France away from other relatives, without income, she had to create a way to support her household. Christine was still welcome at court and witnessed the frivolity of the court of Queen Isabeau and Louis of Orleans.[9] Here, poetry was one of the “principal social accomplishments”[10] and Christine turned her hand to poetry that reflected the Parisian social scene in its glory and ugliness. She proceeded to write poetry that reflected that scene, the grief she was still experiencing, and fond reminiscing of the reign of Charles V. Slowly, her poetry began to gather attention in the rarefied air of the court. Her fortunes began to turn when she was able to meet the earl of Salisbury in 1398.[11] They formed a bond based on love of poetry and he took her son into his own home to raise him with his own son. Then, in 1397, through Charles VI’s aunt, Marie de Bourbon, she was able to secure a place for her daughter at the Abbey of Poissy.[12]

Christine started writing poetry as early as 1394, but speaks of her literary career starting in 1399 after several years spent on self-education.[13] She studied ancient history, sciences, and the books of poets.[14] When she started studying the poets, she said to herself, “Child, be consoled, for you have found the thing that is your natural aspiration.”[15] She found her place. However, she did not take her early poetry very seriously. Her early poetry consisted of ballades, rondeaus, and the virelay.[16] These were well respected forms during her day. In addition, she started growing her own library of books by copying books in her own hand.[17] Christine also started writing letters purely for literary purposes.[18] She was becoming skilled at poetry, letter writing, and at common rhetorical devices used among the educated and courtly elite. Leaning on Plato’s view of women, Christine wrote in “The Mutation of Fortune,” that her change in status caused her to “become a man.”[19] It is this educated, courtly-adept woman that became a powerful voice for the fair and honorable treatment of women.

Christine’s poetry began to be known beyond the French court by approximately the year 1400.[20] She claims that it was because she was such a novelty—being a woman poet—that her work spread widely and rapidly.[21] However, it was probably because she wrote from her own point-of-view, a widowed woman. Her early poems used the court and its characters for the basis of her stories. She discovered that she had a particular talent for working with words and fitting them into poetic forms.[22] But her most striking skill was in expressing her own emotions and experience via literary devices.[23] The theme of grief and widowhood arises frequently in her writing.