Part 4: April & May Pages
In stark contrast to the February and March pages, this page focuses on courtly life once again. It depicts a couple in the middle of a formal betrothal of marriage, capturing the noblewoman in the middle of placing the betrothal ring on the nobleman’s hand. They are surrounded by courtiers and ladies-in-waiting. The primary motivation behind marriage in the Middle Ages, particularly among the nobility, was not love: it was a political tool. With marriage came the union of families. The higher one’s status, the more goodies there were to unify under the ownership of one family. For aristocrats, marriage was a way to form alliances, to broker peace, and to enlarge already powerful estates. The April page suddenly seems less romantic when observed in that light. But this doesn’t mean love didn’t exist! Courtly love was very popular in medieval literature, emphasizing the chivalry of the man committing acts of bravery for the woman he loves. Extra-marital relations were also not uncommon *wink wink*.
The group is situated in the middle of a well-manicured meadow just outside of a walled garden. The walled garden is located at some distance from the Château de Dourdon in the background. A dam slows the flow of the River Orge between the two spaces, creating a pond; two figures can be seen enjoying fishing from rowboats. Although there is a village abutting the castle, the presence of a walled garden and secondary residence (note the building with lozenge windows on the right edge of the image) underscores the presence of the nobility; all the space between the buildings belonged to the noble family who owned the castle and secondary residence.
The May page depicts the festivities of May Day, which celebrated the coming of spring. It features the same couple from the April page in the center, this time both mounted on horseback and surrounded by courtiers and ladies-in-waiting. Musicians play enthusiastically on the left side of the page. Lap dogs play in the foreground. In the background is a forest and behind that, the palace of Île de la Cité, which was the medieval heart of Paris. In both images, the figures don the highest fashions of the period and in vibrant colors. Clothing for the elite was not meant to be utilitarian. If you notice, the peasants wear simple tunics, which allow for greater movement and comfort while performing heavy manual labor. The aristocratic figures are swathed in elaborate robes made from expensive textiles with elaborate patterns (either embroidered or woven). Their foot coverings are delicate, which they would not be able to wear were they employed in the field of agriculture (pun intended) without ruining them. The clothing worn by this elite group is very explicit in stating their high status.
Both these pages are reflective of the pastimes enjoyed by medieval aristocracy. The Medieval walled garden, as depicted in the April page, was a space of leisure for the nobility where they enjoyed (manmade) nature and entertained one another with dancing, poetry, and music. These were part of an aristocrat’s formal education and are reflected of the sharp divide between their world and that of the peasants who served underneath them. The May page also exhibits this divide through horsemanship and the frivolity of leisure time. The forest behind them would have been the scene of hunting parties and was part of an aristocrat’s landholdings; peasants had very little control over how land was managed outside of the confines of their agricultural strips of rented land. The leisurely rituals and celebrations enjoyed by the nobility in this pages stand in stark contrast to the labor performed by the peasantry, as demonstrated in the next page.
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