The Return of Martin Guerre

Bertrande de Rols was the wife of Martin Guerre. She grew up in her family home, learning the ways of women, much like any other peasant girl in the Languedoc region during the sixteenth century. Like Martin, Bertrande was young when they married, and she had likely just experienced the onset of puberty when her family decided that she should marry Martin. She too must have suffered from the humiliation of Martin’s impotence, but she also benefited in some ways as she was able to live as a virginal girl for eight years longer than she expected. This extended childhood may explain why she stubbornly resisted her family’s advice to leave Martin, but she may just have been a woman with a strong mind of her own, or a woman with a powerful sense of honor, or some combination of all three.

When Martin finally became able to consummate their marriage, Bertrande quickly became pregnant and had a son. After Martin left her and their baby, she had to move back in with her mother, who had married Martin’s uncle, Pierre, which sheds light on her easy acceptance of the imposter husband. She may have clashed with the strongminded Pierre, and so when a charming version of her husband returned to her with words of love and regret, she may have found it easy to overlook the fact that the new Martin was not actually the real Martin. In Coras’s report of the trial, Bertrande is presented as a victim both of abandonment by the true Martin and a victim of fraud and betrayal by the new Martin; however, in Davis’s book, she is presented as an accomplice in the fraud who is justified in her actions as they brought her agency, fulfillment, and greater happiness. This version of Bertrande is a feminist’s heroine, a woman who challenged the patriarchy with impunity.

Also known as Pansette, Arnaud du Tilh was from Lombez, a place full of lively economic exchange. He grew up with brothers, and though he was not physically impressive, Arnaud had a remarkable memory and a gift for language. Arnaud was a playful character with a reputation for excess, and he had few scruples to prevent him from pursuing pleasure and vice. All of this infamy inspired his nickname of Pansette, “the belly.” Arnaud seemed to find the typical peasant existence unsatisfactory, and his restlessness may have led him to become a solider. His decision to leave Lombez may also have had something to do with getting caught for a few petty thefts.

Arnaud’s bold nature and appetite for bending and breaking rules likely contributed to his decision to take advantage of Martin Guerre’s disappearance. When two friends of Martin’s encountered Arnaud while passing through the village of Mane, they mistook Arnaud for Martin, and clever Arnaud may have experienced a revelation: here was an opportunity for a theft like no other. Arnaud soon arrived at Artigat with his confidence and his new identity as Martin Guerre, having thoroughly prepared beforehand. He somehow learned enough about Martin Guerre’s life in Artigat to convince Martin’s wife and family that he was actually Martin. Once he was accepted, he cleverly collected and stored in his prodigious memory every detail that he later used while he was on trial for fraud. For three years, Arnaud enjoyed a wife, a comfortable home, and a family and role and earnings, until he was caught, tried, and eventually punished and executed for his crime.

Pierre Guerre, previously known in his Basque homeland as Betrisantz, or Petri Daguerre, was the uncle of Martin Guerre, who traveled with Sanxi Daguerre to Artigat in 1527. After Martin abandoned Bertrande, Pierre had married Bertrande de Rols’s mother, in order to improve the relationship between the Guerres and the Rols, which was suffering as a result of Martin’s desertion of hiswife and newborn child. Pierre ran the household into which Bertrande and baby Sanxi moved back when Martin left them, the same household that housed Bertrande and her children when the new Martin was later jailed after only three years together.

Pierre is unsure of the new Martin from the start, and his suspicions are revived when the new Martin seeks to profit from the sales of the family land. Pierre is characterized as greedy and opportunistic, even though he likely begrudges the new Martin’s business plans because they violate Basque tradition, and Pierre is dishonest himself, while suspecting others of dishonesty. Pierre’s hypocrisy is revealed when he lies in order to catch Arnaud in his lies. Pierre may be understood as rather corrupt himself, or, in contrast, Pierre’s actions could be defended; perhaps he only wanted to protect his family, his brother’s memory, and the rightful heirs of his nephew, Martin. Pierre may have thought he was doing what he needed to do to catch a thief and bring the fraud to light. And of course, it ended up that he was right.

Born about 1515, in Realmont, Jean de Coras was “a native of the region, distinguished doctor of laws, author of Latin commentaries on the civil and canon law and humanist” (4). A child prodigy, Coras studied law and became a gifted lecturer and a popular writer. Coras eventually married, and when he lost his first wife, he married again. Surviving letters prove that Coras loved his second wife dearly.

Coras was a respected judge, and during the trial in Toulouse, Coras was assigned the responsibility of recorder. His observations and his documentation of facts, quotes and events related to the trial of Arnaud du Tilh provide the basis for The Return of Martin Guerre; however, Davis suggests that Coras’s work,Arrest Memorable, is not entirely reliable. She claims that Coras exaggerated in places and omitted critical details in others, which has given her the space to fill in the blanks herself. As well, Coras represents Bertrande as a victim of fraud, while Davis believes Bertrande was a willing accomplice to Arnaud du Tilh’s fraud.

Coras died, lynched by a Catholic mob, for his defense of Protestantism in 1572.

Not much is known about Guillaume Le Sueur, who wrote Admiranda Historia, or Histoire admirable, another account of the trial of Arnaud du Tilh. He was a legal scholar whose writings about the trial exist in both Latin and the French vernacular; Le Sueur’s work spread throughout the land as a piece of interesting news writing, and Davis credits the popularity of his account as the reason behind the legendary status of the story of Martin Guerre.