New Day, Same Problems

Both Custance from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Constance from BBC’s Man of Law’s Tale face many of the issues common among other medieval women. They are married off to a man they don’t know, they become mothers in need of being saved, and they must deal with their evil mother-in-laws, but in the end love conquers all.

In Chaucer’s original tale, Custance is married off to a Muslim Sultan by her father, the emperor of Rome only to have her new husband killed by his own mother who is angry because her son converted to Christianity. The mother then sends Custance adrift in a boat with no rudder. Poor Custance floats around for years before she comes ashore in Northumberland. She is given shelter by a constable and his wife Hermengyld. Shortly after the knight comes to kill Hermengyld and frame Custance. When the Constable returns with Alla, the investigate the murder and accuse the knight who is struck dead. Soon after Custance and Alla marry. Custance goes through many more hard times including Alla’s mother sending a fake letter from Alla saying that Custance and their unborn son Mauricius are banished. Eventually things work out: Alla kills his mother and returns to Rome to meet Custance, they move back to England and Alla dies, and Custance returns to Rome to be with her father and her son eventually becomes the next emperor of Rome.

Though Custance and Constance have different starts, they both arrive in England scared, afraid, and without anyone to turn to. Both young women find themselves in a constant state of needing to be rescued; a perpetual damsel in distress. Each time things start to turn up, someone else comes in and wrecks their lives. When they find a nurturing mother figure (Hermengyld/Nicky) she is soon killed. In Constance’s case, Nicky is killed by Terry, an obsessed young man who is trying to rape Constance. In both cases our young protagonist is rescued by a young man who has good intentions, but their efforts are both foiled by their own mothers who are not in favor of the relationships.

The tales have two slightly different endings. Custance loses her husband, but ends back up with her father so that her son might continue in his grandfather’s footsteps as emperor of Rome while Constance’s story ends when she reunites with her husband in Africa. However, in each case we are still left with the message that love, specifically that between a man and a women, is the ultimate goal.