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| Sunday, 3 April 2005 |
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The trial of Martin Guerre by Lionel Wijesiri
The story of Martin Guerre, a sixteenth-century French Basque peasant, is one of the most compelling stories to come down to us from the distant past. It has inspired a play, two novels, an operetta, and two movies. Martin Guerre was a prosperous peasant from a village called Artigat, in Southwest France. In 1538 at about the age of 14, he was married to Bertrande de Rols who was even younger. In 1548, after ten years of marriage Bertrande finally conceived their first child. By this time Martin was beginning to hate Artigat. He was tired of the old routines of peasant life, the confines of fields of crops, property, and marriage. He began to think of excuses to leave Artigat. Six months after the birth of his son, Martin fled Artigat. He went to Spain and became a soldier in the army of France's enemy, Spain. He saw action in a Spanish siege on the city of Saint-Quentin, a region in northern France. His father and mother died in the early 1550s. His uncle Pierre managed their affairs and land while waiting for the return of the absent heir. Then, in the summer of 1556, a man presented himself as the long lost Martin Guerre. In reality this man was Arnaud du Tilh from the village of Sajas, in Southwest France. Arnaud was travelling and accidentally arrived in a village near Artigat. There he met two friends of Martin Guerre's, who mistook him for the missing peasant. He spent next three years learning everything he could about Martin, because he meant to establish himself as the owner of the considerable Guerre holdings. The villagers of Artigat believed that Martin Guerre has finally returned. True, he didn't look exactly like Martin, but Arnaud bore a somewhat striking resemblance to Martin Guerre. Before long, Bertrande realised that this man was not her husband, but she was willing to help him 'become' her husband. For years she had yearned for another husband, who, unlike Martin Guerre, could make her happy. With her help, Arnaud continued to rehearse the role of Martin Guerre. The 'new' Martin started to take commercial advantage of the Guerre Holdings, and, contrary to Basque custom, he sold some parcels of the Guerre patrimony. Pierre Guerre was outraged. Pierre seriously began to wonder if this man was really his long-lost nephew. After all, he had done something no decent Basque would do - sell off some of his inheritance. This man also showed no interest in swordplay or acrobatics, of which Martin had been so fond of. Pierre became convinced that Arnaud was an impostor. In the summer of 1559, a soldier, passing through Artigat, told several villagers that he had seen Martin Guerre lose a leg at the siege of Saint-Quentin. The rumour spread around Artigat and its environs, yet none proved it was anything more than hearsay. Pierre Guerre was determined to take Arnaud to court, and in late 1559, he acquired more ammunition for his cause. An innkeeper from a nearby diocese recognised Arnaud. Pierre used a little legal trickery and presented himself to the judge at Rieux as an agent of Bertrande de Rols. In her name he got permission to have a formal inquiry opened about the true identity of the man who called himself Martin Guerre. Arnaud, Pierre Guerre, and Bertrande were all interviewed by the judge, who then summoned 150 witnesses from the surrounding two dioceses. These witnesses could only agree on one item; this was that the prisoner greeted them all by name and reminded them of things they had done together years before. Some of these witnesses insisted that he was not Martin Guerre. Martin's sisters, all born in Artigat, insisted that the prisoner was their brother. The case was too confusing to the judge; he decided to refer the case to the Parliament of Toulouse. Jean Coras was the member of the Parliament charged to make a recommendation of the sentence. Coras decided that he trusted blood relatives above any of the other witnesses, but even here he ran into contradiction after contradiction. Legal technicalities kept him from arriving at a decision, and he became more and more frustrated. Coras distrusted Pierre Guerre because of Pierre's admission that he had misrepresented himself as Bertrande's agent before the judge at Rieux. On the other hand, Coras trusted Arnaud because of his perfect recall of everything about Martin Guerre's life, including the detailed and personal information given to him by Pierre. Then Coras considered the evidence about Bertrande and her character. She had repeatedly insisted that this man was her husband. Furthermore, he considered Martin's sisters quite trustworthy, and they bore a physical resemblance to the defendant. The Criminal Chamber of the Parliament was now ready to the make its final Judgment of the case; they had decided to do what Coras recommended and let Arnaud go back to Artigat with Bertrande. It was then that a man hobbling on a wooden leg appeared right outside of the building in which the trial was being held. He said that his name was Martin Guerre. And so it was. Why did he decide to come back to France after twelve years in Spain, leaving an enviable position as a lay member of the military Order of Saint John of Jerusalem for his service for Spain? Nobody really knows, but he may have heard about the trial in Toulouse, and the judges had sent investigators to Spain to check Arnaud's testimony about his activities there. The Parliament made the returned peasant prove that he was indeed Martin Guerre. Martin's sisters recognised their long-lost brother. Finally, Bertrande conceded that the returned man was the one she had been bound in matrimony to. Arnaud was sentenced to be hanged for his crimes. Bertrande was spared the same fate because of her gender. She was forced to witness Arnaud's execution shortly afterwards, and face life with the heartless man who had deserted her. |
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