Martin Guerre’s Return

Natalie Zemon Davis wrote about a sixteenth century infamous court case of the question of the identity of Martin Guerre. She uses two sources for her essay which were Jean de Coras and Guillaume Le Sueur. Coras was one of the judges at the Criminal Chamber at the Parlement of Toulouse and Le Sueur was training at Toulouse to work in civil law (72, 94). She argues on the marite of Bertrande de Rols’ defense of her ignorance of the impostor Arnaud du Tilh as her husband. Davis was correct to conclude Bertrande and Arnaud colluded to create what she calls the “invented marriage.” During this era, marriage was a pillar in peasant society. Marriage was rarely out of love, but instead of necessity of maintaining their wealth within the family. When Martin and Bertrande were married, they were both young. Martin was fourteen years old and Bertrande was just as young. This happened due to great pressure for an alliance of the two families (16-7). Their marriage was like most marriages during this time. Not of love, but out of necessity. For years, Martin and Bertrande did not consummated the marriage. This was an enormous issue because without children, no one could inherit the property within the family. Even when pressured from her family to annul the marriage, but Bertrande remained with Martin. Perhaps she believed the marriage would improve. They did not have children until about eight years later. Davis believes Martin wanted to get