"The Return of Martin Guerre"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines some of the sources Davis used to reconstruct the story of "Martin Guerre" and discusses why identity theft was such a serious crime in sixteenth-century France. It also considers the role of Protestantism in this story (particularly concerning the concept of marriage) and discusses whether justice was served when the real Martin Guerre returned.

From the Paper:

"The spread of Protestantism thus could have created an intellectual justification for both Bertrande and the reborn 'Guerre' to validate their union, in their own minds and also in societal terms, where secret and freely chosen marriages were growing more common, and more and more couples were entertaining the possibility of love matches than prearranged alliances. Of course, initially, the desire to gain property may be one reason as well that Bertrande's new husband wished to impersonate her old man Guerre. Bertrande de Rols, was relatively well off, and despite patriarchal norms regarding inheritance, in the French village where she resided, the law regarding female inheritance was fairly equitable in theory, although often contested."

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