The Man of Law's Tale

The Man of Law's Tale is the fifth of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, written around 1387. John Gower's "Tale of Constance" in Confessio Amantis tells the same story and may have been a source for Chaucer.Nicholas Trivet's Les chronicles was a source for both authors.

Constance (Custance in Chaucer) is the daughter of the emperor in Rome. Syrian merchants report her great beauty to the Sultan. A marriage contract is negotiated by her father which requires the Sultan and his subjects to convert to Christianity.

The Sultan's mother, enraged that her son would turn his back on Islam, kills her son and the wedding party and has Constance set adrift on the sea. Her adventures and trials continue after she is shipwrecked on the Northumberland coast. The validity of her Christian faith is proved by two miracles. A blind man is healed by her companion Hermengyld. A wicked knight who wishes to seduce Constance murders Hermengyld and attempts to frame Constance using the bloody dagger. He perjures himself and is mysteriously struck dead. Northumberland is a nominally pagan country where the King, Alla (based on Chaucer's understanding of the historical Ælla of Deira) converted to Christianity after learning of the two miracles. Alla's evil mother intercepts and falsifies letters between the Alla and his constable, which results in Constance's being banished.

Constance is forced to go to sea again but runs aground in Spain. A would-be rapist (Thelous in Confessio Amantis) boards her ship but mysteriously falls overboard. She is found by a Senator of Rome. He is returning from a mission to Barberie (Syria) where he revenged the slaughter of Christians by the Sultan's mother. The Senator takes Constance (and her child) back to Italy to serve as a household servant. King Alla, still heartbroken over the loss of Constance, goes to Rome on a pilgrimage, where he is reunited with Constance. The couple return to Northumberland. Alla dies a year later, and the baby boy becomes the King.

The Man of Law (referred to here as 'A Sergeant of the Lawe') is a judicious and dignified man, or, at least, he seems so because of his wise words. He is a judge in the court of assizes (civil procedures), by letter of appointment from the king, and has many goods and robes. He can draw up a legal document, the narrator tells us, and no-one can find a flaw in his legal writings. The Man of Law rides in informal, silk-adorned clothes. GP

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