THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

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© 2009 Max Wickert
an embassy to propose that the war be settled by single combat. Charles, who knew that Lord Clare was the only
great champion left to Gerard, said: “We would be prepared determine this by combat of one against one, or ten
against ten, or a hundred against a hundred. But we are no longer disposed merely to ask for homage. The time for
pardoning Gerard’s arrogance has passed. The crimes he committed at Paris prove him a renegade and a heretic and
an enemy of all Christendom. We will not desist until we have entered the city and have him at our mercy, to cast him
out like a Saracen dog.” This was the answer he sent back to Gerard.
Clare’s Duel with Roland
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When the messenger reached Gerard and told him of his embassy, and of what Charles had said to
him, Gerard erupted in vile curses, reviling Charles and Roland. He at once summoned his sons and
Clare and said: “You see how God and Fortune are against us by making that bastard Charles our
lord, whose father no one knows. He calls himself Pepin’s son, but I know the truth: he is the son
of one of Pepin’s herdsmen and hunters, with whom his mother stayed for a long time in the Maine
Woods. He murdered Lanfroy and Ulrich, who were Pepin’s sons. I therefore have sent my
message to him to tell him that this war should be concluded by two champions. I am certain that
on his side no knight fit for this combat but that bastard, Roland, nor on our side any but you, my
dear nephew Clare. There is more than one reason that obliges you to take him on: to avenge your
brother, and to deliver the realm of Burgundy, if God grants you the victory. I hardly think that it
can escape you, since you fight for justice. After you have defeated Roland, who will dare take up
arms against you? Moreover, you will thereby easily carry off the crown of France for your own
head.”
At this, Lord Clare replied: “O most noble father to all our race, what a most solemn grace it would
be for me (if only I could be sure that all future war might cease with me) to die while seeking
vengeance for my brother! But oh, our father, it is no light matter to conquer the realm of France,
nor can battle with Roland be sought without misgivings. He is God’s Knight and blameless of all