Powerful Laughter in Twelfth-Century Narrative

Chapter 2 explores laughter’s development as a uniquely transformative force in twelfth-century chronicles, histories, and hagiographies. Specifically, the chapter considers three recurring narrative motifs: risus mysticus, a prophetic laughter associated with mystical visions and holy knowledge; risus blasphemus, a type of irreverent laughter for which figures were punished by instant death or disfigurement; and risus regalis, a motif of sovereign laughter in which powerful figures displayed the superiority of their leadership skills through wit and humor. In tracing the development of these types during the mid-1100s, the chapter argues that laughter was transformed from an insignificant marginal detail into an important symbol of power and transcendence in the literary imagination. Crucially, laughter’s power eventually came to be extended to charismatic leadership, with authors connecting the laughter of kings and popes with images of their unassailable authority.

The Making of Powerful Laughter, c.1100–1200

Chapter 1 explores laughter’s changing status as a topic of intellectual debate in the 1100s. Investigating a wide range of theological, monastic, philosophical, rhetorical, satirical, and medical texts available to Henry II’s courtiers, the chapter suggests that by the end of the century laughter was becoming a sign of embodied moral power. Whereas laughter had previously carried diabolical associations, and had been forbidden to monks, condemned by preachers, and reproved by theologians, it now became a monastic virtue, a confirmation of good health, and a potential sign of God’s presence. These ideas of moral laughter were enabled, above all, by a series of shifts in attitudes towards the body. As theologians devised new repertoires of spiritual emotions and gestures, influential monks such as Bernard of Clairvaux (d.1153) were able to allocate laughter a role as an expression of the highest internal grace.

Conclusion

The Conclusion draws attention to three major arguments that have been developed throughout the book, suggesting that laughter’s transcendent power in twelfth-century texts produced a unique crossover between political and religious ideals of authority; situating humor in the lived experience of twelfth-century English politics; and reflecting on the implications of this research for our wider understanding of the development of medieval Europe. The rise of powerful laughter appears as a component in the evolving importance of the body in Christian devotion and equally, the escalating capital of humor in courtly society reveals something of the changing social nature of high political circles. This emerging power, ultimately, reveals modes of resistance to new forms of governance and political control. Both the laughing king and the laughing saint offered a resilient challenge to the networks of bureaucracy, law, codes, and protocols that were rapidly coming to dominate the rhythms of European life.

Henry II, the Laughing King

Chapter 5 explores how Henry II used laughter to exercise power indirectly, and how contemporary writers exploited this to comment on the changing direction of English government. Henry laughed while negotiating political compromises, wittily forced enemies into compliance, and joked while overturning operations of the law. He especially laughed and joked when he felt that abstract ideas of authority had produced injustices he wanted to overturn. By joking, Henry could supplement the mechanisms of government, reinforcing his charismatic authority without explicitly undermining official procedure. Some court writers thus amplified the king’s laughter as a way of critiquing government by code and bureaucracy. Referencing both the intellectual discourses that dignified joking as a truth-telling device, and the narrative tropes that imagined laughter as a mouthpiece for divine authority, these writers created an image that covertly reinstated the sublime authority of royal charisma at variance with the direction of contemporaneous governmental change.

Introduction

The Introduction discusses how, towards the end of the twelfth century, enigmatically powerful images of laughing kings and saints began to appear in texts circulating at the English royal court. At the same time, contemporaries began to celebrate the humor, wit, and laughter of King Henry II (r.1154–89), and his martyred archbishop of Canterbury, Saint Thomas Becket (d.1170). This introductory chapter briefly explores the potential intellectual, literary, social, religious, and political roots for these images, outlining the framework of the book as a whole. Along with a critical overview of existing scholarship on medieval humor, the politics and government of Henry II, and the sainthood of Thomas Becket, the chapter indicates for the reader how a study of the relationship between laughter and power may have implications for how we understand the political and religious reforms of the twelfth century more generally.

Thomas Becket, The Laughing Saint

Chapter 4 investigates the hagiographic transfiguration of Thomas Becket’s laughter, and the recasting of his courtly wit into a saintly virtue. Known as a frivolous joker at Henry’s court, Thomas was posthumously celebrated as a type of “laughing saint” (sanctus ridens). He was described laughing while making prophecies and even while being murdered, and a unique series of comic miracles was attributed to him after his death. As this chapter argues, the making of Thomas as a “laughing saint” ultimately crystallized the intellectual, literary, and courtly ideas of laughter explored in the previous chapters. Legitimated by emerging ideas of transcendent laughter, this saintly image also depended on the popular currency of laughing prophets and miracles in late twelfth-century hagiographies, chronicles, and epic poems. Most importantly, the reshaping of Thomas’s laughter retroactively endowed the witty political culture of Henry II’s court with a new moral, quasi-theological power.

Laughter and Power at Henry II’s Court

Chapter 3 shows how laughter became both a strategy for survival and a means for covert communication in the tense political environment of Henry II’s court. Contemporary writers described how public laughter worked as a potent weapon for shaming courtly rivals. As anxieties about mockery reached a new peak, public derision regularly destroyed careers and reputations. Laughter also became valued as a means of subtle communication, and as a way of exposing the hidden codes and power relationships of court life. As this chapter argues, laughter became so highly valued at Henry’s court because it allowed courtiers to appeal to a reason and dialogue that was otherwise beyond the restrictions of explicit discourse. Evading the culture of rigid procedure that was defining the operation of Angevin government, Henry’s courtiers were able to translate laughter’s growing conceptual and imagined power into a hard-edged, socially coercive political practice.