Conventum
The Conventum is a Latin text from around 1030 that narrates the relations between Duke William V of Aquitaine and Lord Hugh IV of Lusignan in the preceding twenty years.
It has been seen as a record of a legal settlement and as a sui generis literary text presaging the chanson de geste.
It concerns Hugh's disputes over land and castles with various other barons of Aquitaine and William's failure to help him.
[1] In two manuscripts now in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, the Conventum is found alongside the Chronicle of Ademar of Chabannes.
[1] In addition to the three known copies, there is a "rewritten fragment" from the beginning of the Conventum in a 17th-century manuscript from Paris, now Collection Dupuy 822 in the Bibliothèque nationale.
[12] It is likely that nobody from that time and place but a cleric could demonstrate knowledge of Augustine of Hippo, Isidore of Seville and Jerome, as the author of the Conventum does.
[12] The quality of his Latin precludes his being identified with Ademar, whose Chronicle is transmitted alongside the Conventum in two manuscripts.
[15] The spelling of names is representative of "spoken usage in the region", with, e.g., the form Ioszfreddus (Geoffrey) preferred over Goszfreddus (Godfrey).
[19] The simple conventional title, Conventum, implies that it is a formal memorandum of settlement between William and Hugh.
[17] In her edition, Martindale called it "the unique surviving example from the early eleventh century of a written settlement between man and lord.
[22][21] The possibility that the Conventum is a piece of historiography is dismissed by George Beech on the grounds that it lacks dates and makes extensive use of direct speech.
Over forty percent of the text is direct speech, which is highly unusual in historical writing of the period.
Hugh is given the unusual title or nickname "chiliarch" (chiliarcum), meaning "leader of a thousand", which Alfred Richard [fr] took to indicate that he was the count's commander-in-chief.
Hugh then agreed to marry Ralph's daughter in exchange for land of equal or greater value, but William persuaded him to break this off.
In the end, Hugh received nothing and entered into an open conflict with Ralph, suffering heavy losses.
More of Hugh's land was occupied and he in turn captured 43 horsemen of Thouars, which he refused to ransom even for 40,000 sous.
[24] With the help of Bishop Gerald, Hugh built a fortress in La Marche, but William had it razed.
[24] Hugh then captured the castle of Gençay, which he agreed to rebuild and hold from Count Fulk.
[20] Despite this inherent bias, Sidney Painter reads the text in a way highly negative of Hugh, whom he depicts as greedy for land and castles, aggressive and devoted to "bitter and ruthless" warfare, while Duke William blocks his ambitions.
