Josians Empire Building: Female Saracen Body and Matrilineage in Bevis of Hampton

Abstract

Josian, the heroine of the Middle English romance Bevis of Hampton, seemingly conforms to patriarchal expectations, effectively aiding the hero Bevis in expanding his territory and securing his lineage. Yet, while supporting Bevis as a faithful lover, Josian is permitted to exhibit remarkable agency by performing her femininity and Saracenness. Her body produced through these performances ultimately complicates Beviss patrilineal expansionist endeavor and forms a matrilineal empire. This paper, focusing on Josian, aims to explore male anxiety about the female body and illuminate the possibility of matrilineage in Bevis of Hampton by examining the text alongside a contemporary gynecological text, De secretis mulierum, as well as two other fourteenthcentury romances featuring conversion narratives—The King of Tars and Geoffrey Chaucers Man of Laws Tale. The intertextual reading between them elucidates how Josian circumvents fourteenth-century devices of controlling female body and patrilineal inheritance. Her somatic performance of femininity renders the truth about her virginal/pregnant body impenetrable to all, even to Bevis and the audience of the text, while her status as the heroine of conversion narrative allows her to pass her Saracen identity to her two sons. These sons, who play crucial parts in Beviss territorial expansion, are manifested more evidently as Josians heirs; consequently, the empire that emerges at the end of the narrative is Josians as well as—and more than—Beviss.