Rihla (The Journey) – was the short title of a 14th Century
(1355 CE) book written in Fez by the Islamic legal scholar Ibn Jazayy al-Kalbi
of Granada who recorded and then transcribed the dictated travelogue of the
Tangerian, Ibn Battuta. The book’s full title was A Gift to Those who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels
of Travelling and somehow the title of Ibn Jazayy's book captures the ethos
of many of the city and country journeys I have been lucky to take in past
years.
This rihla is about The
Cloisters, Upper Manhattan, New York, USA.
A 16th Century German glass panel depiction of Hell in
vitreous paint and silver stain in The Cloisters, Manhattan.
God allowed himself to be
tortured on the cross,
He will tell us on the day
of reckoning:
“You who helped me carry my
cross,
You will see me there, and
Mary my mother.
But you who denied me help,
You will all descend to the
depths of Hell.”
Thibaud IV of Champagne (Le Chansonnier), King of Navarre,
Leader of Baron’s Crusade 1239-41
It is that time of year when Easter ceremonies around the world in the Christian faith remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, events that were to shape and continue to shape the history of the Levant and Near East, the Holy Land. I thought it apt therefore for this rihla, this journey, to recall an encounter with a 13th century crusading knight (or at least his effigy).
There have been times when travelling when I
have had the pleasure of encountering a man-made edifice that is so out of
context with my own expectation, so surprising in its actual existence, that
all you can feel is a sense of wonderment. I think of the effervescent Palatine
Chapel in the drab surrounding of the Norman Castle in Palermo, Sicily, the vicious medieval torture frescos of the churches of the Armenian New
Julfa quarter in Isfahan, Iran or going way back in time the extraordinary 10,000 BCE temple complex on
a brown-parched hill in Gobekli Tepe, in Turkey. Into this august company I add The Cloisters, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, situated at
the very upper end of Manhattan in New York city. It took me entirely by surprise, and I love that sensation!
Location of The Cloisters at very south-west end of Manhattan
In 1935 following the acquisition and amalgamation of a
number of estates in the Hudson and Washington Heights areas of Manhattan, John
D. Rockefeller Jr. commissioned the architect Charles Collens to design, to
source extra artefacts in Europe, to incorporate the extraordinary medieval
architectural ‘surplus’ horde of George Grey Bernard (a horde brought from
Europe that included effigies, altarpieces, near complete parts of abbey
cloisters) and to amalgamate a Gothic and Romanesque medieval fragmentary past into
a harmonious 20th century whole.
Floor Plan of the Cloisters
The building work began in 1935 and
the ‘new’ museum opened to the public on May 10, 1938, three years and nine
centuries in the making. It contained in addition to Bernard’s collection, and Rockefeller’s
own, choice pieces from the Metropolitan’s medieval collection.
Reconstructed Chapter House with differing column styles in The Cloisters
After the 40-minute ride from downtown Manhattan on the
express subway to 190th street and the ride up an attended elevator
to street level you enter Fort Tyron Park and skirt around the perimeter. Ahead
of you on the highest point in Manhattan rises an ochre-coloured, sienna tiled,
Occitan-towered, ramparted medieval abbey for all-the-world like a small abbey found
high in the Pyrenees straddling the pilgrim’s route to Santiago de Compostela.
The sense of a mountain retreat or remoteness is enhanced visually by the
Palisade Cliffs to the west and in my imagination it reminded me so much of
travels undertaken in the Cathar region of southern France.
The Cloisters garden. Gothic church to left.
Within The Cloisters museum building, in a small Gothic
church on the lower level, next to the abbey garden with its Black Mustard planting,
is a sarcophagus bearing the effigy of a crusader knight of France, Jean de
Alluye. In typical fashion he is depicted praying, with exquisite detailing of
his costume, armour and sword, legs resting on an lion footstool. I was
immediately drawn to the effigy and as the information supplied was sparse have
tried tracking down his story since.
Gothic Church and sarcophagus of Jean II d'Alluye
The Cloisters, Manhattan
Jean II d’Alluyes b.1180CE was the
great-great-great-great-great grandson of Hughes I d’Alluyes, first Seigneur
d’Alluyes in 978CE in the Barony of Touraine on land granted to the Bishop of
Chartres by Charles the Great in 880CE. By 1239, when he joined the Baron’s
Crusade to the Holy Land, Jean II d’Alluyes was Seigneur of Château-La-Vallière,
Saint Christophe, Chenu et Noyant townlands to the east side of the road
between Tours and Angers.
Jean d'Alluye's territory in Angers-Tours area of France
He was a Knight Banneret of Touraine (higher in rank than a
Knight Bachelor) who could fight under his own square-shaped banner (rather
than that of a liege lord) and had a complicated coat-of-arms drawn up in 1231
described as:
“Papelonné d’azur, a trois fasces ondées argent, les 3 faces
d’argent charges chacune de trois besants d’azur, surcharges chacun d’une fleur
de lys d’or, les deux faces du bas charges enoutre de quatre losanges couchés
accostant les besants.”
In July 1239 Jean II d’Alluyes joined 1000 other knights and
nobles at Lyon to embark, in defiance of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II
(called by his contemporaries Stupor
Munde, or wonder of the world; the multi-lingual grandson of the great
Norman King of Sicily Roger II) and Pope Gregory IX, on the Baron’s Crusade to
the Holy Land. This crusade had originally been called for by Gregory to be in
situ in the Holy Land when the Sixth Crusade agreement of 1229 between
Frederick and the Ayyubid Sultan al-Kamil was due to expire. The crusade was
made possible by a massive taxation on France’s Jewish population.
On arrival in Syria in the Autumn of 1239 the Barons elected
Thibaud IV of Champagne and King of Navarre as their leader at Acre. Thibaud
was far better known as a song-writer (quoted above) than as a military
strategist and the Barons’ crusade from a military perspective was wrecked by
disunity and a disaster from the start. However with an element of luck and
timing brought about by difficulties in the Ayyubid Empire Thibaud, and in
particular his immediate replacement in September 1240 by Richard of Cornwall (Son of King John and subsequently King of Germany from 1257) the Barons were able to negotiate the return of most of the southern Outremer lands lost to Saladin back into the
control of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Richard returned back to Europe in 1241 and although it is
stated that Jean II d’Alluyes was a crusader until 1244, there is a notation of
Jean selling of a reliquary of the “True Cross”, to the Cistercian Abbey of La
Bossière in 1241 for 533 livres tournois.
In order to have been present to sell on the relic in 1241 Jean must have
returned with either Thibaud or Richard.
There is something not quite right about the accepted story
of Jean being given the relic of the “True Cross” as a 'present' by a Greek Bishop in Crete.
Ever since the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine ‘discovered’ the “True
Cross” in Jerusalem in 326CE (and founded the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at
the site of the find) a veritable forest of fragments of the “True Cross” found
their way in the Eastern Orthodox tradition into relics made in the form of a
double Byzantine-type cross-pieced Patriarchal cross. These were highly
valuable and treasured and why should Jean, a passing crusading tourist be
given such a present by a Greek bishop in Crete, unless there was money involved
or something more devious.
In any event as soon as Jean got home, he decided to cash-in
on his 'luck' and sold the relic to the Cistercians. The presence of the relic of
the ‘True Cross” in La Bossière soon became such a draw for pilgrims that the
monks commissioned an income generating stand-alone Chapel to house it to the
west of the Abbey. This became known as the Chapel of the Foreigners and almost
certainly repaid their transaction with Jean a thousand-fold.
Jean was to die in 1248 (succeeded by his son Hughes VI) and
was interred in the Abbey of Le Clarté-Dieu near Tours, which was partly
destroyed in the 100 Years War. The sarcophagus lid with Jean’s effigy was used,
turned upside-down, for many years as a footbridge before being rescued by a
Paris dealer and sold to George Grey Barnard to begin its journey to The
Cloisters.
Jean d'Alluye's sword
The very striking “Chinese” design of Jean’s effigy sword has
prompted much speculation and interest ( most likely bought in a Seljuk
inspired and Damascus or Konya-supplied shop) but for me it was the continued story
of Jean II d’Alluye’s bartered relic of the “True Cross” that intriqued me
more.
In 1356 the Count of Anjou removed Jean's relic, from the care of the Cistercians in La Bossière to the Castle of
Angers for ‘safe-keeping’ where a knightly order was created with the cross as
its loadstone. In 1420 Duke Rene of the House of Anjou inherited, through his
wife Isabella, the Duchy of Lorraine and in commemoration of the fact he
incorporated Jean II d’Alluye’s double cross relic into the Arms of Lorraine
and subsequently the Cross of Lorraine became the symbol of that Duchy.
It is interesting to note a Lorraine coin of the 1500s
showing on the reverse the patriarchal cross.
In 1940 Admiral Muselier (from Lorraine) of the Free French
Navy suggested that the Cross of Lorraine on a Tricolour become the flag of all
Free French Forces in World War II. By a proclamation of the 5 June 1941,
signed by Charles deGaulle it was adopted.
By a best estimation Jean d’Alluye was more of a crusading tourist than belligerent, collecting and selling
on Holy Land relics. In an ironic twist his actions were very similar to those
of Bernard, the medieval architectural scavenger whose collection and earlier museum
construction near the 190th st subway exit was to be the impetus for
the development of The Cloisters. Bernard sold his relics, including that of Jean's tomb, and his great idea to Rockefeller and like the Cistercians of La Boissière building a chapel to house Jean's relic in 1246 John D. Rockefeller Jr. was to build his own 'Chapel of the Foreigners' in Manhattan for pilgrim tourists.
Although his bones are long lost the spirit of Jean d'Alluye, Crusader and Free Frenchman, lives on in the still silence of a Gothic
Chapel in Manhattan.
