The story starts in the year 1527 by describing young Martin Guerre and his family’s move from a village in the French Basque country named Hendaye, to another village named Artigat, in the county of Foix. Martin grew up with his family, including his uncle Pierre, in Artigat. When the time was right

In the beginning, Martin’s marriage to Bertrande turned out to be infertile, and the town became restless. Folk customs were performed on Martin for the couple’s infertility. These customs included using spells to rid him of evil demons, among other things. These customs continued until finally Martin and Bertrande had a son. Bertrande and Martin were never very happy in their marriage. Bertrande seemed to be more attached to Martin than he was to her, but this did not seem to matter back in those days. Marriages were fixed, and there was no way out of them with anti-divorce Catholicism as the religion.

Zemon Davis obviously added a lot of her own speculation in the story. It is impossible for any one person to write about an entire series of events from a generation that contained almost no written documents, based on a story that is hundreds of years old.

What I found most striking about peasant life in sixteenth century France was that marriage was primarily an economic and business relationship. It seemed to be used simply to unite familial lands and provide continuity in the family.

Martin is subjected to lots of stress and because of his initial problems conceiving, his father’s accusations of him stealing grain, and his desire to end fighting over his inheritance. Because of all of this, Martin decides to leave his wife, son and inheritance behind to fight for his country. After 8 years, a man claiming to be Martin returns to the village to claim his wife and land. He is accepted by Bertrande, which seems to be odd because she is described as a strong, broad minded woman who would not be so easily deceived. Because her marriage to Martin had never been because of love in the first place, what reason would Bertrande have to oppose a relationship in which she was actually happy in? In reality, I think that Bertrande easily knew that this was an imposter, but also in love, something she hadn’t had with the real Martin.

Some topics in this essay:
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