Laughter and Power at Henry II’s Court

Abstract

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.

Smiling, Laughing and Joking in Papal Rome: Thomas of Marlborough and Gerald of Wales at the Court of Innocent Iii (1198–1216)

“…In his Historia pontificalis , John of Salisbury distinguishes between ‘courtly jests’ ( nugis curialibus ) and genuine ‘wit’ ( facetia ), and Bernard of Clairvaux disapproves of the frivolous nature of courtly humour (John of Salisbury, Historia pontificalis : 55–6; Jaeger, 1985: 163). Monastic and ecclesiastical circles were not against humour, but commentators from these backgrounds often held clear notions that wit denotes eloquence and truth, while courtly humour is frivolous and indecorous (Jones, 2014: 13–28).…”