To Have and to Hold: Conversion, Genealogy, and Imperialist Aims in Les Enfances Renier

Abstract:Les Enfances Renier, a chanson de geste dating to the mid-thirteenth century, recounts the titular hero's journey throughout the Mediterranean as he looks for his birth family and aids Frankish, Norman, and even Byzantine allies in their struggles against predominantly Muslim enemies. The present study focuses on Renier's relationship with Ydoine, the Muslim princess who took him in as a foundling and raised him. After Renier discovers the identity of his birth parents, and Ydoine converts to Latin Christianity, the two marry and conceive a son named Tancred. This son, according to the narrator, will go on to play a major role in the First Crusade. In this way, Les Enfances Renier constructs a genealogy for the historical figure of Tancred (1075–1112) that adds an element of familial reclamation to the campaigns of the First Crusade. Conversion is an indispensable process that allows for Ydoine to convert, marry Renier, and conceive such an important figure. Throughout this article, I uncover how Les Enfances Renier uses conversion and ambivalent treatment of Ydoine, the notable convert, to navigate complex genealogical issues in service of upholding an ethos of Latin Christian expansion.