THE SCENE: It is hard to miss a note of admiration in the Abbot of St. Denis’ description of Hugh of Crecy, a dastardly fellow who defied the king and dressed up as a prostitute.
THE TEXT: Overwhelmed by grief, the brothers and kinsmen of the captured seneschal collapsed before the feet of the king: “Have pity on us, O glorious king, and be valiant,” they said, “for that accursed Hugh of Crecy, a most damnable man, is thirty for human blood. He will come here or carry off our brothers elsewhere, and do whatever he wants with him. He will slit his throat in a flash and, acting more wildly than the wildest beast, think little of the punishment awaiting him for condemning him to sudden death.”
Fearing this very thing, the king quickly surrounded the castle and blocked the roads leading to the gates. Hugh now became terrified at the possibility of the loss of his castle. He nervously toiled and schemed how he might enter the castle, taking various disguises as sometimes on horse, sometimes on foot, he pretended to be a jongleur or prostitute.
One day, when this matter was absorbing all of Hugh’s attention, the men in the king’s encampment recognized him and, seeing that he could not withstand the continuous assaults of his attackers, he sought safety in flight. Then suddenly, the courtly knight and valiant warrior William, the brother of the captured seneschal, hotly pursued Hugh and tried to detain him. Having a quick spirit and a fast horse, William rode ahead of the other. But the very speed of his chase made Hugh take special notice of him.
[Hugh] would have gained great prestige either by winning the trophy of a duel or by facing death in the attempt. But Hugh had a further problem, for he could find no way to avoid the numerous villages situated on his route and the countless attacks he would encounter. So, resorting to trickery and deceitfully pretending to be William of Garlande, he shouted that Hugh was chasing him and invited the king’s partisans to hinder his pursuer as if he were a foe. With tricks such as these, he slipped away in flight, and with a clever tongue and a stout heart, one man made fools of many.
– The Deeds of Louis the Fat, Suger, 12th Century AD
