The Emprise de l'Escu vert à la Dame Blanche ("Enterprise of the Green Shield with the White Lady") was a chivalric order

Chivalric order

Chivalric orders are societies and fellowships of knights that have been created by European monarchs in imitation of the military orders of the Crusades...

 founded by Jean Le Maingre

Jean Le Maingre

Jean II Le Maingre , called Boucicaut was marshal of France and a knight renowned for his military skill.He was the son of marshal Jean I Le Maingre, also called Boucicaut...

  and twelve knights in 1399, committing themselves for the duration of five years. Inspired by the ideal of courtly love

Courtly love

Courtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration. Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility. It was also generally not practiced between husband and wife....

, the stated purpose of the order was the protection of women suffering oppression

Damsel in distress

The subject of the damsel in distress, or persecuted maiden, is a classic theme in world literature, art, and film. She is usually a beautiful young woman placed in a dire predicament by a villain or monster and who requires a hero to achieve her rescue. She has become a stock character of fiction,...

, especially widow

Widow

A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...

s, an undertaking that earned the praise of Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan was a Venetian-born late medieval author who challenged misogyny and stereotypes prevalent in the male-dominated medieval culture. As a poet, she was well known and highly regarded in her own day; she completed 41 works during her 30 year career , and can be regarded as...

.

Foundation

According to his Livre des faits, in 1399 Jean Le Maingre, tired of receiving complaints from ladies, maidens, and widows oppressed by powerful men bent on depriving them of the lands and honours, and finding no knight of squire willing to defend their just cause, out of compassion and charity founded an order of three knights sworn to carry une targe d'or esmaillé de verd & tout une dame blanche dedans ("a shield of gold enamelled with green and a white lady inside"). The three knights, after swearing this oath, affirmed a long letter explaining their purpose and disseminated it widely in France and beyond her borders.

The letter explained that any lady young or old de noble lignée ("of noble lineage") finding herself the victim of injustice could petition one or more of the knights de l'Écu Vert à la Dame Blanche for redress and that knight would respond promptly and leave whatever other task he was performing to fight the lady's oppressor personally. The three knights promised not just this, however. They offered also to release any other knight from a vow requiring him to fight a duel before a judge. The letter was signed 11 April 1399 by Jean le Maingre, Charles d'Albret

Charles d'Albret

Charles d'Albret was Constable of France from 1402 until 1411, and again from 1413 until 1415. He was also the co-commander of the French army at the Battle of Agincourt where he was killed by the English forces led by King Henry V....

, Geffroi le Maingre, François d'Aubrecicourt, Jean de Lignères, Chambrillac, Castelbayac, Gaucourt, Chasteaumorant, Betas, Bonnebaut, Colleville, and Torsay.

Symbols

The emblem of the order was the shield of gold enamelled with green and a white lady inside. It seems reasonable to believe that the dame blanche represented the purity which the knights of the order were to protect; what the green background signified is not so clear. That white and green were sometimes associated together in connection with the observances of May is shown by an account, in Hall's

Edward Hall

Edward Hall , English chronicler and lawyer, was born about the end of the 15th century, being a son of John Hall of Northall, Shropshire....

 Chronicle, of a "maying" of Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

, in which the company were clad in green on one occasion and in white on another. In Machyn's

Henry Machyn

Henry Machyn was an English clothier and diarist in 16th century London.Machyn's Chronicle, which was written between 1550 and 1563, is primarily concerned with public events: changes on the throne, state visits, insurrections, executions and festivities...

 Diary, too, there is mention of a white and green Maypole

Maypole

A maypole is a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European folk festivals, particularly on May Day, or Pentecost although in some countries it is instead erected at Midsummer...

 around which danced a company of men and women wearing "baldrykes

Baldric

A baldric is a belt worn over one shoulder that is typically used to carry a weapon or other implement such as a bugle or drum...

" of white and green.

Literature

• Lalande, Denis (1988). Jean II Le Meingre, dit Boucicaut (1366–1421): étude d'une biographie héroïque.
• Marsh, George L. (1906) "Sources and Analogues of 'The Flower and the Leaf': Part I." Modern Philology, pp. 153.
• Riquer, Martín de (1967). Caballeros andantes españoles. Madrid: Editorial Espasa-Calpe.