The Return of Martin Guerre: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

For eight years after the wedding, the young Martin and Bertrande didn’t conceive a child. Bertrande would later claim that this was because a jealous sorceress cast a spell on them, rendering Martin impotent. Because they didn’t conceive, they were shamed and gossiped about in the village. Davis suggests that this was probably not the first of Martin’s misfortunes. When he was a child, villagers may have made fun of his accent and his foreign name. When it became publicly known that he was impotent, young men of the village dressed up as women and assembled in front of the Guerre house, ringing bells and beating on wine vats. Finally, a wise woman appeared and told them how to lift the spell. After performing four masses and eating special cakes, the “spell” was supposedly lifted and Martin and Bertrande conceived a son, Sanxi.

However, Martin’s troubles weren’t over. He liked little about Artigat except swordplay, which he loved. He fought frequently with his father and disliked village life, but there were few options for escape: his father would not have allowed him to go to university or to make his fortune in Spain. Davis argues that Martin’s case shows that peasants didn’t only migrate for economic reasons; sometimes, people wanted to leave their communities because they dreamed of a life outside the confines of the village or the farm.

In 1548, when Martin was twenty-four, he was accused of stealing a small quantity of grain from his father. Davis suggests that this probably reflected a power struggle between father and son. Since theft is unforgivable in Basque culture, Martin fled the village, leaving his family and inheritance behind.

Martin settled in Burgos, Spain, where he learned Castilian and became a servant to a cardinal called Francisco de Mendoza. In the 1550s, Burgos was a large and flourishing city, and Francisco was a powerful figure in the church. Martin would have seen many sights unimaginable in Artigat—splendid palaces, elaborate rituals in the cathedral, and crowded city streets. After Francisco’s death, Martin entered military service under his brother Pedro, having always had a talent for swordplay. As a member of the Spanish army, he fought in Flanders against his native country, France. In 1557, at the siege of Saint-Quentin, Martin was shot and had to have his leg amputated and replaced with a wooden leg.