Constantinople dans Artus de Bretagne (XIVe siècle) : Démythification, remythification ?

Abstract Artus de Bretagne is a French prose romance written around 1300, which renews the Arthurian tradition by sending the hero on quests to the East. Demonstrating a certain familiarity with Greek and Byzantine place names, this work of fiction is undoubtedly linked to the Duke of Brittany Jean II's stay in the Holy Land between 1270 and 1273. However, it is noteworthy that Constantinople is mentioned only twice. Commentary on these two mentions confirms that Artus was composed in two stages: in the older part of the text, Constantinople is just one geographical landmark among others, demythologised, which can be explained by the context in which the story was produced, fuelled by Duke John's memories, at a time when Constantinople was in ruins and had just been returned to the Byzantines. A more anecdotal contribution to this research is that the White Tower, also known as the ‘Clere Tower’, may be a transposition of the ‘Blanche Garde’, a stronghold also known as Mons Clarus , between Jerusalem and Ascalon, where it is not impossible that Duke John may have stopped during his stay in the Holy Land.