The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis

The twist is that Coras' amazement was in part at how wrong his own judgement had been ' here was a case where the 'best' witnesses turned out to be mistaken, hearsay evidence turned out to be true, and the judges almost went astray (p106), and the same realisation of the uncertainity of judgement then applies to this book. I'm not sure that it is a micro history in the style say of Montaillou, it is rather a reconstructed tapestry with missing sections filled out by 'must have's' and 'would have's' this region's court documents from this period are lost. Working on the film Le Retour de Martin Guerre the author was troubled by its necessary departure and simplification of the historical background and that experience led her to write this book.

These were printed and reprinted in French and Latin in legitimate and bootlegged editions. The case was so striking and extraordinary that Coras, the investigating judge, and La Sueur, a lawyer from the region both had books out in press about the case within a year. His testimony in court was convincing, he had the scar on the forehead and the warts on his fingers that Martin Guerre was said to have had and when the real Martin Guerre turned up hobbling on a wooden leg true to his name, gained in war, the imitator was found to have a better memory of the intimate details of Martin's marriage prior to his disappearance than the real Guerre. Du Tilh had succeeded in convincing Guerre's uncle, sisters and wife that he was in fact the long lost Martin Guerre. He had been found guilty of impersonating one Martin Guerre, a local man who had walked out of his marriage and life in the village over ten years previously, and had not been heard of since. In the autumn of 1560 Arnaud du Tilh was executed in front of the house, deep in southern France, where he had lived for the past three years.

The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis