Les Vœux du héron as Parody

Les Vœux du héron is a formal parody of Les Vœux du paon, but its attack is directed at the practice of chivalry–in prowess and in erotic love–at the court of Edward III at the beginning of the Hundred Years’ War. The vows in the Alexander romance and their successful fulfillment point in the parody to the deficiencies of Edwardian chivalry and the vows of its prominent nobles, notably in atrocities of war and in the simultaneous marriages of Joan of Kent.