Clariodus and the Translation of Dynastic Ideology

This article analyses the possible ideological reasons why the French Cleriadus et Meliadice was translated into Older Scots as Clariodus and its pervasive popularity in Scotland all through the sixteenth century. It argues that such status was due to the way in which the source text was domesticated to make it relevant to foreign royal policy from James IV’s to James VI’s reigns, who favored a Pan-European alliance instead of military conflict. Clariodus’s political domestication is also complemented rhetorically, with the use of the aureate style; and thematically, where the Boethian element, profusely deployed by the makars, is expanded and emphasized.