While the focus of much of the research, as well as readers' interest, regarding The Lais of Marie de France concerns the representation of "courtly love" in the text, this focus risks overlooking a range of complex issues addressed in the collection of lyrical stories. One of the most interesting of these issues is the text's representation of the feudal political context in which it was created. In an analysis of different aspects of this representation in the text, it will be argued that "love" is represented as a source of irrational disruption to a political order based largely upon reason and patriarchal authority.