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How the War Cries “Guyenn !” and “Saint Georges !” are the expression of a political identity in the Anglo-Gascon dukedom of Aquitaine. The war cry “Guyenne !” can be found in documents from the early 12th to the 16th century. While it originally simply served as a feudal rally cry for the troops of the Dukes of Aquitaine, it turned into the sign of the Gascon fighters' determination to maintain an autonomous dukedom of Aquitaine (or Guyenne) during the period of Anglo-Gascon union from the 13th to the 15th century. In the 14th century wars led alongside the English gradually led the Gascons, who were the King of England's subjects, to take over their war cry “St Georges!” next to their own war cry “Guyenne !”, but always after it, which is evidence that in their eyes asserting the existence of Guyenne came first. The consequences of this long-standing association could be felt during the rebellion against the gabelle (or salt tax) in 1548 when the Bordeaux rebels carried the St Georges flag while shouting “Guyenne ! Guyenne !”.

“Renart et la mésange” in the O manuscript. Inexhaustible Hungering for Flesh and Words. The episode that tells the story of the fox and the tit (“Renart et la mésange”) belongs to one of the oldest branches in Roman de Renart. As he looks for food the fox meets a tit. In the O manuscript the text has been revised by a copist who felt writerly. To prevent the text from being fixed once and for all, our rewriter added interpolated lines and deleted others. Between vanity about food and textual expansion the O manuscript copist introduced a repetition principle that emerges from the death urge to fuse with a kind of perpetual regeneration: the text in its very materiality and in the flux of words has become immortal. The present article proposes to analyse this original rewriting of « Renart et la mésange ».

From the Keep to the the Court. The two ages of Castellan Peerage in Northern France, Flanders and Lotharingia (late 11th-13th c.). (2d part) In some fifty major castles (seats of castellanies, of second-rank counties or of principalities) in the North of France and the South of Flanders, and to a lesser extent in Lotharingia, small group of knights – usually around twelve – started to use the title of “castle peers” (pares castri) from the end of the 11th century. Only those who owned specific fiefs, called “peerage fiefs”, which involved well-defined services to the castle, could belong to such colleges of knights. Both the origin and the functions of this so far little known institution are here interpreted anew on the basis of all acknowledged instances in available sources. An introductive chapter offers a survey of the various groups of castle peers, accounting for their geographical distribution and examining clues that establish the beginning of the phenomenon at the turn of the 12th century (first part of the article, published here). Next we try to define the original situation of those peers, using the unwieldy tools offered by late documents that focus more on changes the institution was subject to at the end of the 12th century (second part of the article, to be published in the next issue). The members of the peerage seem to have been the elite among the nobility of the territory dominated by the castle to which they were linked. Several clues indicate that their service was originally of a military nature: the peers were responsible for defending the castle where they would serve for a long yearly period of guard (called estage). It was suggested that the institution appeared in the 11th century at the time when a “deconcentration” of the castellan society was beginning, and that it made it possible for the most distinguished among the milites castri to maintain a priviledged relationship with the castle and its protective structures, while at the same time dramatically standing out among the lower vassals involved in the castle-controlled network. At the turn of the 13th century peerage entered a second stage: as the castellan lordship turned away from a military structure, its warlike function rapidly faded and was often replaced by a jurisdictional function developed in the context of the feudal court or of the overlord's or prince's tribunal. However its social function remained unchanged.

Jean Gerson's position towards women (1363-1429). The article discusses the question of Jean Gerson's (1363-1429) attitude toward women. Based on several texts where women appear in various social roles: as spouses, sisters, mothers and nuns, the study aims at forming a more nuanced opinion on this subject. Particular attention will be paid to the analysis of texts where women appear as independent devotees. While recognizing the complex and even contradictory character of Gerson's position towards women, the article seeks to place it in the general perspective of his “theological vulgarization” project, through which he aims to leading the largest number of the faithful to a life of contemplation. The author argues that Gerson gives women a new important role in this project.