Contenu du sommaire

At the core of Commynes' Mémoires: the Saint-Pol affair, an exemplary case. The Saint-Pol affair stands at the very core of Commynes' Mémoires, not only in Books III and IV, but in the entire work, through which it runs like a thread. Like the moralist he was, Commynes drew several essential lessons from this episode. But he was even more interested in political errors. Saint-Pol was a war-monger who was neither able nor willing to choose his side; he wanted to get the better of his collaborators who were his superiors; he brought the hatred of princes and their advisers on his head. Carried away by pride, he gave in to cruelty, and was thus rewarded by God's wrath: God himself, and not Fortuna, was responsible for the Constable's fall. In contrast to Saint-Pol, the Sire de Lescun and Commynes himself provide two counter-examples of virtuous conduct.

The part played by some minor characters in Olivier de la Marche's Mémoires. It would be wrong to assume that Olivier de La Marche's Mémoires do not include minor characters. They can be observed in several passages such as the account of the 1443 Luxembourg war or that of the 1453 Poucques and Schendelbeke battles. The point of such characters is to give particular definition to wider events; they also provide some insights into the thoughts and fate of princes and dukes, and they indicate de La Marche's own presence in the text. Ultimately it can be said that the minor characters give the writer an added means of discribing major characters.

Jean de Wavrin, a chronicler between Burgundy and England, and the attitude of Burgundian chroniclers to the Wars of the Roses. Jean de Wavrin (ca 1400-ca 1472/5), who was a chronicler under Philip and Charles, Dukes of Burgundy, wrote a History of England in six volumes, the last part of which shows a definite bias for the Yorkists and the man who led them, King Edward IV. It can be argued that the brother to the Queen of England, Anthony Woodville, served as a link between the English monarch and the chronicler from Burgundy: this link may have been made at a tournament in England in 1467, when Woodville fought Anthony of Burgundy (the Great Bastard), who happened to travel with Wavrin. When analysed and compared with works produced by other writers at this time, Wavrin's chronicle emerges as the main source of information on the War of the Roses for contemporary readers in Burgundy. This is mainly due to the details included in the text and to the large number of manuscripts that have survived.

A campaign that petered out: the saint voiage of Philip the Good as presented by Burgundy chroniclers (1453-1464). Though they did not change the course of history, Philip the Good's dreams of crusades left their mark on the literature produced at the court of Burgundy. The present paper examines the various ways in which chroniclers of the Dukedom, whether close to the court or not, dealt with Philip the Good's efforts to support Christendom. We first explore the theme of ‘war of magnificence', which can be detected in most chronicles. We then focus on the testimony of George Chastelain, official chronicler of the Dukedom, since he was the only one who commented on the fact that in the end, the Duke's dream of launching a crusade could not be realised. We also highlight the growing dissension between Chastelain's perspective and Pope Pius II's ideals.

La condicion de l'hystoriographe: an inquiry into a position and a status in the work of George Chastelain. In 1455 the duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, entrusted George Chastelain with the writing of an official chronicle of his reign. This mission, which the writer carried out alongside similar tasks, was intended to compete with the Dionysian tradition of the Grandes Chroniques de France. As he tried to please his client, Chastelain invented a new position for the historian, namely that of the hystoriographe, which broke away from French traditions. Choosing this title rather than that of croniqueur, the writer subtly interpreted the new historiography he was inventing: he claimed for the historian a non-clerical status, and the right to a carefully worked-out understanding with the prince; his writing alternated between reported facts and their interpretation; he introduced oratorical genres into his Chronique. While he was working on this ambitious project (1455 to 1470), the first indiciaire turned the medieval status of French chronicler into that of Burgundian rhetorician, a status that was as problematic as it was original.

Pour plus fresche memoire: the didactic form of history in Roman de la Rose moralisé by Jean Molinet. Beyond its properly exegetic dimension, Jean Molinet's Roman de la Rose moralisé (ca 1500) provides evidence of the moral and didactic impact of history in Burgundy. These moralités were intended to bring out the spiritual lessons hidden within this treatise on secular love, but some also invoke fifteenth-century historical events and characters, sometimes from the very recent past. In addition to references to the history of the neighbouring kingdoms of France and England, the moralist selected key figures at the Burgundian court who, like traditional heroes, were deemed worthy of being used as exempla by the nobility. From the tradition of fictional romance biographies to chroniclers' narratives, the historical genre developed a wide range of memorable deeds, which were offered to readers as models to follow.

Jean Lemaire de Belges and Josse Bade. Personal relations between Jean Lemaire de Belges and Josse Bade are only documented by a single letter of dedication sent by the printer to the historian, published in 1514 in a book that included two pamphlets against the Turks, for which Josse Bade thanks Lemaire. A careful examination of the printer's production in the years 1500-1515 reveals his marked interest for the same humanists who were the major points of reference for Jean Lemaire's historical culture: Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Niccolò Perotti, Annius de Viterbo, Jacopo F. Foresti, Sabellico, Pietro Crinito, Michele Riccio, Raphaël de Volterra, and others.We can thus deduce that Lemaire shared Josse Bade's cultural preferences, and that he may even have had an influence on his editorial choices. Josse Bade's letter (which is published in this volume) shows how close the printer and the historiographer were in their approach to historical texts.

Was David Aubert a historian ? The tale of the battle of Roncevaux in the Croniques et Conquestes de Charlemaine. Can the Croniques et Conquestes de Charlemaine be viewed as an historical text? The present study attempts to answer this general question using a specific case study, namely the tale of the battle of Roncevaux. Our analysis focuses first on Aubert's sources, such as the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle and the verse-Roland, and then on the author's technique in compiling his work.

Jean d'Auffay: historical culture and polemic at the court of Burgundy. Jean d'Auffay, a counsellor of Mary of Burgundy, was the author of a treatise written between 1477 and 1479, that vindicated her rights to Charles the Bold's inheritance. This article compares the historical culture in d'Auffay's treatise with that displayed in a wide-ranging inquiry in support of Mary's rights, undertaken in the Burgundian archives around 1478-1479, and recorded in the Archives du Nord (9B 241). D'Auffay's treatise relied on diplomatic sources such as letters and treaties. However he also knew how to skilfully turn some myths, such as the salic law or the reditus, against his French adversaries. While supporting his princess's interests, d'Auffay also highlighted the sufferings of his own region, Artois. Although his treatise was not published until 1700 (by Leibnitz), its influence on diplomacy is attested by almost 70 known copies, made between the late fifteenth and early eighteenth centuries.