Contenu du sommaire : Le Prince en son « miroir ». Littérature et politique sous les premiers Valois

Charles V in the Mirror of the Songe du Vergier The political tract entitled Le Songe du Vergier and written in French in 1378 is not a “mirror for princes, ” but in fact more of a political encyclopedia. Indeed, in this work, which has a specific subject as a starting point – the relationship between spiritual and temporal power –, the author, Évrart de Trémaugon, cleric, legist and counselor to the French king, Charles V, deals with all the questions likely to interest the king. Everything suggests that the king was personally involved in the work's conception and that the final version is the fruit of collaboration between the author and his sponsor. That is why it can rightly be held that the study of the content of this tract, the dialogue in it relating to the king, his virtues and power, the various political, religious, even recreational themes addressed, highlights Charles V's personality and intellectual activity. Furthermore, the picture it provides of French royalty and of its holder, in large part a result of an ideal vision, shows what the Songe also owes to the literature of mirrors.

Readers and Owners of French Translations of De regimine principum (ca 1279) by Gilles de Rome (XIIIth–XVth Centuries) Despite the profound revival in the literary genre of the mirror for princes during the reign of Charles V and Charles VI, the De regimine principum by Gilles de Rome, particularly in its French versions, had, until the Renaissance, an important place in Western European royal and princely collections. French copies of Gilles de Rome's tract are found, often in several copies, in the collections of the kings of France and England and in those of the dukes of Burgundy, Ferrare and Milan, to name but a few. Influential nobles, such as John Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester and Lewis of Bruges, lord of Gruuthuse, tried to get a French copy of this tract. Several volumes also belonged to wealthy citizens, for whom owning this text, often in particularly beautiful editions, was a symbol of a certain prestige.

Discrete dissimulacion et prudent cautele : the Princess' behavioral strategies in the Livre des Trois Vertus by Christine de Pizan The Book of the Three Virtues presents itself as a manual of good behavior for women of all social categories. In the long chapter devoted to the Princess, Christine de Pizan shows that the latter's behavior must conform to specific rules, depending on the situation. In order to insure her good name and contribute to a common peace, the Princess must show wisdom and moderation. The author stresses how, while conforming to the traditional image of womankind, humility and submission, she can acquire her own power. The use of guile and total self-control, in gesture as well as in word, will enable her to act as she wishes while receiving the approbation of her entourage. Then she will be able to play a decisive role in the life of the kingdom, whether in relation to her close entourage or her subjects.

From Biography to the Mirror for Princes : the Livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V by Christine de Pizan Although, at first glance, the Charles V was in the biographical genre, Christine de Pizan, however, had no intention of providing the reader with a chronicle of this reign. The moral project constructed by the writer encourages the reader to see the work as a theoretical tract, which, by showing the virtues required by a prince, presents itself as a manual of good government. It is still the case that this traittié gives considerable renewed life to the tradition of the mirror for princes. Whereas the theorists of power referred until then to examples from the auctoritates, Christine refers to a quasi-contemporary model, which updates her pedagogical treatise by adding a layer of lived experience to it. The remarkable nature of this mirror for princes lies more particularly in the predominance it gives to the perfect moderation that never ceased to govern the monarch's behavior. This self-control is presented as the tangible manifestation of the inner wisdom, both political and moral, required by any sovereign worthy of the name.

Philippe de Mézières and his Epistre au roi Richart In mid-May 1395, Philippe de Mézières writes a Letter to king Richard II of England, an urgent call, which does not belong to the epistolary but to the allegorical and the mirror for princes genre. This letter, revealing a clear similarity of thought between the author and the king of France, Charles VI, to whose education the former contributed, is preserved as a unique manuscript, the Royal 20 B VI, in the British Library. This manuscript turns out to be the one offered to the English monarch and, being addressed to the latter, ended up in the hands of a prince, who was particularly able to appreciate its meaning and all its wit. Although Mézières advocates a reconciliation between the kings of France and England, to be sealed with a marriage between Isabelle de Valois, the former's oldest daughter and the latter, which was the safest way to achieve his ultimate aim of a reconciliation within the Church and the re-conquest of the Holy Land, what he truly hoped for was the founding of the Order of the Passion of Jesus Christ.

Resveillier ceulx qui dorment en pechié : Philippe de Mézières and the Mirror for Princes Tradition At first glance, the Songe du Vieil Pelerin by Philippe de Mézières seems to hold a separate place in the history of the mirror for princes. His main subject is the reform of the world and he develops plans for a new crusade. The “reformation” of the royal person and the kingdom are important stages along this road. This aspect links the work, particularly its third volume, to the mirror for princes tradition. Using the literary form of the dream enables the author to express a severe critique of contemporary morals and of the dysfunction of the polical and legal system and to show the necessity for fundamental reform. The close link between the theological and religious realms and that of the reform of the State is one of the common points between Mézières' Songe and German political tracts from the end of the Middle Ages.

The Lai de Franchise by Eustache Deschamps or the Other Side of the Mirror In the Lai de Franchise, Eustache Deschamps, a poet who lived during the reign of the early Valois, repudiates the poetic presuppositions governing a courtly existence at a loss for standards. Courtly inspiration linked to an ideal and political denunciation are merged in a poetic background. The lyrical subject “I”, heir to a tradition, the memory of which it celebrates, is the intradiegetic eyewitness of clerical disintegration and journeys toward the generating framework of a new type of governance. This is revealed to him a contrario through mirrors, a droplet of dew and a flower, the reflections of which are powerless tools for reform. By means of satire, he departs from the courtly and, by so doing, clerical arena to re-discover an art of living and writing that corresponds to the elementary dimension commended by his entire body of work.

Portrait of Charles VI as Nebuchadnezzar. Rhetorical Positionings in the Dialogues de Pierre Salmon et Charles VI Crapelet, to date the only publisher of the Dialogues de Pierre Salmon et Charles VI in 1833, was suprised at the apparent indulgence with which the king tolerated the “impertinence” of his counselor, who goes as far as to liken him to Nebuchadnezzar, a king who, like him, was mad. This tolerance was attributed to the king's madness. An attempt is made here to correct the presuppositions of this reading, which today still continues to influence the perception of the text and its iconography. Our approach falls within the pragmatics of a statement : the madness of the king, the reality of which cannot be contested, takes on in reality a strategic role in the rhetorical device which underlies the whole manuscript. What to Crapelet was a suspect comparison occurs in a topic of deliberative rhetoric that presupposes the Prince's humility and wisdom ; the presumed weakness of the Prince is thus inverted into royal humility taking part in moral conversion and political reform.

Charles V and Charles VI in the Mirror(s) The political writings in the reigns of Charles V and Charles VI contain a fair number of portraits of these monarchs, who are often the initial addressees. This kind of work was particularly favorable to the expression of contemporary ideology and the illuminators created contrasting images of the kings. Charles V's reign was a time of intense reflection on power and gave rise to the most iconographic creations, all aimed at exalting the wisdom and Christian character of the king. Under Charles VI, on the contrary, with the exception of the Dialogues de Salmon, in a leap of loyalty toward the monarch, there was a return to traditional expression, depicting not the king but royal dignity in general.