Contenu du sommaire : Le pouvoir par les armes. Le pouvoir par les idées

15th-century France provides a fruitful opportunity for reflecting upon the classic question of the coexistence of war and literature by observing the changing standards within the nobility to define, praise, disseminate and pursue a new model for social success that combined military and literary competencies. Suggested by a moral literature that fairly consistently and critically called upon the instructions to war lords, this phenomenon is first studied from speeches made to soldiers and from the portrait of the good captain presented in military treatises, informed by experience and a knowledge of history whose popularity is confirmed by a study of the libraries of the great officers. We then turn our attention to the literature penned by the nobility which reveals the aristocracy's own aspirations and how writing – about war, about service to the prince, and in defense of public service careers – then became a structural element of the identity of the warrior-noble.

In the collective imagination as in historiography, the figure of Charles the Bold continues to be associated with the violent sacks of Dinant (1466) and Liège (1468), the burning and pillaging of Normandy (1472), and the execution of the garrisons of Nesle (1472) and Grandson (1476), events often considered the perfect expression of the Duke of Burgundy's cruelty. However, beyond political and strategic imperatives, the medieval customs of war reveal the ethics of a prince who applied the letter of the law. Anxious to avenge the insults sustained at places that “unreasonably” resisted both him and his army, the prince commanded not only the acts of justice administered by his soldiers, but also acts of propaganda manifesting his majesty and military power in the eyes of contemporaries. Once efficient, this propaganda was successfully undermined during the Burgundian Wars largely due to the efforts of his Swiss adversaries who disseminated a truncated version of the facts, painting the Duke as unjust and cruel and exhorting his enemies to resist.

At the time of the Great Western Schism, the dukes of Valois d'Anjou tried several times to establish themselves in the Kingdom of Naples, vassal to the Holy See. With the support of the Avignon popes, they received regular financial aid in addition to the concession of the royal title. If this recognition allowed them to legitimize their war of conquest and thereby reconcile the backing of many Neapolitan feudal lords, it came with the duty of throwing the pope in Rome under the throne of Saint Peter. However, in spite of promises made in this guise, the Dukes of Anjou showed little inclination to direct its army toward Lazio. In sum, if the justification at the basis of all of the Angevine military campaigns was indispensable for their existence, it was of little factual consequence.

First known and dated artistic commission by Margaret of Austria, the Couronne margaritique manuscript by Jean Lemaire de Belges, which the archduchess gave to her brother Philip the Fair on June 6, 1505, has been studied for its aesthetic value—literary or pictorial. Housed at l'Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (Vienne, ÖNB, ms. 3441), the work helped the princess obtain the succession to the indiciaire (chronicler) of Burgundy for Lemaire. This fact makes us curious to study the Couronne based on a particularity of the rhétoriqueurs, to serve the political intentions of the princes that employ them. Does the manuscript show the capacity of a candidate to use diplomatic discourse beyond its single recognized use, consoling the distraught Margaret after the death of her second husband, Philibert II of Savoy ? The archduchess's change in status, counseled by the seasoned curial Savoyards, opens a field of interpretation. The dialog between text and imagery shows Margaret projected into a role within her home that is different from that assigned by her brother. A last, essential notion confirms Margaret's intervention in the drafting of her Couronne : up until her final days at Brou, the princess identified with peace, and that peace, supported by arms, constitutes the great achievement of the Christian prince.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the study of the House of Amadeus VII of Savoy (1383–1391) through the rich accounts of the war treasury available for this period. Reflecting on both “ideas” and “weapons”, this study focuses on the importance of the administrative innovations proposed by Amadeus VII, particularly in the administrative management of war and recruiting of officers to staff the treasury. The principal merit of this study is to precisely calculate the costs and the number of personnel that the prince employed for his military policy, numbering on the scale of ten expeditions during a reign that lasted only eight years. We will then compare the numbers drawn from these accounts to those from the middle of the 15th century, a period during which war played an essential role, according to recent historiography, in the financial crisis of the duchy of Louis 1st of Savoy.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolution of the entangled relationships between the three main characters in the second cycle of the adventures of Renard. We focus on Renart le Nouvel and its iteration in prose, Le Livre de Regnart. First, we note the degeneration of the role of Isengrim, which loses all of its traditional status as Renart's enemy to take on a comic and secondary function in the tales. Then we note that the king, Noble, now Renart's enemy in its allegoric versions, occupies a place similar to that of Isengrim in the structure of the tales ; that is, he becomes the poor, angry loser that Renart perpetually taunts. These analyses allow us to draw conclusions on the concept of the royal function in the moral code. Finally, we question the reasons that have led authors to modify the primitive story as they have, in particular in connection with the new political realities surrounding the question of the king's close acquaintances.