In 1996, Richard Kaeuper and Elspeth Kennedy published the first scholarly edition of Geoffroi de Charny's Livre de chevalerie (The Book of Chivalry of Geoffroi de Charny. Text, Context and Translation, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996. Pp. ix, 236. ISBN 0812233484). This new volume reprints Kennedy's translation of the text, together with a revised version of the introduction by Kaeuper. The result is a more cost-effective and approachable book, designed primarily for teaching purposes.
The Livre de chevalerie should certainly be read by every student of late medieval chivalric culture and military history. In his useful introduction, Kaeuper presents a summary of the life of Charny (c. 1300- 1356), a famous soldier whose campaigns took him across France and the Mediterranean, and whose diligence and skill enabled him to rise through the ranks ultimately to become a royal councillor and the bearer of the oriflamme, the sacred banner of France, until his death at the battle of Poitiers in 1356. Around six years earlier, Charny had written the Livre de chevalerie an eminently practical guide to the behavior appropriate to the contemporary French aristocracy. He rarely used the word 'chevalerie' in the text, which might more properly be called a book of honor ('honneur') and worth ('preux'). It is largely an extended meditation upon the maxim that "he who does more is of greater worth", exploring the hierarchy of opportunities presented by jousts, tournaments and warfare for men-at-arms to accomplish celebrated deeds of arms and thereby win a glowing reputation. Success in these fields would demonstrate the skill, courage and endurance of the warrior and thereby win the respect and acknowledgement of his peers, of the ladies at court and ultimately of God. Indeed, Charny's work articulates a remarkably clear and logical lay response to clerical teachings on violence and just war theory. As perhaps the first historical owner of the Shroud of Turin, Charny was a pious individual who had no doubt that honor and warfare were entirely compatible with spiritual aspirations, principally because of his certainty that God respected the suffering and risks that the soldier endured in war. That is not to say, of course, that Charny offered carte blanche to the young man-at- arms to behave in any way that he might see fit. Instead, he called upon all aristocratic men to conduct themselves in a gentle, courteous and well-mannered fashion, offered a series of practical warnings against cowardice, greed, pride and decadence. Some of the most interesting passages relate to the role of women in chivalric culture, as Charny offered a subtle and penetrating analysis of the relationship between courtly love and 'practical' chivalry. In short, Charny offered a clear and convincing interpretation of what honor, worth, prowess, courage, piety, courtesy and love meant in the middle of the fourteenth century, and his comments on the complex relationship between aristocratic men (both knights and the wider group of men-at-arms) and other groups such as women and clerics will be of very great interest for those studying notions of gender and class.
The only problem with such a clear and compelling analysis of chivalric culture is that the reader might be tempted to regard this text as a definitive and guiding statement. It is certainly true that, in contrast with most medieval writers on chivalry, Charny largely lived the ideal that he described, and certainly had the experience and credentials to pass judgment on the behavior of the man-at-arms who aspired to equal honor and fame. Yet Charny's work was far from a disinterested memoir or statement of what was happening around him. Rather, it was a reformist work, almost certainly written for the members of the Company of the Star, a chivalric order established by the king, Jean II, in 1352, principally to galvanize the aristocracy of France following a succession of disasters and military defeats. Charny's writings were all intended for this audience, from the Livre de chevalerie, written both in prose and in a verse account known as the Livre de Charny, to Les demandes pour la joute, les tournois et la guerre, an incomplete discussion of the rights and duties of knights taking part in jousts, tournaments and wars. [1] Kaeuper outlines this historical context in his introductory essay, but perhaps underplays the failure of this enterprise. As he notes, the Company collapsed after the death of many members at the defeats at Mauron in August 1352, and at Poitiers four years later. Yet even before these military disasters, Jean II's original plan to enroll five hundred members was just a pipedream: barely one hundred people attended the only meeting in 1352, mostly members of the immediate royal family and their retainers. The harsh reality is that Jean II was extremely unpopular, not least because of his execution of Raoul II de Brienne, comte d'Eu, in 1350. The attentive reader of this edition might be curious about Charny's reaction to that event, given that Raoul had been Charny's patron in the early stages of his career (4). [2] Either way, this historical context provides a cautionary backdrop to a text that called for an improvement in aristocratic behavior for very particular political reasons.
Indeed, the Livre de chevalerie must be read against other statements on chivalry by contemporary authors of manuals, chronicles, biographies and works of literature. In his introduction, Kaeuper helps the reader by drawing comparisons with the famous writings of John of Salisbury and Ramon Lull, as well as the thirteenth-century biography of William Marshal and Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur, two works that form with Charny's treatise "a trinity of works very close to knighthood". (42) These are certainly pivotal works in the wider story of the development of chivalric culture and, more relevantly, books that are readily available in English translations. Nevertheless, the interested reader will certainly want to read more contemporary writings on chivalry by Jean le Bel and Jean Froissart, Guillaume de Machaut, Honore Bouvet, Philippe de Mezieres, Jean de Montreuil, Christine de Pizan and Antoine de La Sale, not to mention the tremendously important chivalric biographies of such figures as Bertrand du Guesclin, Jean IV de Montfort, Jean II le Meingre dit Boucicaut, Louis II de Bourbon and Jacques de Lalaing. Most of these works remain inaccessible to English- speaking students, and one can only hope that other scholars will be inspired by the excellent work of Kaeuper and Kennedy to prepare translations. [3]
There are some minor errors and confusions in this edition. The date of Jean II's letter endowing the Company of the Star is accidentally given as 1342 rather than 1352. (21) Kaeuper cites complaints about contemporary men-at-arms in the chronicle attributed to the Carmelite friar Jean de Venette, and then supports the point by reference to a continuation of the chronicle of Guillaume de Nangis (18-19), without realizing that these are one and the same work. Six black and white images have been inserted randomly into the text, without any identification or explanation of their relevance to the text.
In summary, Kaeuper and Kennedy have done scholars a tremendous service in their publication of the excellent 1996 edition of the Livre de chevalerie. This slimmed-down version now provides teachers of chivalry, warfare and gender with an excellent resource for the classroom.
FOOTNOTES
[1] See A Critical Edition of Geoffroy de Charny's 'Livre Charny' and the 'Demandes pour la joute, les tournois et la guerre', ed. M. A. Taylor, unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1977, together with the abbreviated version of the Demandes in Joust and Tournaments: Charny and the Rules for Chivalric Sport in Fourteenth-Century France, ed. Steven Muhlberger, Union City, CA, Chivalry Bookshelf, 2002.
[2] If Jean II did execute Raoul for negotiating to surrender Guines to the English, as contemporary chroniclers suggested, then Charny's hostility to Hugues de Belconroy for subsequently completing that conveyance (p. 11) is even more striking.
[3] The following works are available in English translation: Guillaume de Machaut, La prise d'Alexandre (The Taking of Alexandria), ed. and trans. R. Barton Palmer, London, Routledge, 2001; also published as Guillaume de Machaut, The Capture of Alexandria, ed. Janet Shirley and Peter Edbury, Aldershot, Ashgate Publishing, 2001; Honore Bonet [Bouvet], The Tree of Battles, ed. G. W. Coopland, Liverpool, University of Liverpool Press, 1949; Honore Bovet [Bouvet], Medieval Muslims, Christians and Jews in Dialogue. The 'Apparicion maistre Jehan de Meun of Honorat Bovet', ed. M. Hanly, Tempe, AZ, The Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2005; Christine de Pizan, The book of deeds of arms and of chivalry, trans. S. Willard and ed. C. C. Willard, University Park, PA, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999; Antoine de La Sale, Little John of Saintre, trans. Irvine Gray, London, Routledge, 1931.
I am currently completing a monograph on these late medieval French discussions of chivalry, entitled Chivalry and Warfare in France, 1350-1450.