Wednesday 2nd November - Pauline Souleau (Merton College, Oxford)

Jean Froissart's Chroniques and the Black Prince's Aquitaine (1355-1376)

Pauline Souleau 

17:00 - 18.30
St John’s College

(Wine and nibbles provided) 

Bataille de Poitiers,  © CNRS

Paper and discussion

Pauline opened her paper with a comprehensive definition of Gasconnade and a detailed description of the political and social context of Jean Froissart’s Chroniques. Through close reading of different manuscripts, as well as analysis of Froissart’s rewriting of Le Bel’s Chroniques, Pauline addressed questions surrounding Gascon identity, historiography and notions of chivalry. She argued that the portrayal of the Black Prince was more complex than has previously been suggested, revealing the darker aspects of the chivalric tradition. A lively discussion followed, with questions relating to genre, historiography, rewriting of texts and typical representations of chivalry. Thanks to all the participants for their engagement and to Pauline for her excellent and thought-provoking paper!

Abstract

In the fourteenth and fifteenth century, the south west of today's France – at the time named Aquitaine, Gascony or Guyenne – was often at the heart of the Anglo-French conflict commonly referred to as the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453). Jean Froissart's Chroniques relate the conditions, early stages and first decades of the conflict from 1322 to 1400. He devoted a non-negligible amount of his work to the events unfolding in the region and, in particular, to the military campaigns and rule in Aquitaine of Edward of Woodstock (1330-1376) – later called the 'Black Prince' – prince of Wales (1343-1376) and Aquitaine (1362-1372). 
This paper offers an analysis of Jean Froissart’s account of Edward of Woodstock's campaigns and authority in Aquitaine through a comparative reading of the different versions of Froissart's Chroniques and other contemporary works – Jean le Bel's chronicles, Cuvellier's Chanson de Betrand du Guesclin or Chandos Herald's Life of the Black Prince. With this study, I intend to show that the passage sheds light on the chronicler's perception of the region and its people, as well as to discuss the notion of an anglo-gascon identity, and to challenge a Manichean conception of Froissart's chivalric ideology through his vision of the Black Prince.

Pauline Souleau did her undergraduate degree in English Studies and her Master's degree in Medieval Studies in La Sorbonne-Paris IV, studying "Eleanor of Aquitaine's literary influence" for her dissertation under the supervision of Prof. Leo Carruthers. She is a second year D.Phil. candidate in Medieval and Modern Languages, supervised by Dr. Sophie Marnette. Her research focuses on medieval Aquitaine and particularly on "Truth and fiction. Gascony, Jean Froissart's Chroniques and other chronicles of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453)" (thesis title).