Prowess, the Nine Worthies and the Hundred Years War: the Prologues to the Chroniques of Jean Froissart and Enguerrand de Monstrelet

Le Saux, F. (2012) Prowess, the Nine Worthies and the Hundred Years War: the Prologues to the Chroniques of Jean Froissart and Enguerrand de Monstrelet. In: Ailes, M.J., Cobby, A.E. and Noble, P. (eds.) The Chanson de geste and its reception. Essays presented to Philip E. Bennett by members of the Societe Rencesvals. British Rencesvals Publications, Edinburgh, pp. 75-94. ISBN 9780951979174

Abstract/Summary

An analysis of the evolution of the image of chivalry in the successive redactions of the Prologue to Froissart's Chroniques, focussing on the figures of the Nine Worthies as models of behaviour for young noblemen. This is then compared and contrasted with the prologue written by his continuator, Enguerrand de Monstrelet, whose work betrays a shift in sensibilities that expresses itself, inter alia, by a near-total absence of the Worthies in his Chronique. Close textual analysis suggests that the two choniclers shared a comparable sense of disillusion, though expressed in different ways.