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Honoré Bonet: A Fourteenth-Century Critic of Chivalry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Raymond L. Kilgour
Raymond L. Kilgour*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

By the end of the fourteenth century the institution of chivalry seemed more brilliant than ever before. It had covered itself with glory during the long years of the struggle between France and England, numbering among its heroes such exemplars of knighthood as the Black Prince and King John of France, Sir John Chandos and Bertrand du Guesclin. During the lull that occurred in the last years of the century, monarchs and princes, freed from the galling restrictions of war, vied with one another in the great mediæval pageant, the tournament; court life under the youthful Charles VI in extravagant reaction to the bourgeois régime of Charles le Sage, was once more aristocratic and magnificent; knights rode gaily forth on expeditions against the infidels or wandered off to foreign lands to join in jousts and tourneys.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , June 1935 , pp. 352 - 361
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1935

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References

1 Born in Provence between the years 1340 and 1347, Honoré Bonet became a monk in the Benedictine order. He studied at the university in Avignon for several years, and we find him mentioned in 1382 as the prior of Salon. Three years later he became associated with the rulers of Provence, whom he served successfully in diplomatic negotiations. His first work, L'Arbre des Batailles, was perhaps composed soon after he received his degree as Doctor of Decretals, in 1386. The work was dedicated to Charles VI, who repaid Bonet with a pension and an appointment of trust. From this time on he was closely linked with the royal court and after 1393 took up his residence at Paris. In 1394 he wrote his Somnium super materia scismatis, a work of conciliation, attempting to unite Christendom without recourse to armed intervention. His last work, L'Apparicion Maistre Jehan de Meun, appeared in 1398. The last known mention of Bonet is in the year 1405, but the date of his death is unknown. His was not a life of great achievements nor did he have any marked influence on his time, yet it is easy to recognize in his works an honest and independent thinker. Cf. Ivor Arnold, L'Apparicion Maistre Jehan de Meun, Publ. de l'Université de Strasbourg, 1926.

2 Honoré Bonet, L'Arbre des Batailles, ed. Ernest Nys (Bruxelles-Paris, 1883), p. xxviii.

3 Les Cent Ballades, Soc. des Anciens Textes Français, 1905.

4 C. Oman, The Art of War in the Middle Ages (London, 1924), ii, 198–199.

5 Arbre des Batailles, p. 79.

6 Ibid., p. 78.

7 Ibid., p. 80.

8 Ibid., p. 98.

9 Ibid., p. 158.

10 Ibid., p. 213.

11 Ibid., pp. 139–140.

12 Ibid., p. 141.

13 Ibid., pp. 210–211.

14 Ibid., p. 255.

15 The battle of Nicopolis (1396), between the Burgundians and their Hungarian allies on the one side, and the troops of the Sultan Bajazet on the other, was a great disaster for the Christians. It demonstrated the improved military skill of the Turks, and made the name of the Janissaries known to western Europe.

16 L'Apparicion Maistre Jehan de Meun, Publ, de l'Université de Strasbourg (1926), vv. 315 ff.

17 Ibid., vv. 421 ff.

18 D. Le Roulx, La France en Orient au quatorzième siècle (Paris, 1886), i, 287 ff.

19 Apparicion, vv. 437 ff.

20 Ibid., vv. 459 ff. Cf. Arbre des Batailles, p. 255.

21 St. Bernard, De laudibus novae militiae. Cf. E. Prestage, Chivalry (London, 1928), p. 48.

22 Apparicion, vv. 482 ff.

23 Ibid., vv. 507 ff.

24 Le Roulx, op. cit., p. 238.

25 Apparicion, vv. 517 ff.

26 This refers to the battle of Aljubarota (1385), in which the Portuguese peasants, who had risen en masse, fought with great bravery and success.

27 Apparicion, vv. 543 ff.