
A Virtuous Knight
Defending Marshal Boucicaut (Jean II Le Meingre, 1366-1421)
Craig D. Taylor(Author)
York Medieval Press
Published on 21. June 2019
Book
Hardback
217 pages
978-1-903153-91-8 (ISBN)
Description
A radical re-interpretation of the chivalric biography of Boucicaut.
The Livre des fais du bon messire Jehan le Maingre (1409) is one of the most famous chivalric biographies of the Middle Ages. It presents Jean II Le Meingre, known as Boucicaut (1366-1421), as an ideal knight and role model, and has frequently been seen by modern scholars as a last-ditch effort to defend traditional chivalric values that were supposedly in decline. Here, however, Craig Taylor argues that the biography is a much more complex and interesting text, fusing traditional notions of chivalry with the most fashionable new ideas in circulation at the French court at the start of the fifteenth century. Rather than a nostalgic criticism of contemporary knighthood, it should be seen as a showcase of the latest ideas on chivalry, written to renew the enthusiasm of the great French princes for a man who was in grave danger of falling out of favour: its purpose was to celebrate and to defend a beleaguered Boucicaut against his critics at the royal court, and to explain his actions as governor of Genoa, his failed crusading enterprises in the Eastern Mediterranean and his unsuccessful efforts to broker a solution to the Papal Schism.
CRAIG TAYLOR is a Reader in Medieval History at the University of York; he was Director of its Centre for Medieval Studies from 2010 to 2011 and from 2014 to 2017.
The Livre des fais du bon messire Jehan le Maingre (1409) is one of the most famous chivalric biographies of the Middle Ages. It presents Jean II Le Meingre, known as Boucicaut (1366-1421), as an ideal knight and role model, and has frequently been seen by modern scholars as a last-ditch effort to defend traditional chivalric values that were supposedly in decline. Here, however, Craig Taylor argues that the biography is a much more complex and interesting text, fusing traditional notions of chivalry with the most fashionable new ideas in circulation at the French court at the start of the fifteenth century. Rather than a nostalgic criticism of contemporary knighthood, it should be seen as a showcase of the latest ideas on chivalry, written to renew the enthusiasm of the great French princes for a man who was in grave danger of falling out of favour: its purpose was to celebrate and to defend a beleaguered Boucicaut against his critics at the royal court, and to explain his actions as governor of Genoa, his failed crusading enterprises in the Eastern Mediterranean and his unsuccessful efforts to broker a solution to the Papal Schism.
CRAIG TAYLOR is a Reader in Medieval History at the University of York; he was Director of its Centre for Medieval Studies from 2010 to 2011 and from 2014 to 2017.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
York
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
1 b/w, 3 line illus.
Dimensions
Height: 219 mm
Width: 141 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
442 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-903153-91-8 (9781903153918)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
06/2019
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€48.99
Available for download
Person
CRAIG TAYLOR is a Professor of Medieval History at the University of York.
Content
Introduction
The Life of Jean II Le Meingre dit Boucicaut [1366-1421]
The Livre des fais du bon messire Jehan le Maingre
Defending the Marshal
A Flower of Knighthood
The Virtues, the Good Habits and the Good Disposition of the Marshal
Conclusion
Bibliography
The Life of Jean II Le Meingre dit Boucicaut [1366-1421]
The Livre des fais du bon messire Jehan le Maingre
Defending the Marshal
A Flower of Knighthood
The Virtues, the Good Habits and the Good Disposition of the Marshal
Conclusion
Bibliography