Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- The De re militari of Vegetius in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
- Heroes of War: Ambroise's Heroes of the Third Crusade
- Warfare in the Works of Rudolf von Ems
- Chronicling the Hundred Years War in Burgundy and France in the Fifteenth Century
- War and Knighthood in Christine de Pizan's Livre des faits d'armes et de chevallerie
- Barbour's Bruce: Compilation in Retrospect
- ‘Peace is good after war’: The Narrative Seasons of English Arthurian Tradition
- The Invisible Siege – The Depiction of Warfare in the Poetry of Chaucer
- Warfare and Combat in Le Morte Darthur
- Women and Warfare in Medieval English Writing
- Speaking for the Victim
- Index
Heroes of War: Ambroise's Heroes of the Third Crusade
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- The De re militari of Vegetius in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
- Heroes of War: Ambroise's Heroes of the Third Crusade
- Warfare in the Works of Rudolf von Ems
- Chronicling the Hundred Years War in Burgundy and France in the Fifteenth Century
- War and Knighthood in Christine de Pizan's Livre des faits d'armes et de chevallerie
- Barbour's Bruce: Compilation in Retrospect
- ‘Peace is good after war’: The Narrative Seasons of English Arthurian Tradition
- The Invisible Siege – The Depiction of Warfare in the Poetry of Chaucer
- Warfare and Combat in Le Morte Darthur
- Women and Warfare in Medieval English Writing
- Speaking for the Victim
- Index
Summary
ANY WAR produces its heroes. The Third Crusade has left us a long-standing legacy of heroes on both sides. Though now no longer politically correct, the stirring tales of Richard the Lion-Heart and his noble opponent Saladin have provided many a comic book with material. If we go back to the contemporary accounts we find that shortly after the Third Crusade even reliable, factual accounts, such as the eye-witness account of the Norman chronicler Ambroise, depict these knights as worthy of heroic status.
Ambroise's chronicle was written shortly after the end of the crusade by a clerk, apparently at the royal court, who had accompanied Richard on the crusade. It is an important historical document, not without literary merit, written in rhyming couplets making extensive use of sophisticated rhetorical devices.
Ambroise's main hero is Richard the Lion-Heart himself and we will return to Richard shortly, but Ambroise also has other heroes, a number of lesser figures who have their ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ in one or more episodes, men, and very occasionally women, who are in some way exemplary. First three of these ‘minor heroes’ claim our attention: James of Avesnes, Aubery Clement and Andrew of Chauvigny.
James of Avesnes
James of Avesnes, described by Jean Richard as a ‘baron du second plan’, was from Avesnes-sur-Helpe in Hainant; his family held lands from both the Count of Hainant and Philip of Alsace, the Count of Flanders.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Writing WarMedieval Literary Responses to Warfare, pp. 29 - 48Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2004