Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Author's Preface
- Author's Note
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Charny's Career and Writings: The Current Understanding
- 2 The Charny Manuscripts
- 3 The Livre Charny: Editorial Introduction
- 4 The Oxford Text of the Livre Charny
- 5 Charny's Career and Writings: A Revised Understanding
- Appendix Oxford Manuscript (Holkham Misc. 43): Chart of Lost and Misplaced Folios
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Section
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 March 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Author's Preface
- Author's Note
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Charny's Career and Writings: The Current Understanding
- 2 The Charny Manuscripts
- 3 The Livre Charny: Editorial Introduction
- 4 The Oxford Text of the Livre Charny
- 5 Charny's Career and Writings: A Revised Understanding
- Appendix Oxford Manuscript (Holkham Misc. 43): Chart of Lost and Misplaced Folios
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Section
Summary
The French knight Geoffroi de Charny features spasmodically in the chronicles of Jean le Bel, Geoffrey le Baker, Jean Froissart and others for his military and diplomatic exploits during the first two decades of the Hundred Years War. In the eyes of these contemporaries he was an admired paladin, resourceful, pious and of the highest integrity. Gilles le Muisit, abbot of the Abbey of Saint Martin at Tournai, who saw Charny's military talent at first hand when Tournai was under siege from Edward III, described him as
a vigorous soldier, expert in weaponry and much renowned both overseas and here. He has taken part in many wars, and in many mortal conflicts, in all of them conducting himself both with probity and with nobility.
The Englishman Geoffrey le Baker, for whom every Frenchman was a mortal enemy, considered him
more practised in military matters than any other French knight, and … besides his long experience in war … blessed with a quick and lively intelligence.
Froissart's account of Charny's dying moments at Poitiers in 1356, during which he doggedly defended the sacred Oriflamme, the French royal battlestandard, sets him in the mould of France's greatest national heroes:
There fought valiantly, close to the king, messire Geoffroi de Charny. And all the crush and the clamour were upon him on account of his bearing the sovereign banner of the king … There was such a pressure of English and Gascons from all sides that the king of France's battle formation was opened up and broken, and the French became so surrounded by their enemies that in places there were five men at arms to one noble. And messire Geoffroi de Charny was killed, the banner of France between his hands.
He was, said Froissart:
More prud’homme and more valiant than all the others.
Modern-day studies of Charny's career, principally those made by Arthur Piaget and Philippe Contamine in France, Antonio Lombatti in Italy, Michael Taylor and Richard Kaeuper in the USA, and Elspeth Kennedy and David Whetham in the UK, have been rather less generous towards his memory.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Book of Geoffroi de Charnywith the Livre Charny, pp. 1 - 4Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021