The Tyrant Has no Right to the Crown of France: Strategies of National Identification of the French in the Political Discourse of the 15th Century

The article analyzes French political treatises of the first half of the 15th century, written in the camp of supporters of Charles of Valois to justify his rights to the throne of France and against the treaty of Troyes in 1420 on the “union of the two crowns”. The defenders of the interests of the Dauphin Charles used, first of all, legal arguments: violation by this treaty of the ancient Salic law prohibiting the transfer of the throne in France through the female line; deviation from the rules and customs of succession to the French throne established by royal acts. Special emphasis was placed on the requirement to be loyal to the "natural" sovereign, based on the concept of the laws of nature as a Divine institution. The article pays close attention to anti-English invectives and the negative image of the British. Historians ignored this conspicuous and regularly recurring motif or regarded chauvinism and xenophobia as unworthy of scientists and intellectuals. The author of the article suggests interpreting these passages in the context of the legal concept of loyalty built by the ideologists of the monarchy. In political treatises, the kings of England are condemned for disloyalty: Edward III for the war he started against his liege, the king of France, and Henry of Lancaster for the removal and murder of King Richard II. Because of this, English kings are qualified in French political treatises as tyrants and usurpers. But the English, in general, are exposed in these treatises as a cruel and disloyal people to their kings, whom they are ready to displace on a whim. These qualities of the British and their monarchs are designed to shade and emphasize the loyalty of the French as their special national virtue. Thus, in the French political discourse, loyalty is closely connected with national identity. And this mythologeme is firmly embedded in the French monarchist ideology.

Keywords

The Hundred Years' War, the Treaty of Troyes in 1420, propaganda, loyalty, national identity

Received

20.03.2024

Publication date

15.07.2024

Number of characters

38030

Cite

GOST	Tsaturova S. “The Tyrant Has no Right to the Crown of France”: Strategies of National Identification of the French in the Political Discourse of the 15th Century // ISTORIYA – 2024. – V. 15. – Issue 5 (139) [Electronic resource]. URL: https://history.jes.su/S207987840031212-2-1 (circulation date: 23.07.2024). DOI: 10.18254/S207987840031212-2
MLA	Tsaturova, Susanna "“The Tyrant Has no Right to the Crown of France”: Strategies of National Identification of the French in the Political Discourse of the 15th Century." ISTORIYA 15.5 (139) (2024) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840031212-2
APA	Tsaturova S. (2024). “The Tyrant Has no Right to the Crown of France”: Strategies of National Identification of the French in the Political Discourse of the 15th Century. ISTORIYA 15(5 (139)) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840031212-2

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