Journal article

Philippe de Mézières and his Epistre au roi Richart

Pages 605 to 623

Cite this article


  • Marchandisse, A.
(2010). Philippe de Mézières and His Epistre Au Roi Richart. Le Moyen Age, CXVI(3), 605-623. https://doi.org/10.3917/rma.163.0605.

  • Marchandisse, Alain.
« Philippe de Mézières and his Epistre au roi Richart ». Le Moyen Age, 2010/3-4 Volume CXVI, 2010. p.605-623. CAIRN.INFO, shs.cairn.info/journal-le-moyen-age-2010-3-page-605?lang=en.

  • MARCHANDISSE, Alain,
2010. Philippe de Mézières and his Epistre au roi Richart. Le Moyen Age, 2010/3-4 Volume CXVI, p.605-623. DOI : 10.3917/rma.163.0605. URL : https://shs.cairn.info/journal-le-moyen-age-2010-3-page-605?lang=en.

https://doi.org/10.3917/rma.163.0605


English

In mid-May 1395, Philippe de Mézières writes a Letter to king Richard II of England, an urgent call, which does not belong to the epistolary but to the allegorical and the mirror for princes genre. This letter, revealing a clear similarity of thought between the author and the king of France, Charles VI, to whose education the former contributed, is preserved as a unique manuscript, the Royal 20 B VI, in the British Library. This manuscript turns out to be the one offered to the English monarch and, being addressed to the latter, ended up in the hands of a prince, who was particularly able to appreciate its meaning and all its wit. Although Mézières advocates a reconciliation between the kings of France and England, to be sealed with a marriage between Isabelle de Valois, the former’s oldest daughter and the latter, which was the safest way to achieve his ultimate aim of a reconciliation within the Church and the re-conquest of the Holy Land, what he truly hoped for was the founding of the Order of the Passion of Jesus Christ.

Keywords

  • Philippe de Mézières
  • Charles VI
  • Richard II
  • mirror for princes
  • Orderof the Passion of Jesus Christ
  • crusade

Publisher keywords: Charles VI, crusade, mirror for princes, Orderof the Passion of Jesus Christ, Philippe de Mézières, Richard II