Cultural Comparison: Crusade as Construct in Late Medieval France

Cultural Comparison: Crusade as Construct in Late Medieval France Kevin Brownlee I F, BY THE END OF THE 14TH CENTURY in France the great age of European crusading in the Holy Land was virtually over, the idea of crusade remained a powerful ideological construct that was repeat­ edly employed in a variety of political and literary contexts.1 In this essay, I am particularly interested in how the construct of crusade was utilized for the purposes of cultural self-definition by means of cultural comparison in three late medieval texts.2 My point of departure is the conceptualization of crusade in these texts in opposition to—and as a correction of—Civil W ar.3Indeed, in these texts, civil war and crusade are, as it were, mutually defining, functioning in a kind of binominal opposition. In terms of the topic of this issue of L ’Esprit Créateur, the construct of crusade as a corrective rewriting of civil war provides a privileged locus for investigating the function of the “ cultural Other” in two different but complementary ways. First, with regard to civil war, it is a question of defining the Self in comparison with the cultural Other within. This is a superficial difference resulting from mutual mispercep­ tion: it must be overcome, transcended, in order for the cultural Other within to be recognized as, in fact, an authentic version of the Self. Second, with regard to crusade, it is a question of defining the Self in terms of a comparison with a cultural Other without. This is a “ deepstructure ” difference: it must be eradicated by making the Other disap­ pear. The authenticity of the Self is demonstrated by opposing—and eliminating—this Other, against which the Self is defined. For my pres­ ent purpose, the late medieval French perspective is seen to have figured the cultural Other within as the English, defined in strikingly hetero­ geneous ways involving the sometimes overlapping, sometimes contra­ dictory factors of language, geography, and feudal allegiance. The cul­ tural Other without was figured as the “ Oriental” Muslim, inhabiting the Maghreb, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Anatolia and Southeastern Europe, and designated most generally by the term “ Sarrasin.” 4 In the remarks that follow, I will first explore how these two different kinds of comparison function with regard to the cultural definition of the Self in terms of the Other in two prose Epistres by Philippe de Mézières, Vo l. XXXII, No. 3 13 L ’E sprit C réateur both linked to the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, the disastrous conclusion to the “ largest and last of the great international crusades.” 5Then I will turn to a verse Ditii by Christine de Pizan, which ties the coming of Joan of Arc in 1429 to prophecies of a new crusade. In all three cases, the double instance of cultural comparison mentioned above is at issue, as the notion of crusade is constructed in terms of the Anglo-French Hun­ dred Years’ War viewed as a civil war among Christians. The French cultural Self is defined by being compared simultaneously, but in quali­ tatively different ways, to the English and to the Oriental, Sarrasin Other. I begin with the Epistre au Roi Richart, written by Philippe de Mezieres—the single most important ideologue and propagandist of cru­ sade in 14th-century France, and a special counsellor of Charles VI—to Richard II of England in 1395.6 The immediate occasion for Philippe’s letter was the proposed marriage between the English king and the daughter of the French king, Isabel of France (a marriage that was to occur on Nov. 4, 1396). The full significance of this marriage from Philippe’s point of view lies in a tripartite configuration of inter-related imperatives: first, on the immediate military plane, peace between England and France; second, on the ecclesiastical plane, the end of the schism in the Church, with competing popes at Avignon and at Rome; third, on the “ universal” military plane, an international crusade, led by France and England. These three imperatives are presented by Philippe as hierarchically arranged: peace between France and England will lead to ending the schism which will lead to the crusade.7In...