This project will compare and contrast the gathered primary sources focusing on their individual telling of the Battle of Verneuil in 1424. What each author or artist chose to emphasize and deemphasize respectively will be examined in light of their works’ use as contemporary propaganda. The product of this research will be a highly dramatized, yet fully faithful set of reenactments covering each version of the battle to be used as a teaching tool in a classroom setting. With Henry V’s death near the end of the Hundred Years War, and his son still an infant, it was left to the deceased king’s brother, the Duke of Bedford and Regent of England, to maintain the English claim to the French throne. The duke’s greatest victory was achieved at
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A significant amount of research has been done on the medieval concept of courage and Verneuil is most often used to study and understand the mindset of medieval knights and foot soldiers. Scholars such as John Bliese , Michael K. Jones , and Craig Taylor argue that courage as a virtue was a tactic used and demonstrated by military leaders of both England and France to maintain their followings, while Yuval Harari claims that the ideal of courage was one held only by the inexperienced, and no veteran of warfare possessed any such romantic illusions. My project will contribute confirmation to the arguments of Bliese, Jones, and Taylor by demonstrating how the authors of the primary sources use the language and ideals of courage as propaganda to inspire their target audience. An examination of these sources from this perspective reveals that, contrary to Harari’s claims, experienced soldiers also felt courage a strong enough incentive to be effective since the author of the Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages, is himself a war …show more content…
All of these sources are either paintings from the pages of chronicles, or contemporary chronicle compilations originally composed throughout the fifteenth century. The Brut and the Historical Collections are by English authors, Monstrelet is French, and finally John Waurin is a Burgundian turned English chronicler. The four paintings are from a French chronicle that covered the reign of Charles VII of France (D'Auvergne). All of these sources were accessed either as free downloads from Google Books, or as images from the French History website, “Histoire France”. The sources provide a range of different views regarding the Battle of Verneuil. Each presents its own unique angle while sharing enough common information with the other sources to seem
A significant amount of research has been done on the medieval concept of courage and Verneuil is most often used to study and understand the mindset of medieval knights and foot soldiers. Scholars such as John Bliese , Michael K. Jones , and Craig Taylor argue that courage as a virtue was a tactic used and demonstrated by military leaders of both England and France to maintain their followings, while Yuval Harari claims that the ideal of courage was one held only by the inexperienced, and no veteran of warfare possessed any such romantic illusions. My project will contribute confirmation to the arguments of Bliese, Jones, and Taylor by demonstrating how the authors of the primary sources use the language and ideals of courage as propaganda to inspire their target audience. An examination of these sources from this perspective reveals that, contrary to Harari’s claims, experienced soldiers also felt courage a strong enough incentive to be effective since the author of the Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages, is himself a war …show more content…
All of these sources are either paintings from the pages of chronicles, or contemporary chronicle compilations originally composed throughout the fifteenth century. The Brut and the Historical Collections are by English authors, Monstrelet is French, and finally John Waurin is a Burgundian turned English chronicler. The four paintings are from a French chronicle that covered the reign of Charles VII of France (D'Auvergne). All of these sources were accessed either as free downloads from Google Books, or as images from the French History website, “Histoire France”. The sources provide a range of different views regarding the Battle of Verneuil. Each presents its own unique angle while sharing enough common information with the other sources to seem