Mattéoni, Olivier
Bernard Guenée, Charles VI, and the Religious of Saint-Denis
- 2025.
64
The Chronicle of the Religious of Saint-Denis, written by Michel Pintoin, is a text that greatly captured the attention of Bernard Guenée. He provided a precise study of it in various articles and several books, which helped to better understand the reign of Charles VI. This article, with its historiographical scope, aims to revisit the work of the great historian. After rereading the book on the assassination of the Duke of Orléans, published in 1992, which should be understood as a study of the political society of Charles VI’s time, the article shows how Bernard Guenée analyzed Michel Pintoin’s way of writing history. The use of sources — such as ordinances and royal texts — which are inserted or summarized within his writing, shows Michel Pintoin’s ties with the royal chancery. At the same time, the chronicler of Saint-Denis knew how to borrow words and passages from Latin classics to describe certain events, such as the description of the rape of the lady of Carrouges, borrowed from Tite-Live’s account of the rape of Lucretia. Following this, the article examines Bernard Guenée’s two books based solely on Michel Pintoin’s text : one on the madness of the king (2004) and the other on public opinion (2002). Their reading shows that, in the context of the distress caused by the extraordinary event of Charles VI’s madness, the monk of Saint-Denis responded to the resulting weakness of royal power with an exaltation of royal majesty and authority.