Abstracts
Abstract
In late medieval Flemish chronicles, sexual violence is frequently depicted as a consequence of war. Chroniclers distinguished between rape as a crime of passion and rape by armed coercion, reflecting broader societal perceptions of sexual violence. These accounts often served to demonize enemies, portraying them as morally corrupt, but they also reveal anxieties about leadership failures and moral transgressions within one’s own ranks that led to plundering, harassment, and ravishment. Both Burgundian and urban chroniclers engaged with this discourse: some highlighted ducal anti-rape policies to reinforce Burgundian legitimacy, while others exposed the contradictions between official prohibitions and the realities of war. Additionally, the portrayal of sexual violence intersects with the concept of moral injury, as chroniclers—both explicitly and implicitly—documented the violation of deeply held ideals about just warfare. As such, chroniclers constructed selective memories of sexual violence during warfare and revolts.
Keywords:
- Chronicles,
- Flanders,
- Burgundian Dukes,
- Sexual Violence,
- Moral Injury,
- Urban Revolt,
- War
Résumé
Dans les chroniques flamandes du Moyen Âge tardif, la violence sexuelle est souvent présentée comme une conséquence de la guerre. Les chroniqueurs distinguent le viol en tant que crime passionnel du viol sous menace d’arme, faisant ainsi écho, plus largement, aux perceptions sociales de la violence sexuelle. Ces récits cherchent souvent à diaboliser les ennemis en soulignant leur corruption morale, mais ils révèlent également des anxiétés liées aux échecs des dirigeants et aux transgressions morales du propre camp, qui ont entraîné pillages, persécutions et enlèvements. Tant les chroniqueurs bourguignons que les chroniqueurs urbains reprennent ce discours : certains mettent en avant les politiques ducales contre le viol pour renforcer la légitimité bourguignonne, tandis que d’autres soulèvent les contradictions entre les interdictions officielles et les réalités de la guerre. La représentation de la violence sexuelle rejoint en outre la notion de préjudice moral, car les chroniqueurs documentent – explicitement et implicitement – la violation d’idéaux relatifs à la guerre juste. Les chroniqueurs ont ainsi construit des mémoires sélectives de la violence sexuelle en temps de guerre et de révoltes.
Mots-clés :
- Chroniques,
- Flandres,
- Ducs de Bourgogne,
- Violence sexuelle,
- Injustice morale,
- Révolte urbaine,
- Guerre
Appendices
Bibliography
- Bruges, Openbare Bibliotheek (OB), MS 437
- Douai, Bibliothèque municipale (BM), MS 1110
- Baskins, Cristelle. “Bocche Inutili: Incorporating Pisa in the Florentine Imaginary.” Early Modern Women 1 (Fall 2006): 37–67. https://doi.org/10.1086/EMW23541456.
- Besamusca, Bart, and Lisa Demets. “In Between Dutch and French: Multilingual Literary Patronage of the Flemish Nobility in the Fifteenth Century.” In Medieval French Interlocutions: Shifting Perspectives on a Language in Contact, edited by Thomas O’Donnell, Jane Gilbert, and Brian J. Reilly, 253–68. Woodbridge: York Medieval Press, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781805433187-016.
- Bokody, Péter. The Imagery and Politics of Sexual Violence in Early Renaissance Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009122528.
- Bourke, Joanna. Rape: A History from 1860 to the Present Day. London: Virago, 2007.
- Bousmar, Éric. “Duchesse de Bourgogne ou ‘povre desolée pucelle’? Marie face à Louis XI dans les chapitres 45 et 46 des Chroniques de Jean Molinet.” In Jean Molinet et son temps: Actes des rencontres internationales de Dunkerque, Lille et Gand (8–10 novembre 2007), edited by Jean Devaux, Estelle Doudet, Élodie Lecuppre-Desjardin, and Jean Colloque, 97–113. Turnhout: Brepols, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.BURG-EB.1.101371.
- Brown-Grant, Rosalind. Visualizing Justice in Burgundian Prose Romance: Text and Image in Manuscripts of the Wavrin Master (1450s–1460s). Turnhout: Brepols, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.BURG-EB.5.118439.
- Chastelain, Georges. Chroniques. Edited by Kervyn de Lettenhove. Vol. 2. Brussels: Heussner, 1863.
- Cohn, Samuel. Lust for Liberty: The Politics of Social Revolt in Medieval Europe, 1200–1425: Italy, France, and Flanders. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvjz815j.
- Cohn, Samuel. Popular Protest in Late Medieval Europe: Italy, France, and Flanders. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004.
- Crombie, Laura. “Records and Rumours from Tournai: Jehan Nicolay’s Account of a Town at War and the Construction of Memory.” In Urban History Writing in Northwest Europe (15th–16th Centuries), edited by Bram Caers, Lisa Demets, and Tineke Van Gassen, 97–114. Turnhout: Brepols, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEUH-EB.5.116703.
- Culverhouse, Zenon. “From Mental Illness to Moral Injury: Psychological and Philosophical Perspectives on the Harm of Sexual Violence.” In Analyzing Violence against Women, edited by Wanda Teays, 81–94. Cham: Springer, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05989-7_7.
- Dagboek van Gent van 1447 tot 1470 met een vervolg van 1477 tot 1515. Edited by Victor Fris. 2 vols. Ghent: Annoot-Braeckman, 1901–4.
- Delameillieure, Chanelle. “Shades of Consent: Abduction for Marriage and Women’s Agency in the Late Medieval Low Countries.” In Litigating Women: Gender and Justice in Europe, c. 1300–c. 1800, edited by Teresa Philips and Deborah Youngs, 48–62. New York: Routledge, 2022. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429278037.
- Demets, Lisa. “Gendered Political Ideology in Late Medieval Bruges: Mary of Burgundy as City Maiden in the Manuscripts of the Excellente Cronike van Vlaenderen.” In Mary of Burgundy: “Persona,” Reign, and Legacy of a Late Medieval Duchess / Marie de Bourgogne: Figure, principat et postérité d’une duchesse tardo-médiévale, edited by Michael Depreter Elizabeth L’Estrange, Samuel Mareel, and Jonathan Dumont, 83–101. Turnhout: Brepols, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.BURG-EB.5.122534.
- Demets, Lisa. “The Late Medieval Manuscript Transmission of the Excellente Cronike van Vlaenderen in Urban Flanders.” Medieval Low Countries 3 (2016): 123–73. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.MLC.5.112393.
- Demets, Lisa. Onvoltooid verleden: De handschriften van de Excellente Cronike van Vlaenderen in de laatmiddeleeuwse Vlaamse steden (1440–1500). Hilversum: Verloren, 2020.
- Demets, Lisa. “Spies, Instigators, and Troublemakers: Gendered Perceptions of Rebellious Women in Late Medieval Flemish Chronicles.” Journal of Women’s History 33, no. 2 (Summer 2021): 12–34. https://doi.org/10.1353/jowh.2021.0013.
- Demets, Lisa, and Jan Dumolyn. “La ville comme Sainte Vierge: Un aspect de l’idéologie urbaine en Flandre médiévale (fin du XIVe siècle–début du XVIe siècle).” Cahiers électroniques d’histoire textuelle du Laboratoire de Médiévistique Occidentale de Paris 9 (2016): 24–52.
- Demets, Lisa, and Jan Dumolyn. “Urban Chronicle Writing in Late Medieval Flanders: The Case of Bruges during the Flemish Revolt of 1482–1490.” Urban History 46, no. 1 (February 2016): 28–45. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926815000152.
- Demuynck, Roger. “De Gentse Oorlog (1379–1385): Oorzaken en karakter.” Handelingen van de Maatschappij voor Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde te Gent 5 (1951): 305–18.
- De Roovere, Anthonis. Van pays en oorloghe. Edited by Hans van Liesvelt. Antwerp: Hans van Liesvelt, 1557.
- Dumolyn, Jan. De Brugse Opstand van 1436–1438. Kortrijk-Heule: UGA, 1997.
- Dumolyn, Jan, and Jelle Haemers. “Patterns of Urban Rebellion in Medieval Flanders.” Journal of Medieval History 31, no. 4 (2005): 369–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmedhist.2005.08.001.
- Dunn, Caroline. Stolen Women in Medieval England: Rape, Abduction, and Adultery, 1100–1500. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139061919.
- Firnhaber-Baker, Justine. “Soldiers, Villagers, and Politics: Military Violence and the Jacquerie of 1358.” In Routiers et mercenaires pendant la guerre de Cent Ans: Hommage à Jonathan Sumption, edited by Guilhem Pépin, Françoise Lainé, and Frédéric Boutoulle, 101–14. Bordeaux: Ausonius Éditions, 2016.
- Foehr-Janssens, Yasmina. “À force de rire: Paroles de jeunes filles et rhétorique du viol dans les Cent Nouvelles nouvelles.” In Ainsi passe le texte: Mélanges en hommage à Madeleine Jeay, edited by Véronique Duché-Gavet, Yen-Maï Tran-Gervat, and Daniel J. Maher, 229–48. Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2018. https://dx.doi.org/10.15122/isbn.978-2-406-07364-2.p.0229.
- Haemers, Jelle. De Gentse opstand (1449–1453): De strijd tussen rivaliserende netwerken om het stedelijke kapitaal. Kortrijk-Heule: UGA, 2004.
- Harris, Ruth. “The ‘Child of the Barbarian’: Rape, Race and Nationalism in France during the First World War.” Past & Present 141, no. 1 (November 1993): 170–206. https://doi.org/10.1093/past/141.1.170.
- Het boeck van al ’t gene datter gheschiedt is binnen Brugghe sichtent jaer 1477, 14 februarii, tot 1491. Edited by Charles Louis Carton. Ghent: Annoot-Breackman, 1859.
- Hurlock, Kathryn. “Was There Combat Trauma in the Middle Ages? A Case for Moral Injury in Pre-modern Conflict.” In Combat Stress in Pre-modern Europe: Mental Health in Historical Perspective, edited by Owen Rees, Kathryn Hurlock, and Jason Crowley, 123–50. Cham: Springer, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09947-2_7.
- Lie, Orlanda S. H., Martine Meuwese, Mark Aussems, and Hermina Joldersma. Christine de Pizan in Bruges: “Le livre de la cité des dames” as “Het Bouc van de Stede der Vrauwen” (London, British Library, MS Add. 20698). Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren, 2015.
- McDougall, Sara. “Judging Sexy Women in Late Medieval France.” Postmedieval 13 (September 2022): 81–104. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41280-022-00227-1.
- Monstrelet, Enguerrand de. Chroniques. Edited by Widow of Jules Renouard. Vol. 2. Paris, 1858.
- Nicolay, Jehan. Kalendrier des guerres de Tournay (1477–1479). Edited by Fréderic Hennebert. Brussels: Decq, 1853.
- Oosterman, Johan. “Anthonis de Roovere, Het werk: Overlevering, toeschrijving en plaatsbepaling.” Jaarboek de Fonteine (1995–96): 29–140.
- Pistono, Stephen. “Rape in Medieval Europe.” Atlantis 14, no. 2 (1989): 36–43.
- Prevenier, Walter. “Violence against Women in Fifteenth-Century France and the Burgundian State.” In Medieval Crime and Social Control, edited by Barbara Hanawalt and David Wallace, 186–203. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999.
- Ramsay, Alison. “On the Link between Rape, Abduction and War in Christine de Pizan’s Cité des dames.” In Contexts and Continuities: Proceedings of the IVth International Colloquium on Christine de Pizan (Glasgow 21–27 July 2000) Published in Honour of Liliane Dulac, edited by Angus J. Kennedy, Rosalind Brown-Grant, James C. Laidlaw, and Catherine M. Müller, 693–703. Glasgow: University of Glasgow Press, 2002.
- Saunders, Corinne. Rape and Ravishment in the Literature of Medieval England. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781846150135.
- Scherpereel, Joke. “Agressie in de late middeleeuwen: Een kwalitatief onderzoek naar geweldsdelicten in Vlaanderen en meer bepaald te Gent (1385–1500).” Master’s thesis, Ghent University, 1986.
- Schnerb, Bertrand. Jean sans Peur, le prince meurtrier. Paris: Payot, 2005.
- Trio, Paul. “The Chronicle Attributed to ‘Olivier van Diksmuide’: A Misunderstood Town Chronicle of Ypres from Late Medieval Flanders.” In The Medieval Chronicle V, edited by Erik Kooper, 211–25. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401205511_016.
- Van Dixmude, Olivier. Merckwaerdige gebeurtenissen vooral in Vlaenderen en Brabant, en ook in de aengrenzende landstreken: Van 1377 tot 1443. Edited by Jean-Jacques Lambin. Ypres: Lambin, 1835.
- Van Gassen, Tineke. “The Diary of Ghent: Between Urban Politics and Late Medieval Historiography.” In Urban History Writing in North-Western Europe (15th–16th Centuries), edited by Bram Caers, Lisa Demets, and Tineke Van Gassen, 115–36. Turnhout: Brepols, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEUH-EB.5.116703.
- Verbruggen, Jan-Frans. “De militairen: In de middeleeuwen en de Bourgondische tijd.” In Flandria Nostra, edited by J. Broeckx, Charles de Clercq, Jan Dhondt, and Marcel Nauwelaerts, 161–234. Vol. 5. Antwerp: Standaard Boekhandel, 1957–60.
- Verreycken, Quentin. Crimes et gens de guerre au Moyen Âge: Angleterre, France et principautés bourguignonnes au XVe siècle. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2023.
- Verreycken, Quentin. “Le soldat face au sacré: La lutte contre le viol des femmes et des lieux saints dans les armées de Charles le Hardi (1465–1477), moyen de promotion d’un nouveau modèle de comportement des gens de guerre?” In Le soldat face au clerc: Armée et religion en Europe occidentale (XVe–XIXe siècle), edited by Laurent Jalabert and Stefano Simiz, 164–79. Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2016. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pur.47591.
- Vigarello, Georges. Histoire du viol, XVIe–XXe siècle. Paris: Seuil, 1998.
- Wielant, Philip. Antiquités de Flandre. Edited by Joseph-Jean De Smet. Brussels: Hayez, 1837–65.
- Wielant, Philip. Practijcke criminele. Edited by Auguste Orts. Ghent: C. Annoot-Braeckman, 1872.
- Wood, Elisabeth. “Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and the Policy Implications of Recent Research.” International Review of the Red Cross 96, no. 894 (2014): 457–78. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1816383115000077.