Download Ebook Philippe de Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, by Irit Ruth Kleiman
What kind of publication Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman you will prefer to? Now, you will certainly not take the published book. It is your time to get soft data publication Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman instead the published documents. You can appreciate this soft data Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman in at any time you expect. Even it is in expected area as the various other do, you can review guide Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman in your device. Or if you really want a lot more, you could read on your computer system or laptop computer to get complete display leading. Juts discover it here by downloading and install the soft file Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman in link page.
Philippe de Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, by Irit Ruth Kleiman
Download Ebook Philippe de Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, by Irit Ruth Kleiman
Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman. Haggling with reading practice is no need. Reviewing Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman is not type of something marketed that you can take or not. It is a point that will certainly alter your life to life better. It is the important things that will make you lots of things all over the world and this universe, in the real world as well as below after. As exactly what will be made by this Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman, just how can you bargain with things that has numerous advantages for you?
Below, we have many book Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman and collections to check out. We also serve variant kinds as well as sort of the books to look. The fun e-book, fiction, history, novel, scientific research, and various other sorts of books are offered right here. As this Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman, it comes to be one of the recommended e-book Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman collections that we have. This is why you remain in the ideal website to view the remarkable books to own.
It will not take more time to purchase this Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman It will not take even more cash to publish this e-book Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman Nowadays, people have actually been so clever to use the modern technology. Why do not you use your gizmo or various other device to conserve this downloaded and install soft data e-book Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman By doing this will certainly allow you to always be gone along with by this book Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman Of program, it will be the very best pal if you review this book Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman up until completed.
Be the first to obtain this e-book now as well as obtain all reasons you have to read this Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman Guide Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman is not simply for your obligations or need in your life. E-books will consistently be a buddy in every single time you read. Now, let the others know for this web page. You could take the advantages and discuss it additionally for your buddies as well as people around you. By in this manner, you can truly obtain the definition of this e-book Philippe De Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, By Irit Ruth Kleiman beneficially. Just what do you consider our suggestion here?
Philippe de Commynes, a diplomat who specialized in clandestine operations, served King Louis XI during his campaign to undermine aristocratic resistance and consolidate the sovereignty of the French throne. He is credited with inventing the political memoir, but his reminiscence has also been described as ‘the confessions of a traitor’: Commynes had abandoned Louis’ rival, the Burgundian duke Charles the Bold, before joining forces with the king.
This study provides a literary re-evaluation of Commynes’ text – a perennial subject of scandal and fascination – while questioning what the terms ‘traitor’ or ‘betrayed’ meant in the context of fifteenth-century France. Drawing on diplomatic letters and court transcripts, Irit Kleiman examines the mutual connections between writing and betrayal in Commynes’ representation of Louis’ reign, the relationship between the author and the king, and the emergence of the memoir as an autobiographical genre. This study significantly deepens our understanding of how historical narrative and diplomatic activities are intertwined in the work of this iconic, iconoclastic figure.
- Published on: 2013-03-22
- Released on: 2013-08-08
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
‘The stories that Kleiman tells are fascinating, aided by copious quotations from the Mémoires, deftly translated and analyzed.’ (Catherine Emerson Modern Language Review, vol 109:03:2014)
‘Philippe de Commynes is a beautiful demonstration of how literary analysis can shed new light on nonfictional texts… Extremely readable, and always engaging, this book will no doubt succeed in bringing the Memoires to the wider audience they deserve.’
(Ellen McClure Renaissance Quarterly vol 67:04:2014)‘This is a smart, theoretically informed, confidently argued book…. An important contribution to the scholarship on Commynes, and on the history of writing and the intellectual history of politics in the fifteenth century more broadly.’
(Paul Cohen University of Toronto Quarterly vol 84:03:2015) Review
‘It is both a pleasure and a valuable intellectual experience to read Philippe de Commynes, a very well-written, erudite, and insightful work. Exploring important and far-reaching questions, this book constitutes a significant advance to scholarly research on late medieval and early modern political philosophy, the history of autobiography and the memoir, and the relevance of textual production to the transformation of social, cultural, and political structures.’ (Daisy Delogu, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago)
“Under Irit Ruth Kleiman’s sharp pen, Philippe de Commynes comes to life as one of the first modern European writers, and betrayal is proven critical to the formation of Western subjectivity. This is an important book for historians, literary critics, and anyone who cares about divided loyalties. It is also a joy to read.” (Virginie Greene, Chair and Professor of French, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University)
“Kleiman intriguingly unravels Commynes’ Mémoires, showing how much they both hide and reveal the reality of Commynes's shift of allegiance from the Burgundian duke Charles the Bold to the French king Louis XI in 1472. By underlining the literary quality of the Mémoires, Kleiman helps us better understand modern reactions to what has often been interpreted as one of the greatest acts of political betrayal in western history.” (Michael Randall, Professor of French and Comparative Literature, Brandeis University)
About the Author
Irit Ruth Kleiman is an assistant professor in the Department of Romance Studies at Boston University.
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Vital and worthy for anyone interested in the War of the Roses or Richard III
By Beth E. Williams
“… it is terrifying to think how much research is needed to determine the truth of even the most unimportant fact …” (Stendahl)
With only weeks to go before Richard III of England is reburied in Leicester there is quite a lovely surge of books about him, some that will be retread ad hominem, (ie. Michael Hicks) while others will pursue many of the threads historians, biographers, writers, have either overlooked or avoided in the mis-named conflict known as the War of the Roses. Amy Licence has impressed me with her serious efforts to fill in so many of the blanks on the missing biographies of these women in what was a staggering family feud, all descended from Edward III's many sons and set in motion when one grandson (Henry IV) deposed and likely murdered his cousin, Richard II. It certainly didn't help that Richard II appears to have enjoyed taunting his cousin (Bolingbroke at the time) by naming their Uncle Lionel of Antwerp’s heirs, the Mortimers, as his royal heirs. For the unwary reader, Richard III. Edward IV, Edward V and his brother Richard duke of York were themselves direct descendants of no fewer than three of Edward III's sons (2nd, 3rd, and 5th).
For the upcoming event I have chosen to concentrate on titles that are peripherally connected to Richard but I would emphasize, should be read by any Ricardian or interested reader of the WoTR. This comprehensive biography/analysis of the Memoirs of Philippe de Commynes is where I began and it made for illuminating cross-references. For one thing, the author, Irit Ruth Kleiman, is not a historian per se, certainly not of the WoTR, her area pertains to Romance Studies but nonetheless she had several observations and statements that struck me as very close to shocking, as in how did I not read this information in Hicks, or for that matter, any other author?
Simple explanation, academia is by nature tribal in their sensibilities: they 'know' about their direct discipline, but not 'yours,' they pursue research in their 'area' but wouldn't dare tread into another academic's 'area of expertise' - one simply does not cross boundaries set by their degree, their seniority, their department's concept of itself. Kleiman is part of the Literature department, totally outside what any military/ WoTR historian would even consider reading, even out of curiosity. The back jacket's review quotes are all from similar like-minded academics, all from Romance Language departments. This actually worked in my favor as Kleiman has no apparent bias, no horse in this race, as they say. She probably doesn't know Bolingbroke from the Earl of March to Owen Tudor or the many dukes of Gloucester. Kleiman is concerned with the language itself in Commynes' much published "memoirs" that are so often cited by historians, both sympathetic and antithetical to Richard and the Yorkists in general.
Much of what interested me was not her usual prose (such as “what a narrative is “about” and what its “work” is need not be identical,” pg 20 or “…Cato serves in turn as Commyne’s therapeutic listening Other in the continuation of this most private conversation. If there is a mythology here, it is an erotic mythology of desire perfectly satisfied…,” p.200); well, we need not be concerned with the Literature Department’s tortured analysis – Kleiman, perhaps inadvertently, is quite helpful for Ricardian research as well as those solely interested in the WoTR:
Commynes was not just a Flemish opportunist who was left burdened with enormous debts from his father’s estates, he was ill-educated, had no knowledge of Latin and his handwriting was illegible, and so we find out that these all important Memoirs, testimony of both Richard as Duke of Gloucester and later during the 1483 crisis/usurpation, were most likely dictated, not written by Commynes while he was under house arrest (having been part of a usurping rebellion against the regent, Anne de Beaujeu, by the cousin who would become Louis XII) we are TOLD by Commynes that these Memoirs were allegedly requested by the Archbishop of Vienne, Angelo Cato - a most intriguing individual all on his own, astrologer, ‘physician,’ confidante to both the melancholic Charles Duke of Burgundy and his arch enemy, Louis XI of France, both in their last years years (p. 197) - and especially if we recall that it was also Cato who sent Italian Dominic Mancini to Edward IV’s London, possibly as early as fall 1482 for reasons much speculated upon. When historians base so much of their argument on these contemporaneous ‘authors’ it behooves the diligent to find out more about both Mancini and Commynes. (As to Mancini, that would appear to be a harder task, much of what we are told – as if written in stone – comes from C.A.J. Armstrong’s translation of Mancini’s report written in December 1483, after being recalled to France by Cato, and with whom Mancini resided while the report was being crafted).
Commynes is proving to be an easier quality to know, especially as Kleiman drops details she has no idea are stunners to another discipline, the political history of the late European Middle Ages! Not only do we learn that Commynes did not write by hand his Memoirs we do not even know if Cato ever saw them, which is key, as Commynes cited Cato as the dignitary who requested he write them! AND most intriguingly, we only have Commynes’ word that Cato requested them (p.6) for a biography of Louis XI of France. This is completely new information for me, especially as Mancini’s allegedly eye-witness, neutral party report on the usurpation and possible deaths of the two sons of Edward IV is posited as requested by Cato who was supposedly using such material on a biography of Louis?! Mancini knew virtually little English, whatever he heard in London may well have been by those sympathetic to both France and to an end to Yorkist rule.
Additionally, a curious fact about Commynes is that after years with Charles Count of Charolais - then the Duke of Burgundy - as a most trusted inner-circle intimate, he suddenly bolted in the middle of the night, leaving Charles’s camp, and showed up three weeks later with his despised enemy, Louis XI (pps 35-7). Most often this has been treated sympathetically as a decent man who realized that the often violent and cruel nature of Charles (p. 222 for just one example) was simply more than he could live with and yet jumped ship to a man who, unquestionably, had his own heavy streak of cruelty, although often more calculated and subtle than Charles as to where Louis practiced his revenge. Kleiman, again unknowingly, answers that puzzling act of betrayal by blithely telling us that Commynes 1472 arrival at his side Louis had “6000 livres tournois placed for Commynes with his trusted Jean de Beaune in Tours…” (p.96) this was followed by another 6000 annual pension, an appointment as Captain of Chinon, appointed Seneschal of Poitou, provided with a wealthy heiress to marry (Helene des Chambes), receiving her barony of Argenton etc etc etc; Kleiman sums up this horde of goodies and compensation from a man he could scarcely be said to know, Louis XI, with “an orphaned inheritor of debts now became the Prince of Talmont…” (p.96)
Oh but she has more … the “why” would Commynes betray his master, Charles, in an age where loyalty was synonymous with one’s very identity, one’s moral fiber and honor, is a question that has bothered historians for centuries. Charles, we are told, would never forgive Commynes, even with a blanket amnesty years later; no, the very dawn that Commynes went missing Charles in a fit of pique gave/threw away all of Commynes’ possessions (again pps 35-8); is that the way you would react if one of your confidantes went missing? Act as if they were gone forever, as if it wasn’t something more ordinary, like an assignation, had occurred? And so we come to the best part of Kleiman’s research … from the time that Commynes first met their enemy Louis XI in Peronne, alongside his master Charles, 1468, Kleiman suggests it is because Commynes and Louis came to an understanding that they could help each other, meaning Commynes became a spy in Charles inner most court for Louis XI, “for more than four years, only revealing himself when threatened with exposure if he did not immediately come to the King’s court…” (p. 37; also see p.215 note 7).
Once we, among those who study both Richard and the WoTR, when we recognize that Commynes remained at Charles court purely to spy on his master FOR his master’s arch enemy, Louis XI, can we reassess just what the Memoirs were about and why he wrote them, with or without Cato’s prodding. The very chaos that Louis feared for his young heir, the dauphin Charles (VIII) once he died (and Louis was on borrowed time since at least 1481) and which Mancini allegedly witnessed IN England, the arch enemy of Louis, that of putting aside a child king for an adult man, is exactly what did happen in France once Louis finally died in late August 1483, 4 months after his mortal enemy, Edward IV of England.
While Louis had long isolated his young son from any and every possible assassination, by poison or knives, the boy was in no way the very image and manner and intellect of his father, that would be the eldest sister, the formidable Madame la Grande, Anne de Beaujeu, who had been trained for regency by her father perhaps as much as a year before his death. As in England, there would be no smooth transition in France, the young Charles would have his sister and brother-in-law rule him and France till he was 21 – but immediately after Louis’s death the court and adult scions of the royal and extended family much preferred to back the regency claims of Louis duc’ Orleans (who would eventually reign as Louis XII). This court rebellion, bubbling under the surface, is quite probably the best reason that Mancini’s finger wagging report, along with other diatribes about English murder and corruptions, was used in a public address, a detail historians love to point to as if that was damning to Richard. ANY English king would have inspired their venom, and the crimes they cite are in fact child’s play next to the messy reigns of the Valois or Capets! This insurrection against Anne de Beaujeu’s control of the king DID lead to a real “war” and usually referred to as the Mad War (Guerre Folle), with some nobles and royals lining up with Anne, others lining up with Louis duc’ Orleans.
It did not end well for those attempting to depose the regent (p.234, notes 55-6) ; Commynes fell from grace completely in 1483-87, lands and estates and titles snatched away, imprisoned in a hanging iron cage at Loches (one of Louis XI’s favorite methods of preventing political prisoners from escaping at night), in the end he is in banishment at his remaining estate, and about to write his Memoirs, around 1489.
In a fine biography of Charles, duke of Burgundy, by Richard Vaughan, the author cites the analysis of Karl Bittman about Commynes, true, they were biased against the betrayal by Commynes, but they were also interested in the veracity and motivations of Commynes, “Bittman’s analysis fully confirms what one has long suspected: that Commynes is one of the greatest liars in the history of historical writing…” (p. 44).
Every interested party studying the WoTR and/or Richard should make the effort to read this discussion of Commynes, I can honestly say no one else has bothered to be this thorough from the history discipline! As to the value of Commynes Memoirs, whether we just think of them as self-serving revisionist effort to reclaim his ‘honor’ or if we decide that it is indeed “one of the first modern European writers,” I would suggest it has the same motivations as Sir Thomas More’s unfinished tale about Richard, the desire to be party to events of great moment is so much more palatable when one can posit themselves as providing a high minded account of unimpeachable veracity. Thomas More never finished his “history,” most likely due to an unhappy accumulation of opposing viewpoints, possibly information about Margaret Beaufort and Cardinal John Morton that was not what he was comfortable with, and even in light of the heinous tyranny of the Tudors that he was living through (until he was executed) the fable that was his “history” of Richard III just seemed so irrelevant or dangerous to publish lest anyone think he was writing about a long gone tyrant when the real dynastic tyrants were right in front of everyone to see.
Commynes is easier to understand, especially as not a shred of an existing copy (pps 6, 208) of the original manuscript has ever been found, his immersion in two of the most dangerous courts, Charles of Burgundy and Louis XI of France, was a land mine of duplicity masked as diplomacy, where literally every lst subject could be feared as some sort of agent spying, passively or actively, for someone who could end your life without batting an eye. The treacherous politics of the Continent that Louis negotiated with more than a little success, would be paralleled by the first Tudor, Henry VII, who we should remember, was certainly learned much and was party to such continental realities while he was in exile, and without such elements Henry would never have found an ‘army’ of malcontents and mercenaries with which to invade England and wrest the throne of England from the Yorkists, his own cousins.
Philippe de Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, by Irit Ruth Kleiman PDF
Philippe de Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, by Irit Ruth Kleiman EPub
Philippe de Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, by Irit Ruth Kleiman Doc
Philippe de Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, by Irit Ruth Kleiman iBooks
Philippe de Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, by Irit Ruth Kleiman rtf
Philippe de Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, by Irit Ruth Kleiman Mobipocket
Philippe de Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text, by Irit Ruth Kleiman Kindle
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar