MEMORIES FROM THE FRONTLINE: MEMORY AND JUSTIFICATION OF VIOLENCE IN JEAN DE WAURIN’S ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE OF VERNEUIL (1424)

Memórias da linha de frente: memória e justificação da violência no relato de Jean de Waurin sobre a batalha de Verneuil (1424)

Abstract

This article uses an in-depth analysis of Jean de Waurin’s eyewitness account of the battle of Verneuil (1424) to argue that memory was used to defend violent conduct within warfare. Using the historical and literary context of the fifteenth-century Burgundian court and the medieval just war tradition the article discusses justice and chivalry within the retelling of a personal memory. Ultimately Waurin’s narrative demonstrated a belief that violence in pursuit of justice was not incompatible with Christian virtue. Waurin used his memory to defend his own personal conduct as well as the conduct of his comrades. The author demonstrated this argument through various “emplotting” techniques, placing various detailed vignettes within the overall narrative of the battle. The author then wrote the “ideal” memory of the English army and attempted to form the memory of the event in the minds of his audience.