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Review
| Joan of Arc and the Hundred Years War, by Deborah A. Fraioli. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 185 pages. $45.00, cloth.
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| This book provides a thought-provoking and unconventional approach to the subject of the Hundred Years War. Rather than focusing solely on Joan of Arc and her role in the war, as the title suggests, Deborah Fraioli, a professor of foreign languages and literatures, emphasizes the complexity of the conflict and the effects of the war at all levels of society. This refreshing approach, coupled with the attractive organization makes it a significant contribution to studies of the multifaceted negotiations between England and France during this period. Following a first chapter on the causes of the war, emphasizing the precedents of royal inheritance, the ritual of homage, and the dispute over Aquitaine, Fraioli discusses popular uprisings in Flanders, France, and England. The author approaches this traditional topic from new directions. She focuses most on the rebels' general support of the war and their common resistance to taxation. The author emphasizes important recent historiography that argues that these rebels were not exploited masses rebelling against oppressive systems; instead they were individuals, including those of the middling sort, who were revolting against challenges to a rise in living standards. Next, Fraioli discusses the impact of the ideals of chivalry on those engaged in the battles and argues that the Hundred Years War was crucial to the changing understanding of war by participants and observers, as revealed in the literature of chivalry and warfare. In chapter four, Fraioli argues that the mythology of the monarchy of France, which adopted Christianity in its rituals, was special and set the French monarchy apart and above other Western monarchies. Her discussion of the development of this religion of the monarchy is useful in grasping contemporary understandings of the position of the king of France at this time. The author's strongest chapter completes the work with her discussion of Joan of Arc, a subject on which she has previously published. This chapter includes complex analysis of the primary sources we have from and about Joan, including her letter declaring war on the English before Orleans and the trials before her death. Fraioli examines not only her deeds, but more interestingly how Joan understood her role in the conflict. |
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Because Fraioli is approaching these subjects as they pertain only to the Hundred Years War, she has a tendency to generalize specific topics with the result of oversimplifying complex issues. For example, in her consideration of chivalry, she draws too simple a dichotomy to explain English victories in early skirmishes. She depicts the French as tragically chivalric, unwilling to relinquish their ideals of honor, and the English as fighters driven to win who employed ignoble war tactics. In her descriptions of the battle encounters, the author often moves too freely between literature and history in her attempt to explain the connections between the ideals of chivalry and the beliefs and deeds of these fighters. It can be dangerous to use literature to reflect directly the thoughts and actions of people in the past. Likewise, in her efforts to emphasize the idea of a distinctive religion of the monarchy of France, which she argues made French kingship superior to others, for example, to "Irish chieftains [who] were inaugurated simply by being raised on a shield, receiving a rod, or standing on a stone" (p. 46), she oversimplifies an issue that deserves more nuanced discussion. |
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The author's approach with this work coincides with the goal of the Greenwood Guides series, which is to consider medieval events in new ways and to present recent research by discussing historiographical debates on main issues (p. xx). Fraioli provides useful reference materials for the reader, including a map, illustrations, a general chronology followed by a chronology of kings and royal family genealogies, and a historical overview. Following her chapters she incorporates a set of bibliographies of the main actors, a collection of primary sources to which she refers throughout the work and many of which she translated herself, a glossary, an annotated bibliography, and a index. These apparatuses and the author's attention to historiography, along with notes following each chapter, should attract a broad audience. Although in areas this book sacrifices depth for breadth, this work will be helpful to both secondary and post-secondary educators, as well as post-secondary students, as an introduction to the actors in and complicated contexts of the Hundred Years War and the later Middle Ages. |
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| University of Minnesota |
Kate Staples |
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