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CHASTELLAIN, GEORGES (d. 1475)

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 959 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHASTELLAIN, GEORGES (d. 1475) , Burgundian chronicler, was a native of See also:Alost in See also:Flanders. He derived his surname from the fact that his ancestors were burgraves or chatelains of the See also:town; his parents, who belonged to illustrious Flemish families, were probably the See also:Jean Chastellain and his wife See also:Marie de Masmines mentioned in the town records in 1425 and 1432. A copy of an See also:epitaph originally at See also:Valenciennes states that he died on the loth of See also:March 1474-5 aged seventy. But since he states that he was so See also:young a See also:child in 1430 that he could not recollect the details of events in that See also:year, and since he was " tcolier " at See also:Louvain in 1430, his See also:birth may probably be placed nearer 1415 than 1405. He saw active service in the Anglo-See also:French See also:wars and probably elsewhere, winning the surname of L'adventureux. In 1434 he received a See also:gift from See also:Philip the See also:Good, See also:duke of See also:Burgundy, for his military services, but on the conclusion of the See also:peace of See also:Arras in the next year he abandoned soldiering for See also:diplomacy. The next ten years were spent in See also:France, where he was connected with Georges de la Tremoille, and afterwards entered the See also:house-hold of See also:Pierre de See also:Breze, at that See also:time See also:seneschal of See also:Poitou, by whom he was employed on See also:missions to the duke of Burgundy, in an See also:attempt to establish better relations between See also:Charles VII. and the duke. During these years Chastellain had ample opportunity of obtaining an intimate knowledge of French affairs, but on the further See also:breach between the two princes, Chastellain See also:left the French service to enter Philip's See also:household. He was at first pantler, then See also:carver, titles which are misleading as to the nature of his services, which were those of a diplomatist; and in 1457 he became a member of the ducal See also:council. He was continually employed on See also:diplomatic errands until 1455, when, owing apparently to See also:ill-See also:health, he received apartments in the See also:palace of the See also:Counts of See also:Hainaut at Salle-le-See also:Comte, Valenciennes, with a See also:con-siderable See also:pension, on See also:condition that the recipient should put in See also:writing " choses nouvelles et morales," and a See also:chronicle of notable events. That is to say, he was appointed Burgundian historiographer with a recommendation to write also on other subjects not strictly within the See also:scope of a chronicler.

From this time he worked hard at his Chronique, with occasional interruptions in his See also:

retreat to fulfil missions in France, or to visit the Burgundian See also:court. He was assisted, from about 1463 onwards, by his See also:disciple and continuator, Jean See also:Molinet, whose rhetorical and redundant See also:style may be fairly traced in some passages of the Chronique. Charles the Bold maintained the traditions of his house as a See also:patron of literature, and showed See also:special favour to Chastellain, who, after being constituted indiciaire or chronicler of the See also:order of the See also:Golden Fleece, was himself made a See also:knight of the order on the 2nd of May 1473. He died at Valenciennes on the 13th of See also:February (according to the See also:treasury accounts), or on the 20th of March (according to his epitaph) 1475. He left an illegitimate son, to whom was paid in 1524 one See also:hundred and twenty livres for a copy of the Chronique intended for Charles V.'s See also:sister See also:Mary, See also:queen of See also:Hungary. Only about one-third of the whole See also:work, which extended from 1419 to 1474, is known to be in existence, but See also:MSS. carried by the Habsburgs to See also:Vienna or See also:Madrid may possibly yet be discovered. Among his contemporaries Chastellain acquired a See also:great reputation by his poems and occasional pieces now little considered. The unfinished See also:state of his Chronique at the time of his See also:death, coupled with See also:political considerations, may possibly See also:account for the fact that it remained unprinted during the See also:century that followed his death, and his See also:historical work was only disinterred from the See also:libraries of Arras, See also:Paris and See also:Brussels by the painstaking researches of M. See also:Buchon in 1825. Chastellain was constantly engaged during the earlier See also:part of his career in negotiations between the French and Burgundian courts, and thus had See also:personal knowledge of the persons and events dealt with in his See also:history. A See also:partisan See also:element in writing of French affairs was inevitable in a Burgundian chronicle. This defect appears most strongly in his treatment of See also:Joan of Arc; and the attack on See also:Agnes See also:Sorel seems to have been dictated by the dauphin (afterwards See also:Louis XI.), then a refugee in Burgundy, of whom he was afterwards to become a severe critic.

He was not, however, misled, as his more picturesque predecessor See also:

Froissart had been, by feudal and chivalric tradition into misconception of the See also:radical injustice of the See also:English cause in France; and except in isolated instances where Burgundian interests were at stake, he did full See also:justice to the patriotism of Frenchmen. Among his most sympathetic portraits are those of his friend Pierre de' Breze and of Jacques Coeur. His French style, based partly on his Latin See also:reading, has, together with its undeniable vigour and picturesqueness, the characteristic redundance and rhetorical quality of the Burgundian school. Chastellain was no See also:mere annalist, but proposed to fuse and shape his vast material to his own conclusions, in accordance with his political experience. The most interesting feature of his work is the skill with which he pictures the leading figures of his time. His " characters " are the See also:fruit of acute and experienced observation, and abound in satirical traits, although the 42nd See also:chapter of his second See also:book, devoted expressly to See also:portraiture, is headed " Comment Georges escrit et mentionne See also:les louanges vertueuses See also:des princes de son temps." The known extant fragments of Chastellain's Chroniques with his other See also:works were edited by Kervyn de Lettenhove for the Brussels See also:Academy in 1863–1866 (8 vols., Brussels) as fEuvres de Georges Chastellain. This edition includes all that had been already published by Buchon in his Collection de chroniques and Choix de chroniques (material subsequently incorporated in the See also:Pantheon littiraire), and portions printed by See also:Renard in his Tresor See also:national, vol. i. and by See also:Quicherat in the Prods de la Pucelle vol. iv. Kervyn de Lettenhove's See also:text includes the portions of the chronicle covering the periods See also:September 1419, See also:October 1422, See also:January 1430 to See also:December 1431, 1451-1452, Jul 1454 to October 1458, See also:July 1461 to July 1463, and, with omissions, See also:June 1467 to September 1470 ; and three volumes of See also:minor pieces of considerable See also:interest, especially Le See also:Temple de Boccace, dedicated to See also:Margaret of See also:Anjou, and the Deprecation for Pierre Breze, imprisoned by Louis XI. In the See also:case of these minor works the attribution to Chastellain is in some cases erroneous, notably in the case of the Livre des faits de Jacques de Lalain, which is the work of See also:Lefebvre de See also:Saint-Remi, See also:herald of the Golden Fleece. In the allegorical Oultre d'amour it has been thought a real See also:romance between Brezts and a See also:lady of the royal house is concealed. See A. See also:Molinier, Les See also:Sources de l'histoire de France; as well as notices by Kervyn de Lettenhove prefixed to the Euvres and in the Biographie nationale de Belgique; and an See also:article (three parts) by Vallet de Viriville in the See also:Journal des savants (1867).

End of Article: CHASTELLAIN, GEORGES (d. 1475)

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