Background
Georges Chastellain was born in 1405 in Aalst, Belgium. He derived his surname from the fact that his ancestors were burgraves or chatelains of the town; his parents, who belonged to illustrious Flemish families, were probably.
Georges Chastellain was born in 1405 in Aalst, Belgium. He derived his surname from the fact that his ancestors were burgraves or chatelains of the town; his parents, who belonged to illustrious Flemish families, were probably.
Ten years were spent in France, where Georges Chastellain was connected with Georges de la Tremoille, and afterwards entered the household of Pierre de Br6ze, at that time seneschal of Poitou, by whom he was employed on missions to the duke of Burgundy, in an attempt to establish better relations between Charles VII and the duke.
During these years Chastellain had ample opportunity of obtaining an intimate knowledge of French affairs, but on the further breach between the two princes, Chastellain left the French service to enter Philip's household.
From this time he worked hard at his Chronique, with occasional interruptions in his retreat to fulfil missions in France, or to visit the Burgundian court.
He was assisted, from about 1463 onwards, by his disciple and continuator, Jean Molinet, whose rhetorical and redundant style may be fairly traced in some passages of the Chronique.
Only about one- third of the whole work, which extended from 1419 to 1474, is known to be in existence, but MSS.
carried by the Habsburgs to Vienna or Madrid may possibly yet be discovered. Among his contemporaries Chastellain acquired a great reputation by his poems and occasional pieces now little considered.
The unfinished state of his Chronique at the time of his death, coupled with political considerations, may possibly account for the fact that it remained unprinted during the century that followed his death, and his historical work was only disinterred from the libraries of Arras, Paris and Brussels by the painstaking researches of M. Buchon in 1825.
This defect appears most strongly in his treatment of Joan of Arc; and the attack on Agnes Sorel seems to have been dictated by the dauphin (afterwards 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 Froissart had been, by feudal and chivalric tradition into misconception of the radical injustice of the English cause in France; and except in isolated instances where Burgundian interests were at stake, he did full justice to the patriotism of Frenchmen.
The most interesting feature of his work is the skill with which he pictures the leading figures of his time.
Chastellain's French style, based partly on his Latin reading, has, together with its undeniable vigour and picturesqueness, the characteristic redundance and rhetorical quality of the Burgundian school. Chastellain was no 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.
(French Edition. This book was originally published prior ...)
(French Edition. A commentary by Georges Chastellain about...)
(French Edition. V 2-3.)
(Volume 7. French Edition.)
Jean Chastellain and his wife Marie de Mas-mines mentioned in the town records in 1425 and 1432.
