Geoffroi de Charny
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- This article is about the French knight who died in 1356. For his Knight Templar uncle who was burned at the stake in 1314, see Geoffroy de Charney.
Geoffroi de Charny (c. 1300? – September 19, 1356), was a French knight and author of several works on chivalry.
A knight in the service of King John II of France and a member of the Order of the Star. Charny carried the Oriflamme, the standard of the crown of France, an immensely privileged, not to mention dangerous, honour, as it made the holder a key target of enemy forces on the battlefield. Geoffroi de Charny was perhaps Europe's premiere knight during his lifetime with a reputation for not only skill at arms but also piety and honour. In the atmosphere of the Hundred Years' War - a climate poisonous to chivalry - Geoffroi can be seen as the last of dying breed in a period where the aristocratic baggage of armoured knights was being replaced by the harsh practicalities of professional soldiering.
Geoffroi de Charny's widow Jeanne de Vergy is the first reliably recorded owner of the Turin Shroud. His uncle Geoffrey de Charney was Preceptor of Normandy for the Knights Templar and burned at the stake in 1314.
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[edit] Military career
Geoffroi de Charny fought at Hainult and in Flanders and participated in a failed crusade under Humbert II of Viennois in the late 1340s. Humbert, who sold his own title of Dauphin to the king of France was "utterly disqualified for the work assigned him" (1) and the crusaders signed a treaty with the Turks in 1348, despite capturing Smyrna (modern Izmir) under a previous commander. Geoffroi also spent time in captivity in England.
He was killed at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, a disastrous defeat for the French nobility that saw their king taken prisoner to England.
[edit] Works
Geoffroi de Charny's most famous work is his 'Book of Chivalry', written around 1350, which is, along with the works of Ramon Llull and Chretien de Troyes one of the best sources to understand how knights themselves understood and prioritised chivalric values in the 14th century. Geoffroi discusses many subjects but above all prioritises skill at arms over all other knightly virtues and war over all other forms of contest at arms.
He was also the author of 'Demands pour la joute, les tournois, et la guerre', in English, 'Questions for the joust, tournaments and war', a sort of FAQ on these three knightly pursuits. Unfortunately, as the text's name suggests, only the questions survive and not the answers. However, the way that the questions are phrased allows scholars to reach further conclusions about Geoffroi's conception of chivalry and war.
[edit] Further reading
- Richard W. Kaeuper & Elspeth Kennedy, A Knight's Own Book: Chivalry of Geoffroi de Charny, Pennsylvania U.P.
- Richard W. Kaeuper & Elspeth Kennedy, The Book of Chivalry of Geoffroi de Charny, Pennsylvania U.P., 1996.
- Steven Muhlberger, Jousts and Tournaments: Charny and chivalric sport in fourteenth-century France, Chivalry Bookshelf, 2003.
