Chastelain

Abstract

The study provides a comprehensive analysis of the passage on the emergence of Hussitism in the Chronicle written by Burgundy’s official historian, Georges Chastelain (1415–1470). The chapter in question, entitled “Comme il advint, en la cité de Pragues, ne merveilleuse confusion entre religieux et demoiselles”, was written in about 1455. According to Chastelain, the root cause of the chaos and wars was that girls in Prague were falling in love with monks at a local monastery where they would go to attend Mass. In order to deceive the Abbot, they would wear monk’s cowls and shaven tonsures. In Chastelain’s view, this was a complete collapse of values and the established hierarchies. It is therefore no wonder, then, that he placed the chapter on the girls of Prague within immediate proximity of a passage on Joan of Arc, who also had her hair cut short and dressed as a man. In so doing, he could call attention to the fact that women had recently been the cause of unrest and bloodshed. The story of the girls of Prague is not to be found in any other document; however, its sources of inspiration and similarly oriented misogynistic texts can be traced. A comparison with anti-Hussite pieces written in old Czech is also worth considering.