Palace Politics

Pizan’s work was not restricted to the defence of women

During her lifetime, France was engulfed in social and political turmoil which greatly influenced her writing. The country was already in the midst of the Hundred Years’ War against the English when King Charles VI’S bouts of instability caused a power vacuum at court between the royal houses of Orléans and Burgundy, led by the king’s brother Louis I, Duke of Orléans and his cousin, John the Fearless, respectively. In 1407, Louis was assassinated on John’s orders, triggering a civil war that lasted almost three decades.

In response to all of this, Pizan wrote numerous works discussing the various issues in France, starting with one of her major political treatises, The Book Of

The Body Politic. Published in 1407 and dedicated to the king’s heir, Dauphin Louis, the treatise discussed social responsibility and education for all classes, from princes to the common people, and served as an instruction manual for the young ruler.

In 1410, Pizan was commissioned by an unknown patron to write The Book Of Feats Of Arms And

Of Chivalry – essentially a book on the art of war. Describing how kings and princes should conduct war both on and off the battlefield, she argued that there are “many great wrongs in warfare” but also that “wars undertaken for a just cause are permitted by God”. The manual was later translated and published in England by William Caxton for King Henry VII in 1489.

Pizan followed this with her last major work, The

Book Of Peace, which was also dedicated to Dauphin Louis and was published in 1413. At a time when corruption and civil unrest was rife in France, she urged him to seek peace for the country, believing that he was capable of becoming a just ruler who could bring an end to the constant fighting. But, sadly, he died just two years later.