8 - From the Knightly Bayard to Captain Monluc: Representations of Masculinity in Sixteenth-Century French Military Literature

Summary

For almost seventy years, early modern historians have debated the impact of the Military Revolution on warfare, politics, and state formation. Often forgotten in this debate is how the emergence of early modern armies transformed masculine norms in European societies. Medieval European societies relied upon a martial code, known as chivalry, to indoctrinate noblemen into conforming to gendered behaviours. These behaviours in turn facilitated their participation in warfare. In France, the Military Revolution, along with other social changes, altered the nobility's role in combat and transformed chivalry into an obsolete masculine code. As the Military Revolution led to larger armies comprising primarily men from the Third Estate, knighthood ceased to reflect the role of noblemen in combat. The nobility soon became an officer class, and their new role required the construction of gender representations that redefined the relationships between nobility, masculinity, and martial violence.

Martial violence refers to certain forms of violence that enable warfare in a particular society. Martial violence is always culturally specific, because societies glorify only those forms of violence that they deem acceptable in warfare. In French society, the Military Revolution contributed to the emergence of the captain as the predominant depiction of noblemen in combat. Militarily active noblemen-turned-authors, who adopted the norms of the Military Revolution, transformed the representation of the nobility at war. In military memoirs, biographies, and treatises, these authors outlined the gender expectations of noblemen in combat. The tales of two of the most famous noblemen from the sixteenth century, Pierre Terrail, chevalier de Bayard, and Blaise de Monluc, marechal de France, offer snapshots of this transition in the representation of noble masculine norms in sixteenth-century France.

Existing studies present the Military Revolution as a watershed in the history of European warfare. Coined by Michael Roberts in the 1950s, the term originally referred to the increased size of armies, the development of new bureaucratic systems, and the introduction of gunpowder technologies in western European states. In the 1980s, Geoffrey Parker sparked a heated debate over the nature of these changes when he proposed an earlier starting date for Roberts's Military Revolution and argued that the introduction of quadrilateral-angled bastions in European fortifications had provided its catalyst.