Le Naufrage de la Pucelle de Molinet ou la formulation allégorique d’une crise d’État

Abstract

Abstract Le Naufrage de la Pucelle is a work written by Jean Molinet in 1477 to relate, in allegorical form, the attack of Louis XI to Mary of Burgundy’s States at the beginning of that same year. The text presents a vessel adrift, an image of Burgundy itself, manned by a duchess who is incapable of steering it and with a divided crew, which is also a true reflection of the inner situation of the territories ruled by the daughter of Charles the Bold. The crew members are surrounded by sea animals that seek to sink them, an image of the brutality of the French attack, but they are finally rescued by eagles that embody the imperial power. The text, which is faithful to the Burgundian chivalric ideology, is built through various levels of interpretation, where the allegory not only reflects the political situation, but it also conveys religious motifs that will be common in other later works by Molinet himself, indiciaire of the duchy during those terrible years.