On Violence and Tyranny examines historiography as a vehicle for the production of a theory of tyrannicide in the aftermath of the murder of Pedro I de Castilla (1369). The thesis of this work is that by considering the royal chronicle as a vehicle and locus for political theorization, we can appreciate the formulation of a theory of tyrannicide as a medium for dynastic legitimation that is not reducible to political propaganda. Rather, it becomes a meditation about monarchy itself, the limits of power, and the underlying causes and consequences of political violence. The chronicle of the king Pedro's rule conceives an economy of violence coded in terms of saber (political wisdom), justice and the law, as a means to face the ideological, political, and social challenges that civil war and regicide pose to a community. I will focus on two fragments of the chronicle, a pair of letters attributed to a wise Moor that the chronicler chose to include in a second stage of his composition and that establish extra textual connections to other political genres such as the specula principum and political prophecy. Through them, I will explore how a theory of tyrannicide allows the chronicler to confront three major problems that regicide poses. First, how to explicate the dynastic break that king Pedro’s murder brought about, and minimize the discontinuity that the advent of a new, and illegitimate, dynasty (the Trastámaras) represented for a historical tradition that deeply valued the continuity of history. Second, how a theory of tyrannicide served to repair the broken ties provoked by the civil war. And third, how to represent that founding violence, the violence against a sovereign, to render it legitimate, but not available for anyone else to exploit.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Cette thèse d'histoire culturelle propose de réfléchir à la genèse et aux évolutions des représentations grecques du tyran, en lien avec les transformations des formes de pouvoir, du Ve au Ier siècle avant J.-C. La recherche porte sur l’ensemble du monde hellénique et s'appuie sur un corpus de sources variées, littéraires, historiques et philosophiques, épigraphiques ou numismatiques. L'enjeu est en effet de comprendre l'évolution des interactions entre, d'une part, les approches juridiques, politiques ou historiques des tyrans, et, d'autre part, leurs représentations philosophiques et littéraires. À l'époque classique les considérations politiques, institutionnelles ou juridiques s'articulèrent aux représentations d'ordre éthique exprimant des jugements de valeur condamnant la cruauté et la tryphè du tyran. Puis, à partir du IVe siècle, les lieux communs à l’oeuvre dans ses représentations le transformèrent en une figure du mauvais souverain caractérisé par l'hybris et la souillure qu'il répand au sein de la cité. Ce processus amena à faire progressivement du tyran un contre-modèle absolu, opposé à la cité classique comme à la figure du roi idéal de l'époque hellénistique. Figure de l'altérité et la marginalité, le tyran tient ainsi, paradoxalement, une place centrale dans les représentations politiques et philosophiques grecques : il représente l'ennemi contre lequel se soude la communauté politique / The present doctoral thesis in cultural history considers the genesis and evolutions of the Greek representations of the tyrants in relation to changes in the actual forms of power, from C5th to C1st B. C. The research includes the whole Greek area and is based on varied sources : literary, historical, philosophical, epigraphic or numismatic. The purpose is indeed to understand the evolution of the interactions between legal, political or historical approaches of the tyrants, and their literary and philosophical representations. During the Classical Age, The political, institutional or legal considerations were combined with the ethical representations condemning the cruelty and the tryphè of the tyrant. Then, from C4th onward, the stereotypes found in literature led to view the tyrant as a bad sovereign, characterized by hybris and by the blemish he spreads over the city. This process would progressively turn the tyrant into the absolute counter-model, as opposed to the Classical city as to the ideal Hellenistic monarch. A figure of otherness and marginality, the tyrant becomes the paradoxical focal point of the Greek political and philosophical representation : he embodies the enemy the political community unites against.

Due to the social, political, and religious upheavals occurring across Europe in the Early Modern period, many writers were exploring the proper relationship between citizens and political and religious leaders. While some writers encouraged citizens to give unconditional loyalty to local and national leaders, Shakespeare has a pattern of endorsing citizen rebellion as a moral means to overthrow tyrannical rulers. By exploring Richard III, Measure for Measure, and Julius Caesar, I argue that Shakespeare is developing a taxonomy of citizen responses to a tyrannical leader and teaches citizens that a moral rebellion can be launched against a tyrant when a citizen embraces personal responsibility, accepts the power of rhetoric over violence, and overcomes the filtering effects of nostalgia. To demonstrate that Shakespeare is deliberately entering the conversation about a citizen's reaction to a tyrant, I provide information about how a tyrant is defined in the Early Modern period. I synthesize the scholarship on relevant texts in the period and explain how all three leaders in the aforementioned plays support that definition of tyranny. Then I focus on each play's surrounding characters to discuss the motivations and reactions of rebellious and obedient citizens. Finally, I conclude each section with an analysis of the repercussions of the citizen's actions and evaluate the lessons that Shakespeare is consistently promoting about moral rebellion.