The aim of this thesis is to analyse the construction of a historical event in late medieval chronicles, in a way that increases our understanding of the mechanisms behind historiography. The analysis is based on how the coronation of Pope Clement V in 1305 and the accident which then took place, in which a wall crashed and killed a number of people, is depicted in a selection of 14th century chronicles, mainly from France. This event has been largely overlooked by previous research on Clement V and the Avignon Papacy, which has tended to emphasise its meaning as a bad omen for the pope. Through a close reading of the chronicles inspired by a comparative methodological approach and the theoretical framework of Suzanne Fleischman this thesis proves that the French chronicles do not give much actual support for the interpretation of the accident as a bad omen and that the event occurs in multiple versions, which can be explained by the chroniclers’ different attitudes towards the alliance between Pope Clement and King Philip the Fair of France. The different versions are dependent on the texts’ contrasting aims and uses of narratives and facts, and is ultimately defined by the communicative situation between writer and reader.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-162375 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Wibacke, Elis |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Historiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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