Philippe de Mézières' Epistre lamentable et consolatoire,
Written after the defeat of French/Western forces in Bulgaria in 1396, Mézières' thought and style in
the Epistre lamentable et consolatoire are marked by a spirit of equation in the service of
transcendence. He lines up and connects contemporary figures, historical examples, and a
variety of metaphors and allegory in a vast network of similitude, and then uses these equated
terms and images to promote the single objective of forming a new chivalric order. For
example, he draws analogies between himself, his dedicatee the Duke of Burgundy, King
Charles VI of France, and Christians generally. He envisions the knighthood he wants to found
as a medecine, a city, an altar, and an ark. He requires perfect unity of purpose among the
crusaders he seeks to recruit; the three geographical branches he foresees will act in concert,
simultaneously single and triple in echo of the Holy Trinity. The knights will all dress the same,
obey a single code, live from the same purse, hold the same ideal.
Mézières's self-positioning as an author is of prime importance. In the Epistre lamentable,
Mézières has a delicate task in conjoining an account of an on-the-ground event with the
projection of a transcendent aim. He must deplore the defeat at Nicopolis, posit that Christians
lost because of sinful overconfidence, and propose that his order can, in "less that a hundred
weeks," as he says, position Western forces for success. He has a notable advantage in
speaking as an authority on peoples of the East; he evokes the years he spent as chancellor of
Cyprus and carefully provides his reader with a history of Ottoman conquest. His remarks
about the false character of those who follow Mohammed are unsurprising; more striking is the
fact that he describes Turks as possessing the flawless discipline that Christian troops require. A
second example of admiration for the miscreant is his depiction of the living habits of the
"Grand Khan de Tartarie" (whose doings have been described to him by an eyewitness
friend). The Khan sets up living quarters surrounded by a million troops and horses, arrayed in
irreproachable order; when the resources of the site become scarce, he packs up, moves on,
and sets everything up just as meticulously the next time. For Mézières and the Epistre
lamentable, this description has import beyond face value; it does not simply acknowledge a
talent for establishing and breaking military camp. Mézières praises what he calls the Khan's
"cité portative," or portable city; this is precisely the term he evokes repeatedly to define the
chivalric order that will avenge the deaths of Nicopolis and go on to retake Jerusalem. His
knights must form a portable city, carrying Christ in their hearts and divesting themselves of
material ties. The image of the Khan's camp allows Mézières both to target Christian error at
Nicopolis - overly concerned for their own comfort, the knights were arrogant and careless in
the conviction they would win -- and provide a material template for spiritual reform.
Mézière's idea of a portable city of Christian devotion thus finds a platform outside France and
Europe.