Illuminated by Fire: the Hundred Years’ War in the Works of Professor M. N. Petrov of Kharkiv University (1826-1887)

Abstract

The article examines the contribution of Professor M. N. Petrov, Kharkiv University’s leading medievalist during the third quarter of the 19th century, to the study of key events and personalities of the Hundred Years’ War between England and France. Contextually, Petrov considered some of the events of the final stage of the war in his master’s dissertation “On the Nature of the Statesmanship of Louis XI” (1850). He was able to show that, in the war against the English, the French royal house was forced to make concessions to the great feudal lords of the realm in exchange for military support. Among the concessions made by Charles VII for the sake of victory over England, Petrov rightly singles out the anti-English Treaty of Arras (1435) between the French king and Duke Philip III of Burgundy. Nevertheless, the end of the Hundred Years’ War, development of the French national consciousness, and decline of feudal chivalry all objectively contributed to the strengthening of royal power. It is shown that Petrov became the first scholar at Kharkiv University and in the Ukrainian lands of the Russian Empire to publish a work entirely devoted to the Hundred Years’ War – “Jeanne d’Arc (Historical and Psychological Experience)” (1867). Petrov distinguished between the objective and subjective causes of the turn in the Hundred Years’ War and explained the success of the Maid of Orléans by the sympathy and support of the broad masses of the population. It is stressed that, in contrast to the French scholar J. Michelet, for whom Jeanne d’Arc was a messenger of Heaven, child of the Church, and servant of God, Petrov in his essay represented her actions as a manifestation of the French people’s growing self-awareness, rather than of the will of Providence. The author notes that such assessment of the role of the common people in the historical process was characteristic of the liberal medieval studies of the first post-reform years in the Russian Empire. A summary of the main events of the Hundred Years’ War was presented in the posthumous edition of Petrov’s Lectures in World History (1888). This was the first university textbook in this discipline in the Russian Empire. It is emphasized that Petrov’s treatment of the events of the Hundred Years’ War contributed to the popularization of medieval history, and that the objectivity of his interpretations stemmed primarily from the critical study of historical sources, including the Memoirs of Philippe de Commines, and adherence to the norms of positivism.