A newcomer in defamatory propaganda

youth (late fourteenth to early fifteenth century)

Gilles Lecuppre

pp. 135-148

in: Martijn Icks, Eric Shiraev (eds), Character assassination throughout the ages, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014

Abstract

"Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child."² This quotation from the Book of Ecclesiastes, which was used by chroniclers Thomas Walsingham and Adam Usk against Richard II of England, could be considered a late-medieval slogan.³ Things not only tended to be rather tense during periods of formal minorities,⁴ but many times child kings were dethroned by ambitious and charismatic uncles with the assent—and to the great relief—of the political community.⁵ After all, the crown remained within the royal family; a form of continuity with the preceding reign was established. Such crises reveal unspoken rules against children, women, and foreigners as kings. Kingship combined with virile charisma mattered more than the rules of succession.