Gender and the Local Expression of Authority in Philippe de Vigneulles’s Metz
In this essay I explore themes of female authority and peacemaking in the Chronique, through the lenses of war, theater, and marriage. In 1468, according to Philippe, a nobleman named Henri de la Tour married a young girl whom he had seen perform the role of Catherine of Siena onstage. An evaluation of the episode in light of new evidence from its textual sources reveals a carefully shaped story that draws upon historical context and past narrative events in order to create a peaceful resolution for a decades-old conflict with the de la Tour family. Through the development of three characters named Catherine – the saint, the actor, and the play’s female patron – Philippe promotes a model of power and sanctity that unites contemporary ideas about successful political negotiation with women’s urban religious devotion. The saint and her living representatives redeem a militaristic villain at the same time that the text concludes a larger narrative arc about the healing of old wounds.