L’enjeu polonais dans la construction historiographique de la Saint-Barthélemy : la campagne électorale et l’écriture de l’histoire dans les Memoires de l’Estat de France de Simon Goulart

Abstract

St Bartholomew's Day took place less than two months after the death of the Polish king Sigismund II. Henry of Anjou, the French king’s brother, engaged in a diplomatic campaign to succeed Sigismund II by election, had to convince the Polish voters, concerned about religious openness, that neither he nor the Crown of France, with which he went hand in hand, were guilty of intolerance and cruelty. The undertaking was a real challenge, which explains the acceleration of the historiographical construction of the episode and the tensions that arose between the Catholics and the Protestants who were outraged and who were even denied the status of victims. The historiography of St Bartholomew's Day was rapidly built up (1572-1573) in an exchange of libels that Simon Goulart, the pen of the Protestant party in the historical compilation Memoires de l'Estat de France (1576), closely associated with this election campaign.

Keywords

• historiography
• Poland
• Goulart
• Henri d’Anjou
• lampoons