De la cruauté comme principe de gouvernement. Les Princes « scélérats » de la Renaissance italienne au miroir du romantisme français - article ; n°27 ; vol.13, pg 95-105

Médiévales - Année 1994 - Volume 13 - Numéro 27 - Pages 95-105
Of Cruelty as a Principle of Government. The « Iniquitous » Princes of the Italian Renaissance Reflected in the Mirror of French Romanticism - This paper proposes a study interrelating two subjects : the anthropological structure of the tyranny of the Italian princes at the close of the Middle Ages, and the fascination they inspired in several nineteenth-century French writers. Starting with Stendhal's works, the study endeavors to define the cruel energy exerted by the Italian princes, whose evil deeds were only equal to their debauchery. Striving solely toward their own pleasure, tyrannies worked toward their own ruin : the dreaded prince was thus a prisoner of his own power. Nor did the calculating prince of the fifteenth century cease to be cruel ; although he cast aside futile turpitudes, he still used cruelty for the good of the State. What fascinated Stendhal and Victor Hugo was the distant, abhorred power of the tyrants. In this they are the inheritors of the late Middle-Age French thinkers, who had already made the distinction between fear of the tyrant and love of the king.
11 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.