Representation of freedom in the chivalric biographies “Bruce” by John Barbour and “The Book of Good Jean” by Guillaume de Saint-Andr

The medieval communities of Western Europe, due to the unique historical and cultural development of each of them, had different ideas about what the concept of “freedom” includes. The article compares two chivalric biographies “Bruce” by John Barbour and “The Book of Good Jean” by Guillaume de Saint-Andr, the authors of which paid special attention to this phenomenon. Literary monuments were composed in the form of chanson de geste in the last third of the 14th century. Although the sources of the article were written in different European regions (Scotland and Brittany), the circumstances of the poetic works creation are very similar: both works were composed by the authors at a time when the inhabitants of the two countries suffered from attempts by other states to influence their domestic politics. To study how the Scots and Bretons understood the concept of "freedom", standard methods of historical research were used (historical-genetic and historical-comparative methods). It is concluded that the ideas about freedom in the two poems concern the worldview not only of a certain class or religious group, but demonstrate the peculiarities of self-identification of the Scots and Bretons as a whole. To emphasize the need to fight the enemy, both John Barbour and Guillaume de Saint-Andr describe in detail the oppression from "strangers" experienced by absolutely everyone living in their countries. The influence of Christian and ancient traditions on the compilers of gesture texts is examined in detail, and the influence of the law of each individual region is traced. It is noted that the compilers of the works, telling about the desire of each community to defend the independence of their native place, turn to popular stories in the late Middle Ages about the Maccabean War (166-142 BC) from the Old Testament.