SOURCE: White, Julian Eugene, Jr. “The Conflict of Generations in ‘Débat patriotique.’” The French Review 39, no. 2 (November 1965): 230-33.

In the essay that follows, White reads the Débat patriotique as a depiction of a generational conflict between a patriotic old knight and a cynical young knight regarding the Hundred Years' War.

A recent article on the Cent Ballades¹ places in contrast the attitude in 1390 of the mature and disillusioned chevaliers and that of their younger and more enthusiastic fellows toward the Hundred Years' War. The present study will continue and complement that of Professor Cottrell by discussing the attitudes and ideals of those same young knights, now mature themselves, and the attitudes of the knights of the following generation, between 1416 and 1422.² This contrast will be discussed in the context of the Débat patriotique of Alain Chartier.³

According to Cottrell,

… l'ardente jeunesse aristocrate, s'enorgueillissant de ses traditionelles...