The allocution as the element of the battle ritual. The sixteenth-century chronicle context

Abstract

One of the battle ritual’s elements (especially from the narrative sources point of view) was the war chief ’s speech. Its aim was to build up the army’s morale in the face of the inevitable confrontation danger. The speech was proving the commander’s brave and determination in the realisation of military aim and contained the elements, which were elevating the future happening (the battle) to the importance of the forces majeure’s conflict. In this spin the enemy was featured as the forces of darkness’s emanation, what served creation simple binary opposition between ours/the good ones and the aliens/ the bad ones. These practise was the typical measure founded on the tearing the enemy of the qualities treated as the dignity and integrity attributes off. The analyse is based on the sixteenth-century chronicle accounts, including those written by Marcin Bielski and Maciej Stryjkowski and the additional texts concerning particular clash. Its results are presented against the chronologically wide background. It has been determined that de facto two separate types of the allocution applied equally. The first of them was the real type, very rare, short and laconic. The second one was the literary creation in description of the battle. The longer was the lag between the happening described in the chronicle and the moment of description, the more elaborate began the allocution. That is why in the article the allocution is acknowledged as a part of created battle ritual. By extension, it made up specific accumulation of the dramatic points in the tale, even if it was not real. Due to it, the chronicle narration created schematic picture of the past, responding to the requirement of building some kind of the country’s and dynasty’s identity. In connection with this purpose, religious differences between Christian army of Poland and the Russian Orthodox or Muslim military were emphasized in the question of conflict between the Kingdom of Poland and its enemies.