The Chronicles of Fernão Lopes: Volume 2. The Chronicle of King Fernando of Portugal (Textos B, 64)

Description

Volume II of the first complete English translation of the chronicles of Fernão Lopes chronicles the reign of Fernando I (1367-1383) including Portugal's involvement in the Hundred Years' War, the military conflicts with Castile, the alliances with England, Aragon and Granada, the king's marriage with Leonor Teles, and the dispute over the succession to the Portuguese throne.' Until now, the chronicles of Fernão Lopes (c.1380-c.1460) have only been available in critical editions or in partial translations. Comparable to the works of Froissart in France or López de Ayala in Spain, the chronicles provide a wealth of detail on late fourteenth-century politics, diplomacy, warfare and economic matters, courtly society, queenship and noble women, as well as more mundane concerns such as food, health and the purchasing power of a fluctuating currency. Lopes had a keen eye for detail and a perspective especially attuned to the common people, and his chronicles provide an invaluable source for the history of Western Europe in the later Middle Ages.