Chronicles

Description

Selected, Translated and Edited by Geoffrey Brereton. Jean Froissart was born in Valenciennes (c. 1337) and came to England in 1361, where he joined the entourage of Edward III’s Queen, Philippa of Hainaut. Whilst in England he journeyed to Scotland and the Welsh Marches and revisited the Continent several times. In 1368 he went in the wedding retinue of Lionel of Clarence to Italy – Chaucer was in the same party and it is possible that he at least glimpsed Petrarch. Coming back he received the news that Queen Philippa had died and so decided to remain in the Netherlands, where he enjoyed the patronage of Wenceslas of Bohemia, Robert of Namur, and Guy de Chântillon, under whose protection he took holy orders. He visited the brilliant court of Gaston Phébus, Count of Foix, in 1388, and in 1395 went back to England to be welcomed by Richard II. Five years later he recorded that monarch’s downfall. His first book of the 'Chroniques' was published in three versions, the second book was completed by 1388 and the third in 1390. He was revising the fourth when he died in c. 1410. The 'Chronicles' of Froissart (1337-1410) are one of the greatest contemporary records of fourteenth-century England and France. Depicting the great age of Anglo-French rivalry from the deposition of Edward II to the downfall of Richard II, Froissart powerfully portrays the deeds of knights in battle at Sluys, Crecy, Calais and Poitiers during the Hundred Years War. Yet they are only part of this vigorous portrait of medieval life, which also vividly describes the Peasants' Revolt, trading activities and diplomacy against a backdrop of degenerate nobility. Written with the same sense of curiosity about character and customs that underlies the works of Froissart's contemporary, Chaucer, the 'Chronicles' are a magnificent evocation of the age of chivalry.