Froissart's Chronicles (or Chroniques) are a prose history of the Hundred Years' War written in the 14th century by Jean Froissart. The Chronicles open with the events leading up to the deposition of King Edward II of England in 1327, and cover the period up to 1400, recounting events in western Europe, mainly in England, France, Scotland, the Low Countries and the Iberian Peninsula, although at times also mentioning other countries and regions such as Italy, Germany, Ireland, the Balkans, Cyprus, Turkey and North Africa.
For centuries the Chronicles have been recognized as the chief expression of the chivalric culture of 14th-century England and France. Froissart's work is perceived as being of vital importance to informed understandings of the European 14th century, particularly of the Hundred Years' War. But modern historians also recognize that the Chronicles have many shortcomings as a historical source: they contain erroneous dates, have misplaced geography, give inaccurate estimations of sizes of armies and casualties of war, and may be biased in favour of the author's patrons.
Although Froissart is sometimes repetitive or covers seemingly insignificant subjects, his battle descriptions are lively and engaging. For the earlier periods Froissart based his work on other existing chronicles, but his own experiences, combined with those of interviewed witnesses, supply much of the detail of the later books. Although Froissart may never have been in a battle, he visited Sluys in 1386 to see the preparations for a French invasion of England that eventually never took place. He was present at other significant events such as the baptism of Richard II in Bordeaux in 1367, the coronation of King Charles VI of France in Rheims in 1380, the marriage of Duke John of Berry and Jeanne of Boulogne in Riom and the joyous entry of the French queen Isabeau of Bavaria in Paris, both in 1389.
Sir Walter Scott once remarked that Froissart had "marvellous little sympathy" for the "villain churls".Sir Walter Scott: Tales of my landlord. As used here, "villain" means "villein". It is true that Froissart often omits to talk about the common people, but that is largely the consequence of his stated aim to write not a general chronicle but a history of the chivalric exploits that took place during the wars between France and England. Nevertheless, Froissart was not indifferent to the wars' effects on the rest of society. His Book II focuses extensively on popular revolts in different parts of western Europe (France, England and Flanders) and in this part of the Chronicles the author often demonstrates good understanding of the factors that influenced local economies and their effect on society at large; he also seems to have a lot of sympathy in particular for the plight of the poorer strata of the urban populations of Flanders.Peter Ainsworth, 'Froissardian perspectives on late-fourteenth-century society', in Jeffrey Denton and Brian Pullan (eds.), Orders and Hierarchies in Late Medieval and Renaissance Europe (Basingstoke / London: Macmillan Press, 1999), pp. 56-73.
The Chronicles are a very extensive work: with their almost 1.5 million words, they are amongst the longest works written in French prose in the late Middle Ages. Few modern complete editions have been published, but the text was printed from the late 15th century onwards. Enguerrand de Monstrelet continued the Chronicles to 1440, while Jean de Wavrin incorporated large parts of it in his own work. Robert Gaguin's Compendium super origine et gestis Francorum made ample use of Froissart.Franck Collart, Un historien au travail à la fin du XVe siècle: Robert Gaguin (Geneva: Droz, 1996), 121-122, 341-344. In the 15th and 16th centuries the Chronicles were translated into Dutch, English, Latin, Spanish, Italian and Danish. The English translation, dated 1523–1525 and carried out by the then-Lord Berners, is one of the oldest historical prose works in English. The text of Froissart's Chronicles is preserved in more than 150 manuscripts, many of which are illustrated, some extensively.Godfried Croenen, 'Froissart illustration cycles', in Graeme Dunphy (ed.), The Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle (Leiden: Brill, 2010), I, 645-650.
Background
Jean Froissart came from Valenciennes in the County of Hainaut, situated in the western tip of the Holy Roman Empire, bordering France (it has been part of France since 1678). He seems to have come from what we would today call a middle-class background, but spent much of his adult life in courts, and took on the world-view of the late medieval feudal aristocracy, who initially represented his readership. He appears to have gained his living as a writer, and was a notable French poet in his day. At least by the end of his life he had taken holy orders, and received a profitable benefice.
He first wrote a rhyming chronicle for the English queen Philippa of Hainault, which he offered to her in 1361 or 1362.Normand R. Cartier, 'The lost chronicle', Speculum 36 (1961), 424-434; Peter F. Ainsworth, Jean Froissart and the Fabric of History: Truth, Myth, and Fiction in the Chroniques (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), pp. 32-50; Jean Devaux, 'From the court of Hainault to the court of England: the example of Jean Froissart', in Christopher Allmand (ed.), War, Government and Power in Late Medieval France (Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 2000), pp. 1-20. The text of this earliest historical work, which Froissart himself mentioned in the prologue of his Chronicles, is usually considered to have been completely lost, but some scholars have argued that a 14th-century manuscript containing a rhyming chronicle, of which fragments are now kept in libraries in Paris and Berlin, may be identified as this so-called 'lost chronicle'.Dominique Stutzmann, 'Un deuxième fragment du poème historique de Froissart', Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes, 164 (2006), 573-580.
Synopsis
Some of the important events recorded in Froissart's Chronicles:
Book I 1322–1377 Execution of Hugh the younger Despenser (1326) Edward II deposed and accession of Edward III (1327) Edward III's campaign in Scotland (1327) Edward III's marriage to Philippa of Hainault (1328) Edward III's feudal homage to Philip VI of Valois (1331) Edward III's search for allies in the Low Countries against Philip VI of Valois The Thiérache campaign (1339) Battle of Sluys (1340) The Siege of Tournai (1340) The Breton war of succession (1340-1364) The Earl of Derby's campaign in Gascony (1344-1345) Battle of Crécy (1346) The Siege of Calais (1346-1347) Battle of Neville's Cross (1346) Battle of Winchelsea (1350) Battle of Poitiers (1356) Étienne Marcel leads a merchant revolt in Paris (1358) The Jacquerie (1358) The Free Companies The Black Prince's campaigns in Southern France Edward III's Rheims campaign (1359-1360) The Peace of Brétigny (1360) The Battle of Brignais (1362) The death of King John II of France (1364) The battle of Cocherel (1364) The battle of Auray (1364); the end of the Breton succession war The Castilian Civil War (1366-1369): the Black Prince's campaigns on the Iberian Peninsula; the battle of Nájera (1367); the battle of Montiel (1369) The sack of Limoges (1370) The battle of Chizé (1373) The deaths of the Black Prince and Edward III (1377); accession of Richard II
Book II 1376–1385 The start of the Great Schism (1378) The Ghent Revolt (1379-1385) The Peasants' Revolt in England (1381) The Battle of Roosebeke (1382) The marriage of Charles VI to Isabella of Bavaria
Book III 1386–1388 The French preparations for an aborted invasion of England The final trial by combat ordered by French courts between Jean de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris Richard II in conflict with his uncles The Battle of Otterburn
Book IV 1389–1400 The Bal des Ardents at a festival in honor of Isabeau of Bavaria A tournament in Smithfield held by Richard II The death of Gaston III "Fébus" of Foix-Béarn The madness of Charles VI Richard II deposed and accession of Henry IV Battle of Nicopolis and massacre of the prisoners
Composition and sources Froissart began writing Book I possibly at the request of Robert de Namur, to whom the earliest version is dedicated. In the prologue of this version of the prose text, Froissart justified his new enterprise by his desire to improve on his first attempts to write a historical account of the early years of the Hundred Years' War. In particular he denounced his earlier rhyming chronicle, whose accuracy, he admitted, had not always been as good as such important matters as war and knightly prowess require. In order to improve the quality and historical accuracy of his work, Froissart declared his intention to follow now as his main source the Vrayes Chroniques of Jean Le Bel, who had expressed fierce criticism on verse as a suitable vehicle for serious history writing. Froissart also used other texts, such as the Life of the Black Prince by Chandos Herald, in particular for the Black Prince's campaign in Spain in 1366–1367.J.J.N. Palmer, 'Book I (1325-78) and its sources', in J.J.N. Palmer (ed.), Froissart: Historian (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1981), pp. 7-24; Peter F. Ainsworth, 'Collationnement, montage et jeu parti: le début de la campagne espagnole du Prince Noir (1366-67) dans les Chroniques de Jean Froissart, Le Moyen Âge, 100 (1994), 369-411. He furthermore inserted some official documents into his text, including the act of hommage by King Edward III to the French King Philip VI (1331) and the English version of the Peace Treaty of Calais (1360).
Le Bel had written his chronicle for Jean, lord of Beaumont, uncle of Philippa of Hainault, who had been a supporter of Queen Isabella and the rebellion which led to the deposition of Edward II in 1326. Jean of Hainault had also taken part in several of the early battles of the Hundred Years' War, first on the English side, then on the French. His grandson, Guy II, Count of Blois later became the main patron of Froissart's Chronicles. Jean Le Bel himself, throughout his work expressed great admiration for Edward III, in whose 1327 Weardale campaign against the Scots he had fought. For all these reasons Froissart must have highly valued Le Bel's chronicle as a source for reliable information about the events which led to the outbreak of the war between France and England and about the early phases of the Hundred Years' War. Comparison of Froissart's Book I with Le Bel's work shows that for the early parts of the Chronicles (up to c.1360) Froissart often directly copied and developed very large parts of Le Bel's text.
Froissart seems to have written several new drafts or versions of Book I, which covers the period up to 1378/1379, at different points in time. Several of these variant versions are now known to scholars by the unique manuscripts which have transmitted their texts, such as the 'Amiens' (Amiens, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 486), 'Valenciennes' (Valenciennes, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 638), and 'Rome' versions of Book I, so named after manuscripts kept in the municipal libraries of Amiens and Valenciennes and in the Vatican Library. The so-called 'Rome' version of Book I (Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. Lat. 869) has only partly survived and now only covers the period up to c.1350.