The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel Volume 1 Chapters 1-60 1307-1342
The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel offer one of the most vivid and immediate accounts of 14th-century Europe, written by a knight who lived through the events he describes, and experienced some of them first hand. Covering the early decades of the Hundred Years’ War, this remarkable chronicle follows the campaigns of Edward III of England, the politics of France and the Low Countries, and the shifting alliances that shaped medieval warfare. Unlike later historians, Jean le Bel writes with a strong sense of eyewitness authenticity, drawing on personal experience and the testimony of fellow soldiers. His narrative captures not only battles and sieges, but also the realities of military life, diplomacy, and the ideals of chivalry that governed noble society. A key source for Jean Froissart, Le Bel’s chronicle stands on its own as a compelling and insightful work, at once historical record and literary achievement. This translation builds on the 1905 edition published in French by Jules Viard, adding extensive translations from other sources Rymer's Fœdera, the Chronicles of Adam Murimuth, William Nangis, Walter of Guisborough, a Bourgeois of Valenciennes, Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke and Richard Lescot to enrich the original text and Viard's notes.
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Effigy of Sir Roger de Bois and Lady is in Monumental Effigies of Great Britain.
THESE are said to be the effigies of Roger de Bois and Margaret his wife. Bloomheld thus describes the tomb in his time: "On the East of the Church" (at Ingham in Norfolk), "just by the rood-loft, a tomb raised, on which is the effigies of a knight in complete armour, under his head the head and body of a Saracen, at his feet a hound." This inscription, he further says, was about the monument:
Monsieur Roger de Boys gist icy [Monsiuer Roger is here in the ground]
Et Dame Margarete sa feme auxi [And Dame Margaret his wife also]
Vous qui passez par icy [You who pass here ]
Priez Dieu de leur aimes eit mercy. [Pray for their souls]
Elle mourut l'an n'tre Seigneur mille trecent quinsieme et il mourut l'an de dit notre Seigneur 1300. [She died in the year of our Lord, one thousand and thirty-fifth, and he died in the year of our Lord, 1300.]
The Knight and his Lady wear long mantles, on the right shoulder of each of which is a circular badge, bearing what is called the Tau cross of St. Anthonya, and the letters ANTbON, in the uncial character. Details. 1. Badge on the shoulders. 2. Compartments of the girdle, one embossed with [Symbol here like a curved M].
Note a. Pope Boniface VIII. is said to have instituted an order of St. Anthony in 129S, and it is more certainly known that in 1382 Count Albert of Bavaria founded one in Hainault, on occasion of some remarkable cures of the disease called St. Anthony's lire, performed at a chapel dedicated to the Saint. Gentlemen of the first rank and merit were knights of this Order; the ensigns of which are said to have been a crutch, a hermit's cord, and a little bell. (Moreri, Diet. Historique, article St. Antoine.) The Tau cross has very much, it will be observed, the form of a crutch. The surcoat of the knight is exceedingly curious. The little circles with which it is covered must not be mistaken for ordinary mails; the mailing of the camail shows the difference; and indeed the skirt of the hauberk appears underneath this outward defence, which is perhaps of stamped leather or of quilted work thickly set with studs. Mr. Stothard considered this monument to be one of those Erected some time subsequent to the death of the persons whom it represented. In strict chronological order of costume it may be placed sixty or seventy years later.