Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes
Récits d’un bourgeois de Valenciennes aka The Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes is a vivid 14th-century vernacular chronicle written by an anonymous urban chronicler from Valenciennes in the County of Hainaut. It survives in a manuscript that describes local and regional history from about 1253 to 1366, blending chronology, narrative episodes, and eyewitness-style accounts of political, military, and social events in medieval France, Flanders, and the Low Countries. The work begins with a chronological framework of events affecting Valenciennes and its region under rulers such as King Philip VI of France and the shifting allegiances of local nobility. It includes accounts of conflicts, sieges, diplomatic manoeuvres, and the impact of broader struggles like the Hundred Years’ War on urban life in Hainaut. Written from the perspective of a burgher (bourgeois) rather than a monastery or royal court, the chronicle offers a rare lay viewpoint on high politics and warfare, reflecting how merchants, townspeople, and civic institutions experienced the turbulence of the 13th and 14th centuries. Its narrative style combines straightforward reporting of events with moral and civic observations, making it a valuable source for readers interested in medieval urban society, regional politics, and the lived experience of war and governance in pre-modern Europe.
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Paternal Family Tree: Cranfield
Maternal Family Tree: Anne Brett Countess Middlesex 1670
In 1599 [his father] Lionel Cranfield 1st Earl Middlesex [aged 24] and Elizabeth Sheppard were married.
Before 1621 [his father] Lionel Cranfield 1st Earl Middlesex [aged 45] and [his mother] Anne Brett Countess Middlesex were married.
In 1625 Lionel Cranfield 3rd Earl Middlesex was born to [his father] Lionel Cranfield 1st Earl Middlesex [aged 50] and [his mother] Anne Brett Countess Middlesex.
Before 1637 [his brother-in-law] Richard Sackville 5th Earl Dorset [aged 14] and [his sister] Frances Cranfield Countess Dorset [aged 14] were married. She the daughter of [his father] Lionel Cranfield 1st Earl Middlesex [aged 61] and [his mother] Anne Brett Countess Middlesex. He the son of Edward Sackville 4th Earl Dorset [aged 45] and Mary Curzon Countess Dorset [aged 46].
On 18th December 1638 Henry Bourchier 5th Earl Bath [aged 51] and [his future wife] Rachael Fane Countess Bath and Middlesex [aged 25] were married at Church of St Bartholomew the Great. She by marriage Countess Bath, Countess Eu. The difference in their ages was 26 years. She the daughter of Francis Fane 1st Earl of Westmoreland and Mary Mildmay Countess of Westmoreland [aged 56]. They were second cousin twice removed.
Around 1645. Theodore Russel [aged 31]. Portrait of Lionel Cranfield 3rd Earl Middlesex [aged 20].
On 6th August 1645 [his father] Lionel Cranfield 1st Earl Middlesex [aged 70] died. His son [his brother] James [aged 24] succeeded 2nd Earl Middlesex, 2nd Baron Cranfield of Cranfield in Bedfordshire.
On 3rd March 1646 [his brother] James Cranfield 2nd Earl Middlesex [aged 25] and [his sister-in-law] Anne Bourchier Countess Middlesex [aged 15] were married. She by marriage Countess Middlesex. She the daughter of Edward Bourchier 4th Earl Bath and Dorothy St John Countess Bath. He the son of [his father] Lionel Cranfield 1st Earl Middlesex and [his mother] Anne Brett Countess Middlesex.
On 16th September 1651 James Cranfield 2nd Earl Middlesex [aged 30] died. His brother Lionel [aged 26] succeeded 3rd Earl Middlesex, 3rd Baron Cranfield of Cranfield in Bedfordshire.
On 17th July 1652 Edward Sackville 4th Earl Dorset [aged 61] died. His son [his brother-in-law] Richard [aged 29] succeeded 5th Earl Dorset, 5th Baron Buckhurst. [his sister] Frances Cranfield Countess Dorset [aged 30] by marriage Countess Dorset.
Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke
Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson.
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On 16th August 1654 Henry Bourchier 5th Earl Bath [aged 67] died. Earl Bath extinct. His Irish estates passed to his widow [his future wife] Rachael Fane Countess Bath and Middlesex [aged 41], then to her nephew Henry Fane [aged 4], then to his son Charles Fane 1st Viscount Fane.
On 1st May 1655 Lionel Cranfield 3rd Earl Middlesex [aged 30] and Rachael Fane Countess Bath and Middlesex [aged 42] were married at St Bride's Church, Fleet Street. She by marriage Countess Middlesex. She the daughter of Francis Fane 1st Earl of Westmoreland and Mary Mildmay Countess of Westmoreland. He the son of Lionel Cranfield 1st Earl Middlesex and Anne Brett Countess Middlesex.
On 13th June 1661 Lionel Cranfield 3rd Earl Middlesex [aged 36] and Rachael Fane Countess Bath and Middlesex [aged 48] were divorced by decree of the Court of Arches having previously obtained a royal warrant dated 19 Mar 1661 to retain her precedency as Countess of Bath.
On 12th February 1666 [his former brother-in-law] Mildmay Fane 2nd Earl of Westmoreland [aged 64] died. His son Charles [aged 31] succeeded 3rd Earl of Westmoreland, 6th Baron Despencer, 10th Baron Abergavenny, 8th Baron Abergavenny, 3rd Baron Burghesh in Suffolk.
In 1670 [his mother] Anne Brett Countess Middlesex died.
On 26th October 1674 Lionel Cranfield 3rd Earl Middlesex [aged 49] died without issue. Earl Middlesex, Baron Cranfield of Cranfield in Bedfordshire extinct.
In 1675 [his nephew] Charles Sackville 6th Earl Dorset 1st Earl Middlesex [aged 31] was created 1st Earl Middlesex, 1st Baron Cranfield of Cranfield in Middlesex. His mother Frances Cranfield Countess Dorset [aged 53] was sister to the last Earl of Middlesex of the previous creation Lionel Cranfield 3rd Earl Middlesex whose estates he had inherited.
On 11th November 1680 [his former wife] Rachael Fane Countess Bath and Middlesex [aged 67] died.
GrandFather: Thomas Cranfield 
Lionel Cranfield 3rd Earl Middlesex
GrandFather: James Brett
Mother: Anne Brett Countess Middlesex