Text this colour links to Pages. Text this colour links to Family Trees. Text this colour are links that disabled for Guests.
Place the mouse over images to see a larger image. Click on paintings to see the painter's Biography Page.
Mouse over links for a preview. Move the mouse off the painting or link to close the popup.
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.
Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.
In March 1808 Thomas Crane was born.
In 1840 Thomas Crane (age 31) and Marie Kearsley were married.
1840. Thomas Crane (age 31). Portrait of [his wife] Marie Kearsley.
Marie Kearsley: In 1840 Thomas Crane and she were married. After 15th August 1845 Thomas Crane and Marie Kearsley went to live in Liverpool in the early "forties". He became Secretary and Treasurer of the Liverpool Academy of Art, a post which he resigned on being ordered to Torquay on account of his health, as consumption was feared.
On 15th August 1845 [his son] Walter Crane was born to Thomas Crane (age 37) and [his wife] Marie Kearsley in Liverpool, Lancashire [Map] at Maryland Street, Liverpool [Map]. Her father was a "maltster," a prosperous man in a good position in Chester. His mother seems to have died early, and her father married a second time. He married 6th September 1871 Mary Frances Andrews and had issue.
After 15th August 1845 Thomas Crane (age 37) and [his wife] Marie Kearsley went to live in Liverpool in the early "forties". He became Secretary and Treasurer of the Liverpool Academy of Art, a post which he resigned on being ordered to Torquay on account of his health, as consumption was feared.
1846. Thomas Crane (age 37). Portrait of his son [his son] Walter Crane.
In July 1859 Thomas Crane (age 51) died.