True Chronicles of Jean le Bel, 1290 - 1360
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A01=Jean Le Bel
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Author_Jean Le Bel
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B06=Nigel Bryant
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBJD
Category=HBLC
Category=NHDJ
COP=United Kingdom
Crecy campaign
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
Edward III
English king
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eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
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eyewitness accounts
Hundred Years' War
Jean le Bel
knights
Language_English
PA=Available
personal experience
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
Scotland
softlaunch
Product details
- ISBN 9781783270224
- Weight: 444g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 18 Jun 2015
- Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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The chronicles of Jean le Bel are one of the most important sources for the beginning of the Hundred Years' War. This is the first English translation of a work written from eyewitness accounts and personal experience.
The chronicles of Jean le Bel, written around 1352-61, are one of the most important sources for the beginning of the Hundred Years' War. They were only rediscovered and published at the beginning of the twentieth century, thoughFroissart begins his much more famous work by acknowledging his great debt to the "true chronicles" which Jean le Bel had written. Many of the great pages of Froissart are actually the work of Jean le Bel, and this is the first translation of his book. It introduces English-speaking readers to a vivid text written by a man who, although a canon of the cathedral at Liège, had actually fought with Edward III in Scotland, and who was a great admirer of the English king. He writes directly and clearly, with an admirable grasp of narrative; and he writes very much from the point of view of the knights who fought with Edward. Even as a canon, he lived in princely style, with a retinue oftwo knights and forty squires, and he wrote at the request of John of Hainault, the uncle of queen Philippa. He was thus able to draw directly on the verbal accounts of the Crécy campaign given to him by soldiers from Hainault who had fought on both sides; and his description of warfare in Scotland is the most realistic account of what it was like to be on campaign that survives from this period. If he succumbs occasionally to a good story from one of theparticipants in the wars, this helps us to understand the way in which the knights saw themselves; but his underlying objective is to keep "as close to the truth as I could, according to what I personally have seen and remembered, and also what I have heard from those who were there". Edward may be his hero, a "gallant and noble king", but Le Bel tells the notorious story of his supposed rape of the Countess of Salisbury because he believed it to be true,puzzled and shocked though he was by his material.
It is a text which helps to put the massive work of Jean Froissart in perspective, but its concentrated focus and relatively short time span makes it a much more approachable and highly readable insight into the period.
NIGEL BRYANT is well known for his lively and accurate versions of medieval French works. His translations of Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval and all its continuations and of the extraordinary late Arthurian romance Perceforest have been major achievements; he has also translated Jean le Bel's history of the early stages of the Hundred Years War, and the 13th- and 14th-century biographies of William Marshal and Bertrand du Guesclin. He was awarded the 2019 Norris J. Lacy Prize for outstanding editorial achievement in Arthurian studies.
