HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor
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HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

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CONTEMPORARY AND ‘EYEWITNESS’ HISTORY 271both a precious fount of knowledge and a savoir-vivre. 57 In this respectFroissart may be compared to the secretaries of the monarchicalorders of chivalry whose task it was, at the close of each year, toenroll the distinguished feats of arms performed by their members.They were also obliged to report in writing any misdeeds or derogationsthat may have been committed, incurring reproche d’armes. Thisaspect of chivalric ideology is set forth in the Prologue to Book I,where the author of the Chroniques warns us that:esploit d’armes sont si clairement comparet et achetet, che scèvent chilqui y traveillent, que on n’en doit nullement mentir pour complaireà autrui et tollir le glore et renommée des bienfaisans, et donner àchiaus qui n’en sont mies digne.Later, when writing his third book, Froissart will defend himself inno uncertain terms against those who accuse him of bias:[Qu’on ne dise pas que je aye eu la noble histoire] corrompue par lafaveur que je aye eu au conte Gui de Blois qui le me fis faire et quibien m’en a payé tant que je m’en contempte, pour ce qu’il fut nepveuet si prouchains que filz au conte Loys de Blois, frère germain à saintCharles de Blois, qui, tant qu’il vesqui, fut duc de Bretagne. Nennilvrayement! Car je n’en vueil parler fors que de la verité et aler parmyle trenchant, sans coulourer l’un ne l’autre. Et aussi le gentil sire etconte, qui l’istoire me fist mettre sus et ediffier, ne le voulsist pointque je la feisse autrement que vraye. 58Strange as it may seem, this passage shows the importance to thechronicler of Valenciennes of oral testimony, given in good faith andobtained from people who had actually taken part in the combats,sieges, or raids of which Froissart is so anxious to preserve a vividmemory. He lived at a time when oral testimony given in good faithstill was deemed entirely dependable. Rather than criticize him forhis gullibility, we should commend him for having so scrupulouslyinterviewed the many people whom he met in royal courts or engagedin conversation in wayside inns. The picture Jean Froissart gives usof fourteenth-century society is dominated by an ideological climatethat is at one and the same time royal, aristocratic, and chivalric.57Ainsworth (1998).58Froissart, Chroniques, ed. Luce, Raynaud, Mirot, and Mirot, 13: 223–24.

272 PETER AINSWORTHGiven that the king was the leader of the body politic, the wellbeingof his subjects depended upon his own health and moral qualities.Numerous episodes in the Chroniques delineate aspects of theapprenticeship of kings or depict the progressive hardening of theirmoral character. 59 Conversely, the chronicler is ever ready to condemnroyal tyrants guilty of excessive dependency on favorites, bethey princes of the royal blood or impertinent upstarts. 60 In the sameway, Froissart emphasizes the essential importance of the role playedat court by the king’s counselors, even as he depicts for us the dreadconsequences of mauvais conseil given by men unworthy of such trust. 61Froissart thus evinces a strongly conservative conception of the societyof his time. Yet his thinking barely differs, in this respect, from themost discontented ‘reformers’ of the end of the fourteenth century. 62That said, the society depicted in the pages of the Chroniques isnot an entirely static one. Froissart accords a special status to thoseopportunistic (in the positive sense of the term) knights and squires,the careers of whom represent for him the nec plus ultra of chivalry:“pluiseur chevalier et escuier se sont fait et avanciet”, he tells us,“plus par leur proèce que par leur linage”. In short, in this worldthat was still feudal and strictly structured, it nevertheless still waspossible to advance socially. Even so, Froissart shares the anguish,if not the pessimism, of a great number of his contemporaries, witnessesof the Great Plague and of the endemic conflicts betweenneighboring realms which punctuated the fourteenth century. Hisdesire to fix forever the ideal image of Prowess and her leading exponents—EdwardIII, the Black Prince, Sir John Chandos, or Sir Walterde Manny—before they disappear forever, can be explained partlyby his conviction that human existence is precarious, with only writingbeing capable of preserving some trace of it, however modest:Car bien sçay que ou temps advenir, quant je seray mort et pourry,cest haulte et noble hystoire sera en grant cours, et y prendront tousnobles et vaillans hommes plaisance et augmentation de bien.Car vous savez que toutte la cognoissance de ce monde retournentpar l’escripture, ne sus aultre chose de verité nous ne sommes fondezfors que par les escriptures approuvées. 6359Ainsworth (1990), 272–302.60Ainsworth (1990), 98–100, 241–56.61Ainsworth (1990), 192–205.62Cf. Lewis (1977), 42–43.63Prologue to Book III; see Froissart, Chroniques, ed. Luce, Raynaud, Mirot, andMirot, 12: 2, 14: 9.

272 PETER A<strong>IN</strong>SWORTHGiven that the king was the leader of the body politic, the wellbeingof his subjects depended upon his own health and moral qualities.Numerous episodes in the Chroniques delineate aspects of theapprenticeship of kings or depict the progressive hardening of theirmoral character. 59 Conversely, the chronicler is ever ready to condemnroyal tyrants guilty of excessive dependency on favorites, bethey princes of the royal blood or impertinent upstarts. 60 In the sameway, Froissart emphasizes the essential importance of the role playedat court by the king’s counselors, even as he depicts for us the dreadconsequences of mauvais conseil given by men unworthy of such trust. 61Froissart thus evinces a strongly conservative conception of the societyof his time. Yet his thinking barely differs, in this respect, from themost discontented ‘reformers’ of the end of the fourteenth century. 62That said, the society depicted in the pages of the Chroniques isnot an entirely static one. Froissart accords a special status to thoseopportunistic (in the positive sense of the term) knights and squires,the careers of whom represent for him the nec plus ultra of chivalry:“pluiseur chevalier et escuier se sont fait et avanciet”, he tells us,“plus par leur proèce que par leur linage”. In short, in this worldthat was still feudal and strictly structured, it nevertheless still waspossible to advance socially. Even so, Froissart shares the anguish,if not the pessimism, of a great number of his contemporaries, witnessesof the Great Plague and of the endemic conflicts betweenneighboring realms which punctuated the fourteenth century. Hisdesire to fix forever the ideal image of Prowess and her leading exponents—EdwardIII, the Black Prince, Sir John Chandos, or Sir Walterde Manny—before they disappear forever, can be explained partlyby his conviction that human existence is precarious, with only writingbeing capable of preserving some trace of it, however modest:Car bien sçay que ou temps advenir, quant je seray mort et pourry,cest haulte et noble hystoire sera en grant cours, et y prendront tousnobles et vaillans hommes plaisance et augmentation de bien.Car vous savez que toutte la cognoissance de ce monde retournentpar l’escripture, ne sus aultre chose de verité nous ne sommes fondezfors que par les escriptures approuvées. 6359Ainsworth (1990), 272–302.60Ainsworth (1990), 98–100, 241–56.61Ainsworth (1990), 192–205.62Cf. Lewis (1977), 42–43.63Prologue to Book III; see Froissart, Chroniques, ed. Luce, Raynaud, Mirot, andMirot, 12: 2, 14: 9.

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