from the reign of Edward II. to the coronation of Henry IV. of England. Have we not all known his book as one to delight youth and age?
Let us, however, open it seriously, and first of all notice the Preface, with its initial sentence giving the note of the entire work: "That the grans merveilles and the biau fait d'armes achieved in the great wars between England and France, and the neighbouring realms may be worthily recorded, and known in the present and in the time to come, I purpose to order and put the same in prose, according to the true information which I have obtained from valiant knights, squires, and marshals at arms, who are and rightly should be the investigators and reporters of such matters."[1]
"Marvels" and "deeds of arms"—soon he will use the equivalent phrase belles aventures. With delicious garrulity, but never wavering from his point of view, the good Sir John repeats and enlarges as he enters on his work in which "to encourage all valorous hearts, and to show them honourable examples" he proposes to "point out and speak of each adventure from the nativity of the noble King Edward (III.) of England, who so potently reigned, and who was engaged in so many battles and perilous adventures and other feats of arms and great prowess, from the year of grace 1326, when he was crowned in England."
Of course Froissart says that the occasion of these wars was King Edward's enterprise to recover his inheritance of France, which the twelve peers and barons of that realm had awarded to Lord Philip of Valois, from whom it had passed on to his son, King Charles. This enterprise was the woof whereon should hang an hundred years of knightly and romantic feats of arms, which incidentally wrought desolation to the fair realm of France. Yet the full opening of these matters was not yet; and Froissart begins with the story of the troubles brought on Queen Isabella and the
- ↑ Chroniques de J, Froissart, ed. S. Luce (Société de l'Histoire de France). The opening of the Prologue. It seemed desirable to render this sentence literally. The rest of my extracts are from Thomas Johnes's translation, for which I plead a boyhood's affection. For a brief account of Froissart's chief source (Jean le Bel), with excellent criticism, see W. P. Ker, "Froissart" (Essays on Medieval Literature, Macmillan and Co., 1905).
