Download PDF | Jean Joinville, King of France Louis IX, Ethel Kate Bowen-Wedgwood - The memoirs of the Lord of Joinville, London 1906.
458 Pages
PREFACE
Six hundred years ago, when the histories of Europe still lay buried among the Latin Charter Rolls of great abbeys, before Piers Plowman had yet voiced the English conscience in the English tongue, and when Dante was just turning to look back on half his life's journey, John, Lord of joinville, full of days and honours, began to write for his liege lady his recollections of her husband's grandfather, St. Louis. Like many others of that line of great French memoir-writers which he heads, such, for instance, as Commines, Sully, and Marbot, Joinville was first of all a man of action, and only in the second place a man of letters ; and for this very reason his book has that directness and simplicity which appeals to the common humanity of all ages.
He is no skilled chronicler, like his compatriot the warrior and statesman Villehardouin ; he is no born story-teller, like Villani or Froissart ; but a hardheaded, plain-minded man to whom penmanship is no art, and who writes simply because he lovedhis friend and believes that he has a duty to his posterity. John, Lord of Joinville, was hereditary Seneschalof Champagne and head of a family alreadyillustrious for its Crusaders.
By blood and oldfamily friendship he was closely united with thegreat house of Brienne, and could claim cousinshipwith its famous cadet, John, King of Jerusalem,father-in-law to two emperors, and himself anemperor. 1 Born in 1225, Joinville was only twentythree when he joined King Louis in the disastrousSeventh Crusade ; and before he was thirty he wassettled again on his estates, having escaped everyconceivable peril by land and sea, to which nineteenout of every twenty men had succumbed. For therest of his life he stayed at home, managing his estate and taking such part in public affairs as his position required. When, at nearly eighty yearsold, he began his Memoirs, he had lived beyond the1 For what is known of the life of John of Joinville and the history of his family, see Delaborde's delightful book, "Jean de Joinville.
reigns of three kings, and saw France, through the selfishness of her rulers, well advanced on that downward road that led to the coarse vice and brutality of the Hundred Years War, and to the corruption and luxurious bestiality of the last Valois kings. But Joinville, old, still keeps untainted the spirit of his youth. He writes in the mood of that golden age, the reign of the " Holy King," when still " from Courts men Courtesy did call " ; and his book is a lasting witness to the influence of that master who thought it "a vile thing for a gentleman to get drunk," and who punished foul words as a crime. His book brings us into some of the best com- pany in the world. Joinville himself, as he appears through his narrative, is a fine sample of the great baron of feudal times. True to his word, firm in his justice, shrewd in business, intellectually limited, he approaches closely to the modern popular idea of an English squire. He is pious, not with the exalted visionary piety of the King, but with the practical morality that recognizes his duty to God in his duty to his own subjects.
The King, seen through Joinville's record, is a far nobler character than he is represented by his extravagant monkish eulogists, Geoffrey de Beaulieu, Guillaume de Nangis, and the rest ; and that he was a hero to his own commonplace intimates is a much greater testimony to his personality thanany enumeration of his qualifications for saintship. And of the rest of that circle of gallant and pious gentlemen of whom Joinville was the friend andcomrade, there are many who deserve a lasting fame. Peter of Brittany, gashed and retreating, yet pausing to scoff at the disorderly rabble that jostle past him in panic ; Walter of Brienne, like a second Regulus tortured and helpless, exhorting his friends to resistance ; Erard of Syverey,wounded to death, pausing to weigh the honourof his family against the chance of safety ; Walterof Chatillon, crying his war-cry in the deserted street and turning single-handed to sweep awaya horde of infidels ; the good Bishop of Soissons, who, rather than turn his back on Jerusalem, " hastened his journey to God " ; these are fit heroesfor song and story through all time.
Historians laboriously bridge over the gulf that divides us from the past, and their bricks and mortar make but a long and dreary road ; but in a narrative such as Joinville's, the spirit of the writer speaks direct to the spirit of the reader ; their points of difference vanish away, leaving only what is common to both ; and for a while the man of the thirteenth century joins hands with the man of the twentieth, and they stand side by side in the midst of that vast twilight of the unrecorded ages, compared with whose depths a thousand years are but as yesterday. With regard to this English version of Joinville's book, the translation is based on Francisque Michel's edition of the fourteenth-century manuscript known as Supplement 2016, Bibliotheque royale.
Very rarely other readings have been adopted. In some parts of the book, notably in Parts III and IV, the anecdotes in the original are very disconnected, possibly from the author having been frequently interrupted in his dictation. A few of these have been transposed in the translation, so as to bring them into better sequence. One or two repetitions have also been omitted ; and a few passages tedious or repugnant to modern taste have been curtailed or suppressed.
The book hereby loses some of its value for antiquarians, but for thegeneral reader it gains. The original is not dividedinto chapters nor parts. In all other respects thetranslation is as faithful as the translator knew howto make it. Details about Joinville's life and pedigree aremostly taken from Delaborde's book, "Jean deJoinville." For his English descendants, theGenevilles, the "Genealogist" of 1904 should beconsulted. The notes are based on contemporary writers,e.g. Matthew Paris, Guillaume de Nangis, Geoffreyde Beaulieu, " Annales Monastici," etc. They are notintended to give general historical information, butmerely to fill in the gaps of the narrative with theless well-known details of contemporaries. The map of Mansoora and the adjoining rivers is based on one in the Intelligence Department.
ETHEL WEDGWOOD
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