FROISSART, JEAN (1338-141o?), French chronicler and raconteur, historian of his own times. His forefathers were jures (aldermen) of the little town of Beaumont, lying near the river Sambre, to the west of the forest of Ardennes. His father, who seems to have been a painter of armorial bearings, migrated to Valenciennes. The date generally adopted for his birth is 1338. His native city of Valenciennes was rich in romantic associations. Not far from its walls was the western fringe of the great forest of Ardennes, sacred to the memory of Pepin, Charlemagne, Roland and Ogier. Along the banks of the Scheldt stood, one after the other, not then in ruins, but bright with banners, the gleam of armour, and the liveries of the men at arms, castles whose seigneurs, now forgotten, were famous in their day for many a gallant feat of arms. The castle of Valenciennes itself was illustrious in the romance of Perce f orest. There was born that most glorious and most luckless hero, Baldwin, first emperor of Constantinople. All the splendour of mediaeval life was to be seen in Froissart's native city : on the walls of the Salle le Comte glittered—perhaps painted by his father—the arms and scutcheons beneath the banners and helmets of Luxembourg, Hainaut and Avesnes; the streets were crowded with knights and soldiers, priests, artisans and merchants ; the churches were rich with stained glass, delicate tracery and precious carving; there were libraries full of richly illuminated manuscripts on which the boy could gaze with delight ; every year there was the fete of the puy d'Amour de Valenciennes, at which he would hear the verses of the competing poets; there were festivals, masques, mummeries and moralities.
The moon, he says, rules the first four years of life ; Mercury the next ten; Venus follows. He was 14 when the last goddess ap peared to him in person, as he tells us, after the manner of his time, and informed him that he was to love a lady, "belle, jone, et gente." Meanwhile he was placed in some commercial position which he very soon abandoned, for he had resolved on becoming a learned clerk. He then naturally began to make verses, like every other learned clerk, and fell in love. He found one day a damoiselle reading a book of romances. It was the romance of Cleomades. He remarks the singular beauty of her blue eyes and fair hair, while she reads a page or two, and then—one would almost suspect a reminiscence of Dante—"Adont laissames nous le lire." She was rich and he was poor; she was nobly born and he obscure ; it was long before she would accept the devotion, even of the conventional kind, which Froissart offered her.
Perhaps to get healed of his sorrow, Froissart began those wanderings in which the best part of his life was to be consumed. He first visited Avignon in 136o, and in 1361 he returned to Eng land after an absence of five years. He brought with him as a present to Queen Philippa a book of rhymed chronicles of the wars of his time written by himself. The queen now made young Froissart one of her secretaries, and he began to serve her with "beaux ditties et traites amoureux." She seems to have suggested to him the propriety of travelling in order to get information for more rhymed chronicles. It was at her charges that Froissart travelled to Scotland, where he was well received by King David, William of Douglas, and the earls of Fife, Mar, March and others. His travels in Scotland lasted for six months. Returning south wards he rode along the whole course of the Roman wall, showing the true spirit of an archaeologist; he thought that Carlisle was Carlyon, King Arthur's capital ; he calls Westmorland, where the common people still spoke the ancient British tongue, North Wales ; he rode down the banks of the Severn, and returned to London by way of Oxford—"l'escole d'Asque-Suffort." In London Froissart entered the service of King John of France as secretary, and probably acquired at this period that art, in which he has probably never been surpassed, of making people tell him all they knew. He liked the story of a battle from both sides and from many points of view; he wanted the details of every little cavalry skirmish, every capture of a castle, every gallant action and brave deed. And he forgot nothing.
At the age of 29, in 1366, Froissart left England for Brussels, where there was a great concourse of minstrels from all parts, from the courts of the kings of Denmark, Navarre and Aragon, from those of the dukes of Lancaster, Bavaria and Brunswick. Froissart received a gift of money, as appears from the accounts: "uni Fritsardo, dictori, qui est cum regina Angliae, dicto die, vi. mottones." He then went to Brittany, where he heard from eye witnesses details of the battles of Cocherel and Auray, the Great Day of the Thirty and the heroism of Jeanne de Montfort. Wind sor Herald told him something about Auray, and a French knight, one Antoine de Beaujeu, gave him the details of Cocherel. From Brittany he went southwards to Nantes, La Rochelle and Bor deaux, where he arrived a few days before the visit of Richard (afterwards Richard II.) . He accompanied the Black Prince to Dax, and hoped to go on with him into Spain, but was despatched to England on a mission. He next formed part of the expedition which escorted Lionel duke of Clarence to Milan, to marry the daughter of Galeazzo Visconti. Chaucer was also one of the prince's suite. At the wedding banquet Petrarch was a guest sitting among the princes. From Milan Froissart, accepting grate fully a cotte hardie with 20 florins of gold, went to Bologna, and met Peter king of Cyprus, from whose follower and minister, Eustache de Conflans, he learned particulars of the king's exploits. He accompanied Peter to Venice, where he left him after receiving a gift of 4o ducats. At Rome he learned of the death of his friend King Peter of Cyprus, and of the good Queen Philippa, of whom he writes, in grateful remembrance Propices li soit Diex a Fame ! J'en suis bien tenus de pryer Et ses larghesces escuyer, Car elle me fist et crea.
Philippa dead, Froissart returned to Flanders and presented himself, with a new book in French, to the duchess of Brabant, from whom he received the sum of 16 francs, given in the accounts as paid uni Frissardo dictatori. Froissart may also have found a patron in Yolande de Bar, grandmother of King Rene of Anjou. In any case he received a substantial gift from some one in the shape of the benefice of Lestines, a village near Binche. He was placed upon the duke of Brabant's pension list, and was entitled to a yearly grant of grain and wine, with some small sum in money. Froissart was not the man to sit down at ease to discharge the duties of parish priest, to say mass, to bury the dead, to marry the villagers and to baptize the young. From time to time he re paired to the court of Coudenberg, and became "moult frere et accointe" with the duke of Brabant. And then came Gui de Blois, one of King John's hostages in London in the old days. He had been fighting in Prussia with the Teutonic knights, and now pro posed to settle down for a time in his castle of Beaumont. This prince, in emulation of its grandfather, the patron of Jean le Bel, advised Froissart seriously to take in hand the history of his own time.