Life
Little is known of Froissart's life and what is known comes mainly from his chronicle and his poems. Froissart came from Valenciennes, Hainaut, and his writings suggest his father was a painter of armorial bearings. Froissart began working as a merchant but soon gave that up to become a clerk. By about age 24, he had gained distinction and carried with him a letter of recommendation from Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, (who was also the King of Bohemia) when he became a court poet and an official historian to Philippa of Hainault, queen consort of Edward III of England.
The memoirs of the period he spent in Philippa's service, between 1361 and 1369, were later added to reports of other events he witnessed, in his Chroniques ("Chronicles"). He took a serious approach to his work:
- Je suis de nouveau entré dans ma forge pour travailler et forger en la noble matière du temps passé
- ("Again I entered my smithy to work and forge something from the noble material of time past")
He traveled in England, Scotland, Wales, France, Flanders and Spain gathering material and first-hand accounts for his Chronicles. He also went with Lionel Duke of Clarence to Milan to attend the duke's marriage to the daughter of Galeazzo Visconti. At this wedding, two other significant writers of the Middle Ages were present: Chaucer and Petrarch.
After the publication of this first book, and after the death of Philippa, he enjoyed the patronage of Joanna, Duchess of Brabant among various others. He received rewards—including the benefice of Estinnes, a village near Binche and later became canon of Chimay—sufficient to finance further travels, which provided additional material for his work. He returned to England in 1395 but seemed disappointed by changes that he viewed as the end of chivalry. The date and circumstances of his death are unknown but St. Monegunda of Chimay might be the final resting place for his remains, although still unverified.
Read more about this topic: Jean Froissart
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“Life at its noblest leaves mere happiness far behind; and indeed cannnot endure it.... Happiness is not the object of life: life has no object: it is an end in itself; and courage consists in the readiness to sacrifice happiness for an intenser quality of life.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“The life of a good man will hardly improve us more than the life of a freebooter, for the inevitable laws appear as plainly in the infringement as in the observance, and our lives are sustained by a nearly equal expense of virtue of some kind. The decaying tree, while yet it lives, demands sun, wind, and rain no less than the green one. It secretes sap and performs the functions of health. If we choose, we may study the alburnum only. The gnarled stump has as tender a bud as the sapling.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I could lie down like a tired child,
And weep away the life of care
Which I have borne and yet must bear,
Till death like sleep might steal on me,”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)