Jean Froissart was a French chronicler. He was born in 1333 at Valenciennes and died in about 1405. He received a liberal education, and took orders in the church, but his inclination was more for poetry and gallantry. At the age of eighteen he went to England, where, having already the reputation of being a gay poet and narrator of chivalric deeds, be was received with great favour, Philippa of Hainault, wife of Edward IIL declaring herself his patroness.
After returning to the Continent and travelling for some time, he again visited England, and in 1361-1366 he was a secretary to the queen. He also visited Scotland, and was entertained by King David Bruce, and William, earl of Douglas. In 1366 he left England and again travelled. After the death of Queen Philippa, Jean Froissart became cure of Lestines in Hainault, and was patronized by Wenceslans, duke of Brabant, who was himself a poet, and of whose verses, united with some of his own, Froissart formed a sort of romance called Meliador.
On the death of Wenceslaus he entered the service of Guy, count of Blois, who gave him the canonry of Chimay, and induced him to take in hand the history of his own time. After twelve years of a quiet life he again began his travels, chiefly for the purpose of collecting further matter for his Chronicle, and he again visited England after a lapse of forty years.
Little is known of the closing part of his life, which is said to have terminated at Chimay. His Chronicle, which reaches down to 1400, gives a siugularly vivid and interesting picture of his times, and also presents his own character in a pleasing-light. The best edition of his Chronicle is that of Buchon, which also contains his collected Poesies (published in Paris, 1835-1836, in three volumes). Research Jean Froissart
Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Conde, also known as the Great Conde, was a Frech soldier. He was born in 1621 and died in 1687. In 1641 he married a niece of CardinalRichelieu. His defeat of the Spanish at Rocroi, in 1643, was followed, in 1645, by his defeat of Mercy at Nordlingen, and by his capture of Dunkirk in 1646, the year in which he inherited his father's title. During the troubles of the Fronde he at first took the side of the court; but believing himself to be ill requited by Mazarin, he put himself at the head of the faction of the Petits Maitres, and was imprisoned for a year by Mazarin in 1650. On his release he at once put himself at the head of a new Fronde, entered upon negotiations with Spain, and, his attack on Paris being indecisive, retired to the Netherlands, where he was appointed generalissimo of the Spanish armies.
In this capacity he unsuccessfully besiegedArras in 1654; but he was more fortunate at Valenciennes in 1656, and at Cambrai in 1657. In 1658 he was defeated before Dunkirk by Turenne, but was restored to his rank in France after the peace of 1659. In 1668 he accomplished the reduction of Franche Comte in three weeks; and in 1674 he defeated the Prince of Orange at Senef. His successes over Montecuculi in Alsace in 1675 closed his military career. Four years later he retired to Chantilly, near Paris.
Louis Antoine Henri de Bourbon, Duke of Enghien, was a French nobleman. He was born in 1772 at Chantilly. The son of Louis Henry Joseph Conde, duke of Bourbon, on the outbreak of the revolution he left France, travelled through various parts of Europe, and in 1792 went to Flanders to join his grandfather, the Prince of Conde, in the campaign against France. From 1796 to 1799 he commanded with distinguished merit the vanguard of Conde's army, which was disbanded at the Peace of Luneville in 1801. He then took up residence as a private citizen at Ettenheim in Baden, where he married the PrincessCharlotte de Rohan Rochefort. He was generally looked upon as the leader of the emigres, and was suspected by the Bonapartists of complicity in the attempt of Cadoudal to assassinate the first consul. An armed force was sent to seize him in Baden in violation of all territorial rights, and he was brought to Vincennes on the 20th of March, 1804. A mock trial was held the same night; and on the following morning he was shot in the ditch outside the walls. It was this event which drew from Fouche the comment since become proverbial: 'C'est plus qu'un crime, c'est une faute' (' It is worse than a crime, it is a blunder'). Research Louis de Bourbon
Valenciennes is a variety of pillowlace. Originally it was made by hand at Valenciennes, it was later largely manufactured by machines at Nottingham. At its height in the 18th century, the craft employed about 4,000 workers in Valenciennes in 1750, but in 1851 only two lace-makers survived. The meshes, made of two threads partly twisted at the top, form an irregular hexagon. Research Valenciennes
Abbreviations
Research Antoine Watteau
