1. For more detail on the problem of the French succession, see Ralph Giesey, "The Juristic Basis of Dynastic Right to the French Throne," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 51, pt. 5 (1961), 3-47; Cazelles, La société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 35-71; Pierre Chaplais, "Un message de Jean de Fiennes à Édouard II et le project de démembrement du royaume de France (janvier 1317)," Revue du nord 43 (1961): 145-48; and Lehugeur, Philippe le Long , 1:28-50, 79-92. [BACK]

2. Apparently the English accepted Philip of Valois's claim to the throne or realized that they could do nothing to dislodge him. Most of their energies went into ensuring that the Valois line did not succeed Philip VI. For further discussion of English efforts, see text pages 62-68. break [BACK]

3. For John the Good's patronage, see Delisle, Recherches , 1:326-36; Raymond Cazelles, Société politique, noblesse et couronne sous Jean le Bon et Charles V , Mémoires et documents publiés par la Société de l'École des chartes, no. 28 (Geneva, 1982) 42-44; Jacques Monfrin, "Les traducteurs et leur public en France au Moyen-Âge," Journal des savants (1964): 10-11; idem, "Humanisme et traductions au Moyen-Âge," Journal des savants (1963): 172-73; François Avril, "Un chef-d'oeuvre * de l'enluminure sous le règne de Jean le Bon: La Bible moralisée (Ms. fr. 167 de la Bibliothèque Nationale)," Monuments et mémoires publiés par l'Académie des inscriptions (Fondation Piot) 58 (1972): 95-125; and Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 296, 298-99, 319-21, 323-26.

John seems to have been very interested in the vernacular. Among his commissions for religious texts translated into French are the Bible of Jean de Sy (B.N. fr. 15397) and the densely illuminated Bible moralisée (B.N. fr. 167). For these, see Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 319-21, 325-26, nos. 272, 280; and Avril, "Un chef-d'oeuvre." Among secular works John commissioned a translation of Livy's Decades (I, III, and IV) to serve, as the prologue states, as a treatise of "political, military, and moral education." See Monfrin, "Humanisme et traduction," 172. Jean de Vignay's translation of the Échecs moralisés of Jacques de Cessoles, done between 1337 and 1350, before John was king, translates Cessoles's text but introduces strictly political interpolations into John's copy. For this, see Beaune, Naissance de la nation France , 268. John's literary program was expanded and refined by his son, Charles V. [BACK]

4. On this chronicle, see Julius Gilson and George Warner, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and Kings Collections (London, 1921), 2:209-12, 4: pls. 99-100; Lejeunne and Stiennon, Légende de Roland , 1:281-87; and Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 293-96, 299-300. [BACK]

5. For the inventories of the royal library and of John's possessions when captured, see Delisle, Recherches , 1:326-36.

The arms ( France ancient, a border gules ) are in the border of fol. 5. John's signature, visible under ultraviolet light on fol. 445v, reads, "Jehan. Ce rommant est monss. le Duc." John was named duke of Normandy in 1332, but it was essentially an honorary title; he received the administration of Normandy only in 1347. For a description of John the Good's activities as duke of Normandy, see Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 193-231; and Georges Bordonove, Jean le Bon et son temps 1319-1364 (Paris, 1981), 1-102. [BACK]

6. Avril dates John the Good's Grandes Chroniques to 1335-40 in discussions of two artists who collaborated on it: the Master of the Crucifixion of Cambrai and Mahiet (the Master of the Vie de Saint Louis ). The Master of the Crucifixion of Cambrai was active in the late 1330s and worked in collaboration with other Parisian artists on such commissions as a Miroir historial (two of four volumes surviving in Leyden, Bibl. Univ. ms. voss. Gall. fol. 3A, and Arsenal, 5080) commissioned for John by his mother, Jeanne de Bourgogne, and a missal (Cambrai, B.M. 157) for Robert de Coucy, canon of Cambrai. Mahiet (the Master of the Vie de Saint Louis ) was active from the 1320s to the 1340s and collaborated on a range of courtly commissions: the Belleville Breviary (B.N. lat. 10483-10484), the Miroir historial for John, the Hours of Jeanne of Navarre (B.N. n. a. lat. 3145), Saint-Pathus's Vie et miracles de Saint Louis (B.N. fr. 5716), and Joinville's Vie de Saint Louis (B.N. fr. 13568). Avril speculated that this artist might have been a libraire , perhaps Mathieu le Vavasseur, a Norman clerk charged as a libraire juré at the University of Paris in 1342, who died in 1350. For this, see Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 293-96 no. 240; 298-300 nos. 245-47; 312-14 no. 265.

7. See, for example, a mistranslation of the Gesta Dagoberti in the early portion of the manuscript. In attributing to Dagobert 36 years of governance, the chronicle in London agrees with an error of B.N. lat. 5925 that is not present in other translations of the Grandes Chroniques . Cf. Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:176 and n. 3. For the suppression of continue

a text added by Primat in his translation of Rigord's life of Philip Augustus, see ibid., 5:335 n. 6. For the presence of B.N. lat. 5925 in the abbey's library, see Nebbiai-Dalla Guarda, La bibliothèque , 216; and for prior discussion of B.N. lat. 5925, see the Introduction to this book.

The anonymous translator added a phrase to the prologue to lend authority to his translation, "Si que cil qui ceste euvre fait n'i met rien de soi, mès conqueut et atrait les divers volumes as anciens aucteurs ce qu'il met en ceste present euvre." See Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:3 n. 4. [BACK]

6. Avril dates John the Good's Grandes Chroniques to 1335-40 in discussions of two artists who collaborated on it: the Master of the Crucifixion of Cambrai and Mahiet (the Master of the Vie de Saint Louis ). The Master of the Crucifixion of Cambrai was active in the late 1330s and worked in collaboration with other Parisian artists on such commissions as a Miroir historial (two of four volumes surviving in Leyden, Bibl. Univ. ms. voss. Gall. fol. 3A, and Arsenal, 5080) commissioned for John by his mother, Jeanne de Bourgogne, and a missal (Cambrai, B.M. 157) for Robert de Coucy, canon of Cambrai. Mahiet (the Master of the Vie de Saint Louis ) was active from the 1320s to the 1340s and collaborated on a range of courtly commissions: the Belleville Breviary (B.N. lat. 10483-10484), the Miroir historial for John, the Hours of Jeanne of Navarre (B.N. n. a. lat. 3145), Saint-Pathus's Vie et miracles de Saint Louis (B.N. fr. 5716), and Joinville's Vie de Saint Louis (B.N. fr. 13568). Avril speculated that this artist might have been a libraire , perhaps Mathieu le Vavasseur, a Norman clerk charged as a libraire juré at the University of Paris in 1342, who died in 1350. For this, see Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 293-96 no. 240; 298-300 nos. 245-47; 312-14 no. 265.

7. See, for example, a mistranslation of the Gesta Dagoberti in the early portion of the manuscript. In attributing to Dagobert 36 years of governance, the chronicle in London agrees with an error of B.N. lat. 5925 that is not present in other translations of the Grandes Chroniques . Cf. Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:176 and n. 3. For the suppression of continue

a text added by Primat in his translation of Rigord's life of Philip Augustus, see ibid., 5:335 n. 6. For the presence of B.N. lat. 5925 in the abbey's library, see Nebbiai-Dalla Guarda, La bibliothèque , 216; and for prior discussion of B.N. lat. 5925, see the Introduction to this book.

The anonymous translator added a phrase to the prologue to lend authority to his translation, "Si que cil qui ceste euvre fait n'i met rien de soi, mès conqueut et atrait les divers volumes as anciens aucteurs ce qu'il met en ceste present euvre." See Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:3 n. 4. [BACK]

8. After the death of Elizabeth of Hainaut, Philip Augustus established chaplaincies at Notre-Dame in her memory. In conformity with the cartularies of Notre-Dame, John the Good's copy of the chronicle records that Philip Augustus paid 25 livres for this endowment. All the other translations of the Grandes Chroniques record that he paid 15 livres. For this, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 6:184 n. 6. [BACK]

9. The practice of suppressing references to the abbey continued in the independent "official" translation later added to Ste.-Gen. 782. For this, see Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 119-20 n. 268; and Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 7:xvii-xviii. [BACK]

10. See, for instance, the erroneous classification of Vitry as near Paris. Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:225 n. 1. [BACK]

11. See Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:27 and n. 1, fol. 7v, "Ainsi et plus largement le porrés trouver, se il vous plaisoit à veoir plus largement ou plus certainnement, en la vie du beneuré confessor monsieur saint Aignien;" 1:193 and n. 2, story of St. Florentine, fol. 41, "les fès duquel et la vie vous poés trouver plus largement leens que je ne vous ay commencié;" 2:126 and ns. 1 and 2, references drawn from the life of St. Leu. [BACK]

12. For these revisions, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques . [BACK]

13. A note in the margin of B.N. lat. 5925 discovered by Delisle ("vide in cronicis sanctigermani") makes clear that B.N. lat. 12711, a chronicle from the abbey of Saint-Germain, was the text used to supplement B.N. lat. 5925 by the editor of John's book. On Vat. Reg. lat. 550, see note 20 of the Introduction to this book. For the relationship between B.N. lat. 5925, lat. 12711, and B.L. Royal 16 G VI, see Delisle, "Notes sur quelques manuscrits," 191-212. [BACK]

14. For Charles V's patronage of the Grandes Chroniques , see Chapters 5-7 of this book. [BACK]

15. Cursive annotations appear on fols. 299 and 324v of B.L. Royal 16 G VI and throughout Ste.-Gen. 782. For more on the latter, see Chapter 5 of this book. [BACK]

16. Du Pouget (followed by Guenée) suggests that Richard Lescot, a historian at Saint-Denis c. 1329-60, undertook this revision. Du Pouget bases his attribution on a paleographical comparison between marginal notes in B.N. lat. 5925 and other manuscripts that he attributes to Lescot: B.N. lat. 5286, a copy of Ivo of Saint-Denis's Vita et Passio ; B.N. lat. 5005C, the chronicle and continuation of Géraud de Frachet; and Archives Nationales LL 1157, the "cartulaire blanc." See Marc Du Pouget, "Recherches sur les chroniques latines de Saint-Denis: Édition critique et commentaire de la Descriptio Clavi et Corone Domini et de deux séries de textes relatifs à la légende Carolingienne," École Nationale des Chartes. Position de thèses (1978): 41-46; Guenèe, "Les Grandes Chroniques de France ," 197-98; and idem, "Histoire d'un succès," 99-101. [BACK]

17. Fol. 365: "Et pour ceste cause le roy phelippe le recut a homme lige perpetuelment." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 6:261 n. 5. [BACK]

18. For the history of conflicting claims and the publication of surviving court documents, see Delaborde, "Le procès du chef." [BACK]

20. For a description of the historiography, see Cazelles, Société politique . . . Jean le Bon et Charles V , 35-40; and Bordonove, Jean le Bon , 15-20. Cazelles was one of the first to question this interpretation of John. See Raymond Cazelles, "Jean II le Bon: Quel homme? Quel roi?" Revue historique 251 (1974): 5-26. [BACK]

21. For their analysis of the derivation of the Roland cycle from the chansons de geste , see Lejeune and Stiennon, Légende de Roland , 281-87. [BACK]

22. See Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 299. [BACK]

23. For the Vita et Passio , see text pages 35-36. [BACK]

24. B.N. lat. 5286 was illustrated by an artist whose style relates generically to John's chronicle. For a discussion of the relationship between the royal and Dionysian copies of Ivo's texts, see text pages 35-36. [BACK]

25. For instance, Lejeune and Stiennon describe a miniature from John's chronicle that represents Roland killing the giant Ferragut's white horse, which they describe as a detail "proving that the artist is following not the text of the Grandes Chroniques but a literary tradition of which the Entrée d'Espagne provides an example." They are wrong, since the killing is described in the text of the chronicle. See Lejeune and Stiennon, Légende de Roland , 282; and Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 3:242. [BACK]

26. Only five chapters are subdivided by illustrations. These occur once in Book III of the lives of the Merovingians (fol. 62, miracle at mass/ baptism of Jews/ death of Pricus/ Aetherius and the criminous clerk), twice in the life of Louis the Pious (fol. 203v, Louis receives a present of plate/ Saint Hilduin, abbot of Saint-Denis, translates the relics of Saints Peter, Paul, and Marcellus, and fol. 208, meeting of Louis the Pious and Pope Gregory), and three times in the life of Saint Louis (fol. 400v, assault on a castle by Tartars; fol. 403, the pope sends Bishop Odo to Paris where he preaches the crusade; and fols. 426v-427, Louis receives a letter from the pope that describes a series of attacks on the Holy Land).

The illustration of chapters by multiple miniatures takes two forms: in six cases a pair of miniatures precedes a chapter, and in ten cases miniatures bracket their chapter—that is, one picture illustrating events from the first portion of the chapter precedes it, and a second picture illustrating an event described toward the end of the chapter follows it. With the exception of two instances (marked with question marks in the following list) the placement of rubrics in the chapter clarifies whether a sequence of pictures at the beginning of a chapter represents a double miniature (when both pictures follow the rubric) or bracketing miniatures (when a rubric follows the miniature that illustrates the end of the preceding chapter).

Double miniatures include: fols. 151-151v, Charlemagne builds Aix-la-Chapelle/ the bridge over the Rhine burns, and Charlemagne gives orders to a bishop; fols. 158v-159, Charlemagne in council and the Crown of Thorns divided for Charlemagne; fols. 171-171v, a battle in which Agolant was killed, and a battle; fols. 251v-252 (?) the murder of Duke William, and King Louis IV takes custody of young Duke Richard; fol 306, the murder of Charles, Count of Flanders, and the murderers hanged; fols. 426v-427, Saint Louis in council receives a letter from the pope, and the battle of Tartars in the Holy Land (the event described in the letter).

Bracketing miniatures include: fols. 118v, 119v, the siege of Avignon by Charles Martel, and the death of Charles Martel; fols. 130v, 131v, Charlemagne holds a Parlement/ Saxons submit/ Saxons baptized and submission of Hildebrans, Duke of Spoleto?; fols. 132, 133, continue

Charlemagne and Hildegarde at mass said by the pope/ the pope crowns Charlemagne's sons, and the beheading of Charlemagne's enemies; fols. 177, 178, Ganelon before Kings Marsile and Bagliant/ Ganelon brings gifts to Charlemagne, and the battle of Roncevaux; fols. 181v, 182, the funeral of Roland/ the punishment of Ganelon, and the burial of the dead; fols. 206v, 207v, the purgation of Judith/ traitors pardoned, and Louis's sons set Pope Gregory against him; fols. 221v, 222v, Charles the Bald sets out on a journey, and messengers ride; fols. 243v, 244v (?), Carloman returns from Vienne/ the defeat of Normans, and the translation of saints' relics; fols. 255, 255v, Bishop Ansegius expelled from the See of Troyes, and Duke Richard gives presents to messengers; fols. 256v, 257v, arrival of the Danes, and King Lothaire drives Otho's army into the Aisne. [BACK]

27. The new sentence reads: "Li commencemenz de ceste hystoire sera pris à la haute lignie de Troiens, dont ele est descendue par succession de temps." See Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:4 and n. 1. Viard does not note the deletion of the word "longue" in John's manuscript. [BACK]

28. For Edward's campaign against the Valois, see Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 193-231. [BACK]

29. For this letter, see A. Guesnon, "Documents inédits sur l'invasion anglaise et les états au temps de Philippe VI et Jean le Bon," Bulletin historique et philologique (1898), 208-59, cited by Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 204; and for the Latin and French texts of Edward's declaration, see Thomas Rymer and Robert Sanderson, comp., Foedera, conventiones litterae et cujuscunque generis acta publica, inter reges Angliae et alios quosvis imperatores, reges, pontifices, principes, vel communitates (London, 1821), 2, pt. 2:1108-11. [BACK]

30. For Bridget's anti-French visions, see Eric Colledge, " Epistola solitarii ad reges : Alphonse of Pecha as organizer of Brigittine and Urbanist Propaganda," Medieval Studies 18 (1956): 19-49, cited in Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 204-05. Colledge proves that the description of the vision that was sent to the French and English kings in 1348 by the king of Sweden was very different from that of the version edited in the 1370s by Alphonse of Pecha. He suggests that this was because the version drafted in 1348 was highly political and needed to be modified to fit the political situation of the 1370s. [BACK]

31. According to Colledge, the English cited Bridget's Revelations in 1435 and 1439. Colledge, " Epistola ," 32.

32. Ibid., 32-33. [BACK]

31. According to Colledge, the English cited Bridget's Revelations in 1435 and 1439. Colledge, " Epistola ," 32.

32. Ibid., 32-33. [BACK]

33. For a discussion of the difficulty of living up to Saint Louis's reputation, see Lewis, Royal Succession , 122-45; Hallam, "Philip the Fair and the Cult of Saint Louis," 201-14; and Brown, "Character of Philip the Fair," 310-15. [BACK]

34. For these cycles, see Chapter 1, note 9. [BACK]

35. Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 96-97.

36. Ibid., 98.

37. Ibid. [BACK]

35. Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 96-97.

36. Ibid., 98.

37. Ibid. [BACK]

35. Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 96-97.

36. Ibid., 98.

37. Ibid. [BACK]

38. The passage in the French translation of Edward's letter reads, "Et n'est mie nostre entencion de vous tollir non duement voz droitures mes pensons de faire droit a touz & de reprendre les bones leis & les custumes que furent au temps nostre auncestre progenitour Saint Lowys Roi de France." For this, see Rymer and Sanderson, comps., Foedera , 2, pt. 2:1111.

For a discussion of the role that these same claims played in forming a political myth used by the French nobility, see Beaune, Naissance de la nation France , 140-41. [BACK]

39. "Vous dirons adettens que nous deserons sovereinement que Dieux par travail de nous, & de bones gentz, meister pees & amour entre Cristiens, & nomement entre vous, issint que les armes des crestiens se purroit faire en haste devers la Terre Sainte, pur la deliverer continue

des mains des mescreantz, a quele chose, od l'aide de Dieu, nous asperons." For this, see Rymer and Sanderson, comps., Foedera , 2, pt. 2:1111. [BACK]

40. For the development of these ideas during the reign of Charles VI (1380-1422), see Philippe de Mézières, Letter to King Richard II. A Plea Made in 1395 for Peace between England and France , trans. G. W. Coopland (Liverpool, 1965); and M. Chaume, "Une prophétie relative à Charles VI," Revue du Moyen-Âge Latin 3 (1947): 27-42. [BACK]

41. For Philip's negotiations for a crusade, see Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 97, 139; Christopher Tyerman, "Philip VI and the Recovery of the Holy Land," English Historical Review 100 (1985): 25-52; and Elizabeth A. R. Brown, "Customary Aides and Royal Fiscal Policy under Philip VI of Valois," Traditio 30 (1974): 193-244. [BACK]

42. For Philip's fiscal difficulties, see Cazelles, Société politique . . . Jean le Bon et Charles V , 437; and Tyerman, "Recovery of the Holy Land," 44-50. [BACK]

43. The other three pictures in John the Good's manuscript are found in Book III, fol. 62 (miracle at the altar/ baptism of Jews/ death of Pricius/ Aetherius and the criminous clerk), and in the life of Louis the Pious, fol. 203v (Louis receives a present of plate/ Saint Hilduin, Abbot of Saint-Denis, translates Saints Peter, Paul, and Marcellus), and fol. 208 (meeting of Louis and Pope Gregory). [BACK]

44. For a discussion of John's choice of the crown of Saint Louis, see Beaune, Naissance de la nation France , 114-15, where she cites D. Gabourit-Chopin, "Les couronnes du sacre des rois et des reines au trésor de Saint-Denis," Bulletin monumental 133 (1975): 165-81. Beaune observes that John the Good did not use the "crown of Charlemagne," which his father had used and which was available at Saint-Denis. She believes that his choice was a deliberately anti-English gesture that promoted John, rather than Edward III, as legitimate successor to Louis IX. She supports her argument with the fact that the next use of Louis's crown came during another trying time in France's relations with England when the legitimacy of a French king was threatened: the coronation of Charles VII. [BACK]

45. For a discussion of the meanings of the holy oil used to anoint French kings, see Bloch, The Royal Touch , 262-82. [BACK]

46. This is one of the few miniatures with pentimenti . As originally planned, Clovis's triumph was not as forcefully portrayed; the original composition showed two confronting armies with God peeping down. The changes to the composition emphasize the rout of the enemy, intensifying Clovis's victory. [BACK]

47. "Sire tu m'as ceint et armé de vertu à bataille et m'as doné les dos de mes anemis." This is from Psalm 17, verses 40-41, cited in Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:81. [BACK]

48. For previous discussions of the iconography of the royal touch, see Bloch, Royal Touch , 253-59; and Peter S. Lewis, "Two Pieces of Fifteenth-Century Political Iconography," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 27 (1964): 317-20. [BACK]

49. The whole passage contrasts Louis's devotion with that of his predecessors: "Comme les autres rois de France qui furent rois devant lui, en touchant le lieu de la maladie, aus malades deissent seulement les paroles appropiées et accoustumées à ce faire, lesqueles paroles sont saintes et chrestiens, et ne feissent pas le signe de la sainte croiz, li rois Looys acoustuma que en distant les paroles il faisoit touz jours la signe de la sainte croiz qui par la vertu Nostre Seigneur guerist les malades miex que la dignité roial." See Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 10:121-22. In fact, the touch was combined with the sign of the cross as early as Louis VI's reign. See Bloch, Royal Touch , 74. [BACK]

50. "Pourquoy il attribuoit ycelle vertu au signe de la croix et non pas à la royale dignité." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 10:122 n. 1. [BACK]

51. See Bloch, Royal Touch , 83. [BACK]

52. In Andelys, Jean de Lyon was imprisoned from 1347 to 1353. Cited by Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 204. break [BACK]