Jean Froissart

Born in Valenciennes in the County of Hainaut around the 1330s, Jean Froissart was a French-speaking poet and chronicler from the Low Countries. Much about his life is pieced together from his own writings, but reliable sources agree that he moved in noble circles and was connected with the court of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England.

Froissart wrote poetry as well as longer works, including the Arthurian romance Meliador, but his lasting fame rests on the Chronicles. Covering major events of the 14th century, especially the Hundred Years’ War, the Chronicles became one of the best-known contemporary accounts of the period and a major source for the ideals and pageantry of chivalric life.

Readers return to Froissart not only for battles and politics, but for the way he turns history into story. His writing is full of movement, ceremony, rumor, and personality, giving modern audiences a lively window into the medieval world, even as historians read him with care as a writer shaped by the courts and values of his time.