Memoirs. To Which Are Added, - The Notes & Diss. Of M. Du Cange [&c.]. The Whole Tr. By T. Johnes

by Jean de Joinville

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Genres: History, Biography, France

354 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1309

About the author

Jean de Joinville (c. May 1, 1224 – 24 December 1317) was one of the great chroniclers of medieval France. He is most famous for writing Life of St. Louis, a biography of Louis IX of France that chronicled the Seventh Crusade.

He is the grandfather of Sir Geoffroi De Charny, distaff side.

Reviews

[Ian Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an account of the Seventh Crusade written by Jean de Joinville, who was close to the French king Louis IX, who in turn was later made a saint. Basically, the crusade aimed to take pressure of the crusaders in Palestine by attacking Egypt. They took the port of Damietta, but then seemingly did very little, and eventually they were defeated. The most interesting thing about this book is the account shows very little evidence of any clearly thought-out strategy. The crusaders turned up, they fought, they got bogged down, and they sustained very serious losses such that when the critical battle turned up, they were in no position to fight it anyway. Basically, they had no replacements for losses. There followed a ransom once captured, and about a third of the total income of France for a year was handed over. The surviving Crusaders then went to Acre, and we see what was going on there, which was not much, then they return to France. There, Louis got around to some presumably highly needed reform, and he issued edicts designed to eliminate corruption. We don't find out whether they worked. Louis was very devout, and Joinville shows this clearly. A very interesting account of the times, but there is a little reading "between the lines" required.

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at what it's like to be King. The responsibilities, the challenges, and what a paradigm of a good king looks like in the image of St. Luis.
I feel like I probably did not appreciate this text for all of it's worth as a classic in Humanities. But it was pretty enjoyable to me because it is one of those books that opens a window in time and gives a great sense of the culture, beliefs, practices, and traditions of a very specific time period and a very specific cultural point of view. This is especially true because Joinville is writing this as a memoir, meaning he is recounting his memories of these events exactly as he saw them. Of course, there will always be some bias, but his clear and simple reiteration of his stories is as clear and unadulterated a picture you can get of the events that transpired.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

Joinville's memoirs are old. Really old. And this translation is nearly 100 years old as well. So this book isn't really riveting for the modern reader, but I found it very useful for my research into the Seventh Crusade (although as you would expect, I think several of Joinville's recollections must be taken with a grain of salt). The notes are also useful, but not always focused in what I thought was the most obvious direction. Note that the Bibliotheque National du France has a PDF of a 14th century (perhaps older) illuminated manuscript of this book (in the Medieval French, of course), which can be downloaded.