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Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes
Récits d’un bourgeois de Valenciennes aka The Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes is a vivid 14th-century vernacular chronicle written by an anonymous urban chronicler from Valenciennes in the County of Hainaut. It survives in a manuscript that describes local and regional history from about 1253 to 1366, blending chronology, narrative episodes, and eyewitness-style accounts of political, military, and social events in medieval France, Flanders, and the Low Countries. The work begins with a chronological framework of events affecting Valenciennes and its region under rulers such as King Philip VI of France and the shifting allegiances of local nobility. It includes accounts of conflicts, sieges, diplomatic manoeuvres, and the impact of broader struggles like the Hundred Years’ War on urban life in Hainaut. Written from the perspective of a burgher (bourgeois) rather than a monastery or royal court, the chronicle offers a rare lay viewpoint on high politics and warfare, reflecting how merchants, townspeople, and civic institutions experienced the turbulence of the 13th and 14th centuries. Its narrative style combines straightforward reporting of events with moral and civic observations, making it a valuable source for readers interested in medieval urban society, regional politics, and the lived experience of war and governance in pre-modern Europe.
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Effigy of The Boy Bishop is in Monumental Effigies of Great Britain.
THIS effigy is not more than three feet in length. From the custom which prevailed of children educated by the church choosing on St. Nicholas's day (6th December), in mock ceremony, a bishop from their number, this figure has obtained the appellation of the Boy or Chorister Bishop.
Some reasonable doubt may however exist whether this be not a memorial for an adult, a real Bishop of the See of Salisbury. The size of the figure alone appears to countenance the legendary tale, and the monument of Athelmar Bishop of Winchester, in the cathedral of that church, of the same age (which was erected to show the spot where his heart had according to his direction been interred), is equally diminutive.