The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel Volume 1 Chapters 1-60 1307-1342
The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel offer one of the most vivid and immediate accounts of 14th-century Europe, written by a knight who lived through the events he describes, and experienced some of them first hand. Covering the early decades of the Hundred Years’ War, this remarkable chronicle follows the campaigns of Edward III of England, the politics of France and the Low Countries, and the shifting alliances that shaped medieval warfare. Unlike later historians, Jean le Bel writes with a strong sense of eyewitness authenticity, drawing on personal experience and the testimony of fellow soldiers. His narrative captures not only battles and sieges, but also the realities of military life, diplomacy, and the ideals of chivalry that governed noble society. A key source for Jean Froissart, Le Bel’s chronicle stands on its own as a compelling and insightful work, at once historical record and literary achievement. This translation builds on the 1905 edition published in French by Jules Viard, adding extensive translations from other sources Rymer's Fœdera, the Chronicles of Adam Murimuth, William Nangis, Walter of Guisborough, a Bourgeois of Valenciennes, Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke and Richard Lescot to enrich the original text and Viard's notes.
Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.
Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland by Francis Groome is in Victorian Books.
One of them was a favourite retreat of the author of The Seasons, who was a frequent inmate of Ancrum Manse, and is known as 'Thomson's Cave,' his name being carved on its roof, it is said, by his own hand. Remains of a Caledonian stone circle existed within this century at Harestanes, near Mounteviot, but all its stones save one have been removed; and a Roman road skirts Ancrum Moor, 1¾ mile NW of the village, which moor was the scene of one of the last great conflicts in the international war between Scotland and England. An English army, 5000 strong, under Sir Ralph Evera and Sir Bryan Latoun, in 1544, overran and wasted the Scottish Border northward to Melrose. Returning with their booty, they were overtaken at Ancrum Moor and utterly routed by a Scottish force under the Earl of Angus and Scott of Buccleuch. Lilliard, a maid of Teviotdale, made desperate by the loss of her lover, fought in the Scottish ranks till she fell beneath many wounds; and she has bequeathed to part of the battlefield the name of Lilliard's Edge. A monument, now broken and defaced, stands on the spot, and bore this legend, —
'Fair Maiden Lilliard lies under this stane;
Little was her stature, but great was her fame;
Upon the English loons she laid mony thumps,
And when her legs were cuttid off, she fought upon her stumps.