Late Medieval Books, The Scandalous Chronicle
The Scandalous Chronicle is in Late Medieval Books.
Editor's Preface
The Scandalous Chronicle forms so valuable a supplement to the Memoirs of Commines, that I have determined to follow the example of previous editors, and insert it in this place. In reliance on the opinion of Petitot, I have ascribed its authorship to Jean de Troves.
The literary history of this work is somewhat singular. The first known edition was published under the following title, — The Chronicle of the very Christian and very victorious Louis of Valois (whom God absolve), eleventh of the name ; with various other adventures which occurred in the kingdom of France, as well as in neighbouring countries, from the year 1460 to the year 1483 inclusive. It is a small folio volume, printed in Gothic characters, and was probably published about the end of the fifteenth century, though the title-page bears no date, and mentions neither the author's nor the printer's name. The three following editions are equally silent as to the authorship of the work; but the fifth edition, published in 1529, ascribes it to a clerk in the Hotel de Ville of Paris. In 1583, Gilles Corrozet, in his Tresor des Histoires de France, quotes it as "The Chronicle of King Louis XI" otherwise called the Scandalous Chronicle, by Jean de Troves;" and in the following year, La Croix du Maine, in his Bibliotheque Francaise, makes this statement: "Jean de Troyes was a French historian of the time of Louis XI, king of France ; he wrote a chronicle of the said king, which is vulgarly called the Scandalous Chronicle, because it makes mention of everything done by the said king, and relates matters which are not greatly to his advantage, but rather to his dishonour and scandal."
Such is the authority for the name and authorship of the work ; and though slight, it has been deemed sufficient by most bibliographers, notwithstanding the controversies raised by some eminent writers on the subject. The Chronicle was first appended to the Memoirs of Commines, in Jean Godefroy's edition, published at Brussels in 1713. It will also be found in Lenglet du Fresnoy's edition, published in 1747.
The present translation is from the text in Petitot's great collection of memoirs relating to the history of France.
09 Apr 1483. In April, Edward IV (age 40), King of England, died of an apoplexy, though some say it was of a surfeit, occasioned by drinking too much of some rich wines that the king had made him a present of; however, he lived long enough to settle the affairs of his kingdom, and to leave the succession of the crown to his eldest son, Edward V.
On Monday, the 2d of June, the dauphiness, accompanied by Madame de Beaujeu, the Admiral of France's lady, and several other ladies of quality, made her public entry into Paris about five in the afternoon, and all the streets through which the dauphiness passed were lined with soldiers, hung with tapestry, and crowded with persons of quality, richly dressed, who came thither on purpose to compliment and pay their respects to her ; and in honour to the day of her arrival, all the prisoners in Paris were immediately set at liberty.