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.
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Paternal Family Tree: Cuthbert
On 21st July 1876 Captain James Harold Cuthbert was born to Sidney Cuthbert [aged 25] at Melster, Pietermaritzburg, Natal.
On 9th June 1882 [his father] Sidney Cuthbert [aged 31] died.
On 15th February 1902. Lieutenant James Cuthbert [aged 25] was discharged from hospital for work duties after recovering from being dangerously ill with enteric fever.
20th March 1902. Lieutenant J.H. Cuthbert [aged 25] was now on the S.S. Roslin Castle, which left Cape Town for England as dangerously ill with Enteric Fever.
On 24th September 1903 Captain James Harold Cuthbert [aged 27] and Anne Dorothy Byng [aged 22] were married. She the daughter of Francis Edmund Cecil Byng 5th Earl Strafford [aged 68] and Emily Georgina Kerr Countess Strafford [aged 56].
On 31st January 1907 [his wife] Anne Dorothy Byng [aged 26] was accidentally shot and killed by her husband Captain James Harold Cuthbert [aged 30] when he slipped whilst out on a pheasaant shoot at their home Beaufront Castle, Hexham [Map].
On 12th October 1908 Captain James Harold Cuthbert [aged 32] and Kathleen Alice Coppin-Straker Baroness Rayleigh were married.
In 1910 [his daughter] Vida Cuthbert Baroness Darcy was born to Captain James Harold Cuthbert [aged 33]. She married 1934 Mervyn Horatio Herbert 17th Baron Darcy of Knayth, son of George Herbert 4th Earl Powis and Violet Ida Evelyn Lane-Fox Countess Powis, and had issue.
In 1911 Captain James Harold Cuthbert [aged 34] was appointed High Sheriff of Northumberland.
On 27th September 1915 Captain James Harold Cuthbert [aged 39] was killed in action at the Battle of Loos; his body was never found
Jean de Waurin's Chronicle of England Volume 6 Books 3-6: The Wars of the Roses
Jean de Waurin was a French Chronicler, from the Artois region, who was born around 1400, and died around 1474. Waurin’s Chronicle of England, Volume 6, covering the period 1450 to 1471, from which we have selected and translated Chapters relating to the Wars of the Roses, provides a vivid, original, contemporary description of key events some of which he witnessed first-hand, some of which he was told by the key people involved with whom Waurin had a personal relationship.
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After 27th September 1915. The Reverend Canon Edwin Sidney Savage, wrote in the Hexham Parish Magazine "All our deepest sympathies are with [his former wife] Mrs Cuthbert in her time of Trial. All who knew Captain Cuthbert [deceased] knew that he would be heroic in the war wherever heroism was expected. It would be no surprise to us to learn that when last seen he was leading his men with stick in hand. As adjutant of the Irish Guards in England he was beloved by officers and men. Mr [John], Kipling [deceased] and Mr Lawrence Straker were subalterns under him, and Mr [John], Kipling would be with when last seen. When Captain Cuthbert went to France it was with the old colours of South Africa, where he received his D.S.O. It was he, in association with his uncle General Gerald Cuthbert, who had so much to do officially with the laying-up of the colours of the Scots Guards in Hexham Abbey in 1910.... He was a man of alert brain, of lithe activity, of original thought, of strictest honour, and was endowed with the highest sense of duty. He was a gallant gentleman."
After 27th September 1915. St John Lee Church, Hexham [Map]. Monument to Captain James Harold Cuthbert [deceased],
Northern Echo. 4th October 1915. News has reached Hexham that Captain J. Harold Cuthbert [deceased], D.S.O., of Beaufront Castle, is reported as wounded and missing. Captain Cuthbert, who won his D.S.O. in the South African War, was on the reserve of officers, and after the commencement of the war, re-joined the army, and was for some time adjutant to the Irish Guards in London. He, however, was attached to his old regiment-the Scots Guards-when they went out to the Front. Captain Cuthbert is a son-in-law of Mr John C. Straker, of the Leazes, Hexham, and has filled the office of High Sheriff of his county.
Belfast News. 6th October 1915. Captain J. H. Cuthbert [deceased], D.S.O., Beaufrout Castle, Northumberland (wounded and missing), is a son-in-law of the Earl of Strafford through his marriage with the late Lady Dorothy Byng whose sister, Lady Joan Byng, is the widow of Captain Honourable A. E. S. Mulholland, Irish Guards, eldest son of Lord Dunleath, Ballywalter, County Down, who was killed in action last year.
Newcastle Journal. 5th November 1915. Captain Cuthbert was killed at the Battle of Loos, whilst leading the Right Flank Company of which he was in command. He and a few men managed to reach Puits 14, along with a Second Lieutenant Crabbe and half a dozen Grenadiers, later reinforced by a platoon of the 3rd Grenadier Guards under Lieutenant Ayres-Ritchie. But under the intense enfilading fire from Hill 70 and Bois Hugo forest they had to pull back. A general retirement followed. The War Diary... shortly before 5pm the men in and beyond the PUITS commenced to retire, and fell back into and through CHALK PIT WOOD in some confusion. The C.O. and [the] Adjutant went forward through the wood to clear up the situation, and while going through the wood Capt. and [the] Adjutant the Honourable T. Vessey was wounded and carried away.
On 8th July 1920 Robert Strutt 4th Baron Rayleigh [aged 44] and [his former wife] Kathleen Alice Coppin-Straker Baroness Rayleigh were married. She by marriage Baroness Rayleigh of Terling Place in Essex.
In 1980 [his former wife] Kathleen Alice Coppin-Straker Baroness Rayleigh died.
GrandFather: William Cuthbert of Beaufront Castle
Father: Sidney Cuthbert