This is a translation of the 'Memoires of Jacques du Clercq', published in 1823 in two volumes, edited by Frederic, Baron de Reissenberg. In his introduction Reissenberg writes: 'Jacques du Clercq tells us that he was born in 1424, and that he was a licentiate in law and a counsellor to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in the castellany of Douai, Lille, and Orchies. It appears that he established his residence at Arras. In 1446, he married the daughter of Baldwin de la Lacherie, a gentleman who lived in Lille. We read in the fifth book of his Memoirs that his father, also named Jacques du Clercq, had married a lady of the Le Camelin family, from Compiègne. His ancestors, always attached to the counts of Flanders, had constantly served them, whether in their councils or in their armies.' The Memoires cover a period of nineteen years beginning in in 1448, ending in in 1467. It appears that the author had intended to extend the Memoirs beyond that date; no doubt illness or death prevented him from carrying out this plan. As Reissenberg writes the 'merit of this work lies in the simplicity of its narrative, in its tone of good faith, and in a certain air of frankness which naturally wins the reader’s confidence.' Du Clercq ranges from events of national and international importance, including events of the Wars of the Roses in England, to simple, everyday local events such as marriages, robberies, murders, trials and deaths, including that of his own father in Book 5; one of his last entries.
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Paternal Family Tree: Anjou aka Plantagenet
In 1157 [her father] Almaric I King Jerusalem [aged 21] and [her mother] Agnes Courtenay Queen Jerusalem [aged 21] were married. She by marriage Queen Jerusalem. She the daughter of [her grandfather] Joscelin Courtenay II Count Edessa. He the son of Fulk "Young" King Jerusalem and Melisende Queen of Jerusalem [aged 52]. They were third cousins.
In 1160 Sibylla Anjou Queen Jerusalem was born to Almaric I King Jerusalem [aged 24] and Agnes Courtenay Queen Jerusalem [aged 24].
On 10th February 1163 [her uncle] Baldwin III King Jerusalem [aged 33] died at Beirut. His brother [her father] Almaric [aged 27] succeeded I King Jerusalem.
In 1167 [her father] Almaric I King Jerusalem [aged 31] and [her step-mother] Maria Komnenos Queen Jerusalem [aged 13] were married. She by marriage Queen Jerusalem. He the son of [her grandfather] Fulk "Young" King Jerusalem and [her grandmother] Melisende Queen of Jerusalem.
On 27th March 1168 Eleanor of Aquitaine Queen Consort Franks and England [aged 46] and her party were ambushed by brothers [her future husband] Guy I King Jerusalem [aged 18] and [her future brother-in-law] Geoffrey Lusignan [aged 18].
Patrick of Salisbury 1st Earl Salisbury [aged 46] was killed. He was buried at the Church of St Hilary, Poitiers. His son William [aged 18] succeeded 2nd Earl Salisbury.
William Marshal 1st Earl Pembroke [aged 22] held off the enemy, was wounded and captured whilst Eleanor escaped. Eleanor subsequently paid his ransom.
On 11th July 1174 [her father] Almaric I King Jerusalem [aged 38] died. His son [her brother] Baldwin [aged 13] succeeded IV King Jerusalem.
In August 1177 [her son] Baldwin V King Jerusalem was born to William Montferrat and Sibylla Anjou Queen Jerusalem [aged 17]. He died aged nine in 1186.
Around 1184 [her mother] Agnes Courtenay Queen Jerusalem [aged 48] died.
In August 1186 Guy I King Jerusalem [aged 36] and Sibylla Anjou Queen Jerusalem [aged 26] were married. She the daughter of Almaric I King Jerusalem and Agnes Courtenay Queen Jerusalem.
In August 1186 [her son] Baldwin V King Jerusalem [aged 9] died. His mother Sibylla [aged 26] succeeded Queen Jerusalem.
In August 1186 [her brother] Baldwin IV King Jerusalem [aged 25] died at Jerusalem [Map]. He was buried in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre [Map]. His nephew [her son] Baldwin [aged 9] succeeded V King Jerusalem.
Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke
Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson.
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In August 1186 [her husband] Guy I King Jerusalem [aged 36] was appointed I King Jerusalem.
In 1190 [her brother-in-law] Conrad of Montferrat King of Jerusalem [aged 44] and [her half-sister] Isabella Anjou Queen Jerusalem [aged 18] were married; see
Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph Coggeshall. The difference in their ages was 26 years. She the daughter of [her father] Almaric I King Jerusalem and [her step-mother] Maria Komnenos Queen Jerusalem [aged 36].
In 1190 Sibylla Anjou Queen Jerusalem [aged 30] died. Her half sister [her half-sister] Isabella [aged 18] succeeded Queen Jerusalem.
On 18th July 1194 [her former husband] Guy I King Jerusalem [aged 44] died at Nicosia. His brother [her former brother-in-law] Almaric [aged 49] succeeded II King Jerusalem.
In or before 1177 William Montferrat and Sibylla Anjou Queen Jerusalem were married. She the daughter of Almaric I King Jerusalem and Agnes Courtenay Queen Jerusalem.
Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph Coggeshall. After these things had been done, King Philip wished to hand over that city [Acre], and the other cities which were to be taken, to the marquis of Montferrat1, and to establish him as king in the land of Jerusalem, since he had married the younger daughter of King Amalric, whose sister, namely the queen, had already died. But King Richard altogether opposed this plan, asserting that it would be more just to restore the kingdom, long since despoiled, to King Guy, rather than to substitute another while he was still living, since it was clear that Guy had not lost the kingdom through cowardice or sloth, but in hard battle, when, because of the number of the enemy and the fewness of his own forces, he had been captured by the Saracens together with the Lord's Cross. This, indeed, is recognised as having been the seed of an inexorable discord between the aforesaid princes. Yet this discord had first sprouted earlier, at the city of Messina in Sicily, when King Richard had taken that city by armed force, and slain many, while King Philip was staying there, on account of the insults and vexations which the army of the king of France was inflicting on his own army.
His itaque gestis, voluit rex Philippus urbem illam, et reliquas quas capturi erant urbes, marchisio de Monteferrato tradere, eumque in terra Hierosolymitana regem constituere, eo quod juniorem filiam regis Amalarii duxisset in uxorem, sorore ejus, regina scilicet, jam defuncta. Cujus voluntati rex Ricardus prorsus obstitit; asserens justius fore regi Guidoni, regno jampridem spoliato, regnum suum restituere, quam alium, illo adhuc vivente, substituere, cum constaret hunc non per ignaviam vel socordiam regnum amisisse, sed in gravi belli certamine, ob inimicorum numerositatem ac sui exercitus paucitatem, simul cum cruce Dominica a Sarracenis fuisse captum. Quod nimirum inexorabilis discordiæ inter prædictos principes seminarium ibidem fuisse dinoscitur. Cum tamen hæc discordia primo apud Messanam Siciliæ civitatem inter eosdem pullulaverat, cum rex Ricardus eamdem urbem armata manu cepit, plurimosque prostravit, rege Philippo in ea commorante, ob convitia et vexationes quæ exercitus regis Francorum exercitui suo inferebat.
Note 1. Conrad of Montferrat King of Jerusalem had married [her half-sister] Isabella following the death of her sister Sibylla Anjou Queen Jerusalem in 1190 and so became, jure uxoris i.e. by right of his wife, King of Jerusalem. King Richard's plan to reinstate Guy had no basis in the laws of succession since Guy was King by right of his wife who had died.
Kings France: Great x 11 Grand Daughter of Charles "Charlemagne aka Great" King of the Franks King Lombardy Holy Roman Emperor
Great x 4 Grandfather: Fulcuich Count Mortagne au Perche
Great x 3 Grandfather: Hugh de Perche Count Gâtinais
Great x 4 Grandmother: Melisende Viscountess Châteaudun
Great x 2 Grandfather: Geoffrey "Ferréol" Anjou 2nd Count Gâtinais
Great x 4 Grandfather: Albéric II Count Mâcon
Great x 3 Grandmother: Béatrice de Mâcon Countess Gâtinais
Great x 1 Grandfather: Fulk "Réchin" Anjou 4th Count Anjou
8 x Great Grand Son of Charles "Charlemagne aka Great" King of the Franks King Lombardy Holy Roman Emperor
Great x 4 Grandfather: Geoffrey "Greygown" Ingelger 1st Count Anjou
Great x 3 Grandfather: Fulk "Black" Ingelger III Count Anjou 6 x Great Grand Son of Charles "Charlemagne aka Great" King of the Franks King Lombardy Holy Roman Emperor
Great x 4 Grandmother: Adele Vermandois Countess Anjou 5 x Great Grand Daughter of Charles "Charlemagne aka Great" King of the Franks King Lombardy Holy Roman Emperor
Great x 2 Grandmother: Ermengarde Blanche Ingelger Duchess Burgundy 7 x Great Grand Daughter of Charles "Charlemagne aka Great" King of the Franks King Lombardy Holy Roman Emperor
Great x 3 Grandmother: Hildegarde Sundgau Countess Anjou
GrandFather: Fulk "Young" King Jerusalem
9 x Great Grand Son of Charles "Charlemagne aka Great" King of the Franks King Lombardy Holy Roman Emperor
Great x 4 Grandfather: William Reginarids
Great x 3 Grandfather: Aumary Reginarids
Great x 2 Grandfather: Simon Montfort
Great x 3 Grandmother: Bertrade Unknown
Great x 1 Grandmother: Bertrade Montfort Queen Consort France
Great x 4 Grandfather: Robert Normandy Archbishop of Rouen
Great x 3 Grandfather: Richard Normandy 2nd Count Évreux
Great x 4 Grandmother: Herleva Countess Évreux
Great x 2 Grandmother: Agnès of Normandy
Great x 4 Grandfather: Ramon Borrell Count of Barcelona
Great x 3 Grandmother: Adelaide aka Godehildis Ramon
Great x 4 Grandmother: Ermesinde of Carcassonne
Father: Almaric I King Jerusalem
10 x Great Grand Son of Charles "Charlemagne aka Great" King of the Franks King Lombardy Holy Roman Emperor
Great x 2 Grandfather: Hugh I Count of Rethel
Great x 1 Grandfather: Baldwin II King Jerusalem
Great x 3 Grandfather: Guy I of Montlhéry
Great x 2 Grandmother: Melisende of Crécy
Great x 3 Grandmother: Hodierna of Gometz
GrandMother: Melisende Queen of Jerusalem
Sibylla Anjou Queen Jerusalem
11 x Great Grand Daughter of Charles "Charlemagne aka Great" King of the Franks King Lombardy Holy Roman Emperor
Great x 2 Grandfather: Joscelin Courtenay
Great x 1 Grandfather: Joscelin Courtenay I Count Edessa
Great x 3 Grandfather: Guy I of Montlhéry
Great x 2 Grandmother: Elisabeth Montlhéry
Great x 3 Grandmother: Hodierna of Gometz
GrandFather: Joscelin Courtenay II Count Edessa
Great x 2 Grandfather: Constantine I Armenia
Great x 1 Grandmother: Beatrice Armenia
Mother: Agnes Courtenay Queen Jerusalem