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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Maternal Family Tree: Elizabeth Belnap
In or before 1515 [her father] Nicholas Rawson of Aveley in Essex (age 43) and [her mother] Beatrix Cooke were married.
Around 1515 Anne Rawson was born to [her father] Nicholas Rawson of Aveley in Essex (age 44) and [her mother] Beatrix Cooke.
In 1529 [her father] Nicholas Rawson of Aveley in Essex (age 58) died.
In or before 1540 Michael Stanhope (age 33) and Anne Rawson (age 24) were married.
In 1540 [her son] Edward Stanhope was born to [her husband] Michael Stanhope (age 33) and Anne Rawson (age 25). He married before 1603 Susan Coleshill and had issue.
In 1540 [her son] Thomas Stanhope was born to [her husband] Michael Stanhope (age 33) and Anne Rawson (age 25). He married Margaret Port and had issue.
In 1546 [her son] Edward Stanhope was born to [her husband] Michael Stanhope (age 39) and Anne Rawson (age 31).
Around 1547 [her daughter] Jane Stanhope Baroness Berkeley was born to [her husband] Michael Stanhope (age 40) and Anne Rawson (age 32). She married (1) after 1564 Roger Townshend and had issue (2) 9th March 1598 Henry Berkeley 7th Baron Berkeley, son of Thomas Berkeley 6th Baron Berkeley and Anne Savage Baroness Berkeley.
In 1549 [her son] John Stanhope 1st Baron Stanhope was born to [her husband] Michael Stanhope (age 42) and Anne Rawson (age 34). He married 6th May 1589 Margaret Macwilliams Baroness Stanhope and had issue.
Around 1549 [her son] Michael Stanhope was born to [her husband] Michael Stanhope (age 42) and Anne Rawson (age 34). He married Elizabeth Read and had issue.
On 26th February 1552 Miles Partridge and Ralph Fane were hanged. Thomas Arundell of Wardour Castle (age 50) and [her husband] Michael Stanhope (age 45) were beheaded at Tower Hill [Map] for plotting to assassinate John Dudley 1st Duke Northumberland (age 48).
Thomas Arundell of Wardour Castle was buried at St Peter ad Vincula Church, Tower of London [Map].
After 1564 [her son-in-law] Roger Townshend (age 20) and [her daughter] Jane Stanhope Baroness Berkeley (age 17) were married.
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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Before 1578 [her son-in-law] John Hotham of Scorborough (age 37) and [her daughter] Juliana Stanhope were married.
After 1588. St Peter's Church, Shelford [Map]. Alabaster Monument to Anne Rawson (age 73). Carved by Richard and Gabriel Royley of Burton-upon-Trent.
The quartered 
Stanhope Arms impaled with Rawson Arms: Gules, a four square castle in perspective with as many towers and cupolas one at each angle or standing in water azure.
After 1588. St Peter's Church, Shelford [Map]. Memorial inscription to [her former husband] Michael Stanhope and Anne Rawson (age 73).
On 20th February 1588 Anne Rawson (age 73) died.
Archaeologia Volume 31 Section V. Melford, Suffolk, May 8th, 1844.
MY DEAR SIR,
In the valuable collection of Original Letters edited by Sir Henry Ellis (Vol. II. second Series), I observe two in 1569 and 1570 from Lady Stanhope to Sir William Cecill, respecting the unhappy marriage of her [her daughter] daughter with Mr. afterwards Sir [her former son-in-law] John Hotham of Scorborough in Yorkshire, and also Sir John's letter to Cecill, as "Master of the Wards and Lyveries," defending himself, and in which he expatiates on the "Stanhopes eville delinge many wayes," but with less asperity than the lady, who not only reviles him, but, in fact, the whole county of York, and says "especially in Yorkshire, where he may suborne men and women to say what he listeth to serve his devilishe purpose." The lady had purchased the wardship of Hotham, and married him to her daughter, but it appears that after all it was a bad bargain, as she had not purchased his love. The Lord Treasurer Burghley found time for everything, and this lady even troubled him after her death. I shall be glad if you think the letter which I inclose worthy of notice by the Society of Antiquaries; the foolscap sheet is very neatly folded up, and endorsed in Lord Burghley's business-like manner, "6. Ap. 1588, Sr [her son] Thomas Stanhoppe, Towchinge his Mothers funeralls." Anne Lady Stanhope was the widow of Sir [her former husband] Michael Stanhope, who was beheaded in 1551 on a charge of conspiring with the Protector Somerset, who had married his [her former sister-in-law] half-sister, to assassinate the Duke of Northumberland, the Marquess of Northampton, and the Earl of Pembroke, at a banquet at the Lord Paget's, but his chief offence appears to have been that he was brother-in-law to Somerset. His widow is described by Collins as having "kept continually a worshipful house, relieved the poor daily, gave good countenance and comfort to the preachers of God's word, spent the most of her latter days in prayer, and using the church where God's word was preached." Her son, Sir Thomas, dates his letter from Shelford1 in Nottinghamshire, a dissolved monastery, which with the manor had been granted by Henry VIII. to his father. Sir Thomas was ancestor of several noble families, and his letter shows the magnificence of his ideas, but the dole to the poor at his gate was probably only a continuance or revival of the old custom in the time of his predecessors the monks.
Believe me to be
Very faithfully yours,
RICHD. ALMACK.
ALBERT WAY, Esq., M.A., Director S.A.
Note 1. Shelford House was a garrison for King Charles the First, under the care of Philip Stanhope, son of the [her great grandson] first Earl of Chesterfield, the grandson of this Sir Thomas Stanhope. In Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs of Col. John Hutchinson is a very interesting and minute account of the storming of this house, the miserable death of Philip Stanhope, and the destruction of the house by fire.
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[her son] William Stanhope was born to Michael Stanhope and Anne Rawson.
[her son] Edward Stanhope was born to Michael Stanhope and Anne Rawson.
[her daughter] Juliana Stanhope was born to Michael Stanhope and Anne Rawson. She married before 1578 John Hotham of Scorborough and had issue.
[her daughter] Eleanor Stanhope was born to Michael Stanhope and Anne Rawson.
Father: Nicholas Rawson of Aveley in Essex
Great x 2 Grandfather: Robert Cooke of Lavenham in Suffolk
Great x 1 Grandfather: Thomas Cooke
GrandFather: Philip Cooke
Mother: Beatrix Cooke
GrandMother: Elizabeth Belnap
