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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On 12th February 1828 George Meredith was born.
In January 1844 Edward Nicolls and [his future wife] Mary Ellen Peacock [aged 22] were married.
On 11th March 1844 Edward Nicolls, a naval officer in command of the HMS Dwarf, drowned in the Shannon estuary while rescuing people in distress. His wife of two months Mary Ellen Peacock [aged 22], who was with Edward aboard the vessel, had encouraged him to undertake the rescue attempt in which he lost his life. She was pregnant at the time of her husband's death.
On 9th August 1849 George Meredith [aged 21] and Mary Ellen Peacock [aged 28] were married at St George's Church, Hanover Square. Their honeymoon was to the Rhine Valley where George had been to school.
1856. Henry Wallis [aged 25]. "The Death of Chatterton" depicting the death of the 17-year-old English early Romantic poet Thomas Chatterton, 1752–1770, who is believed to have poisoned himself with arsenic. Wallis sold the painting to Augustus Egg in 1856. The model used for the painting was the young George Meredith [aged 27], a 19th-century English novelist and poet.
Thomas Chatterton: On 20th November 1752 he was born
In 1857 Mary Ellen Peacock [aged 35], wife of George Meredith [aged 28], eloped with Henry Wallis [aged 26].
On 29th September 1857 [his wife] Mary Ellen Peacock [aged 36] wrote to Henry Wallis [aged 27]:
"If we have to stay in England let us be at Clifton. I have no answer from George [aged 29]. I imagine he wants to see Darvall [Henry Darvall] before writing. If he gives no reply in a week I shall take his silence for freedom and go abroad without another word, if you will like it, and where you will… I am always dreading to lose you because I feel I have no right to you, and I love you so really, so far beyond anything I have known of love, that there are ways in which I believe I could bear to lose you. God knows how hard it would be; but I believe I could bear it. Not by Death or weariness or anger. By Death I could not lose you
The love where Death has set his seal
Nor age can chill, nor rival steal
Nor falsehood disavow, (Lord Byron, Elegy on Thyrza)
But I do not fear your Death, because I feel how much you owe to Life, how much Life has for you, and surely I shall in no shape lead you Delilah-like to Death, since it is my one aim to add to your strength, my one prayer 'God grant that I may do this man no harm'. And for weariness or anger, if we begin to thread either of those paths we will part before they possess us."
1858. Henry Wallis [aged 27]. Portrait of Mary Ellen Peacock [aged 36], wife of George Meredith [aged 29], with whom Henry Wallis had eloped the previous year.
In October 1861 [his wife] Mary Ellen Peacock [aged 40] died.
Abbot John Whethamstede’s Chronicle of the Abbey of St Albans
Abbot John Whethamstede's Register aka Chronicle of his second term at the Abbey of St Albans, 1451-1461, is a remarkable text that describes his first-hand experience of the beginning of the Wars of the Roses including the First and Second Battles of St Albans, 1455 and 1461, respectively, their cause, and their consequences, not least on the Abbey itself. His text also includes Loveday, Blore Heath, Northampton, the Act of Accord, Wakefield, and Towton, and ends with the Coronation of King Edward IV. In addition to the events of the Wars of the Roses, Abbot John, or his scribes who wrote the Chronicle, include details in the life of the Abbey such as charters, letters, land exchanges, visits by legates, and disputes, which provide a rich insight into the day-to-day life of the Abbey, and the challenges faced by its Abbot.
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In 1871 [his daughter] Marie Eveleen Meredith was born to George Meredith [aged 42].
1893. Frederick Sandes [aged 63]. Portrait of Marie Meredith [aged 22], daughter of his friend the novelist George Meredith [aged 64], (who sat for Henry Wallis's Death of Chatterton). This drawing was done in 1893, when Marie was 23, and just married. Sandys was fond of her and called her by the affectionate names of 'Marietta' or 'Riette', while her father called her 'Dearie'. In December 1894 Meredith wrote to Sandys 'I have bidden the Dearie march to the finish of her portrait, and she has vowed over again that she wished to and would. Your call will compel her. She has had visitings and receivings to do since her marriage'.
Marie Eveleen Meredith: In 1871 she was born to George Meredith. In 1933 she died.
1893. George Frederick Watts [aged 75]. Portrait of George Meredith [aged 64].
On 18th May 1909 George Meredith [aged 81] died.