University of Virginia Library

MEMOIRS OF
DE JOINVILLE

INTRODUCTION

THE LORD OF JOINVILLE DEDICATES HIS BOOR TO LOUIS, SON OF PHILIPPE LE BEL AND JEANNE OF NAVARRE (AFTERWARDS LOUIS X, "LE HUTIN"), AND DIVIDES IT INTO TWO PARTS.

To his good lord Louis, son of the King of France, by the grace of God King of Navarre, Count Palatine of Champagne and Brie, greeting, love honour and ready service from John, Lord of Joinville, his Seneschal of Champagne.

Dear Lord, I give you to know that your Lady Mother the Queen, who loved me well, May God have mercy on her! desired of me right earnestly, that I would make her a book of the holy words and good deeds of our king Saint Louis; and

I did promise her the same; and by God's aid the book is completed in two parts.

The first part tells how he ordered his time according to God and the Church and to the profit of his realm.

The second part of the book treats of his knightly prowess and great feats of arms.

Sir, in that it is written: "Do first that which pertains to God, and He will direct all the rest for thee," have I caused to be written such matters as pertain to the three things aforesaid: to wit, to soul, body, and the government of the people.[1]

These other things, moreover, have I caused to be written to the honour of his true and holy relics, that by them it may be plainly seen, that never a layman of our times lived so holily as he did all his days, from the beginning of his reign unto the end of his life. Not that I was present at his life's end, but his son, Count Peter of Alençon, was there, who loved me well and related to me the fair ending

that he made, as you will find it written at the end of this book. Whereby methinks they fell short of his due, in not ranking him among the martyrs, seeing the great hardships that he underwent in the pilgrimage of the Cross for the space of six years that I was in his company; and specially in that he followed our Lord in the matter of the Cross. For if God died by the Cross, even so did he; for he was crossed when he was at Tunis.

The second book will tell us of his deeds of knightly prowess and great daring; which were such, that four times I beheld him put his person in jeopardy of death, as you shall hear, to save his followers from harm.

The first occasion, was when we touched land before Damietta; when all his council urged him, so I heard, to tarry until he should see how his knights should fare at their landing; and for this reason: that if he went ashore with them, and were slain along with his followers, the cause would be lost; whereas, if he tarried in his ship, he in himself might make good the loss and win back the land of Egypt. And he would hearken to none of them but leaped all armed into the sea, his shield about

his neck and his spear in his hand, and was one of the first ashore.

The second occasion, was when we left Mansourah to go to Damietta and his council urged him, as I was given to understand, to travel to Damietta in the galleys; and he would hearken to never a one, saying rather: that he would never desert his followers, but that their fate should be his.

The third occasion, was when we had dwelt a year in the Holy Land, after his brothers had left it. In great peril of death were we at that time; since, whilst the king was sojourning in Acre, for one man-of-arms that he had in his company the inhabitants had full thirty, when the town was seized. Indeed, I know no other reason wherefor the Turks did not come and take us in the town, save for the love God bore the king, who put fear into the hearts of our enemies, so that they did not dare attack us.

The fourth occasion when he jeopardized his person, was when we returned from over seas and came before the Isle of Cyprus, where our ship ran so heavily aground, that three spans-length of the keel

whereon she was built was torn away. Whereupon the king sent for fourteen master mariners to advise him what he should do; and they all advised him, as you will hear, to go into another ship. But to all their arguments the king replied: "Sirs, I see, that if I go out of this ship, she will be abandoned, and no one will remain in her, but they will choose to remain in Cyprus; wherefore please God, I will never cause the ruin of so great a number of men as are here, rather will I stay here to safeguard them." Thus the king warded off the mischief of eight hundred persons that were in his ship.

In the last part of this book we will speak of his end and in what a holy fashion he passed away.

Now to you, my lord king of Navarre, I say, that I promised your lady mother the Queen, God rest her soul! that I would make this book; and to acquit me of my promise I have made it. And since I see none that has so good a right to it as you who are her heir, to you I send it, to the end that you and your brothers and all others who shall hear it may take good example thereby, and show forth the example in their works, that God may be well pleased with them.