Background
Geoffrey of Villehardouin is rather supposed than known to have been born at the chateau from which he took his name, near Troyes, in Champagne, about the year 1160.
( This book features the most authoritative accounts avai...)
This book features the most authoritative accounts available of the Holy Wars: Villehardouin's Conquest of Constantinople and Joinville's Chronicle of the Crusade of St. Lewis. The veteran crusaders provide engrossing narratives and firsthand testimony of terrifying battles as well as the religious and political fervor that sparked the two hundred-year campaign.
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(Chronicle of The Fourth Crusade and The Conquest of Const...)
Chronicle of The Fourth Crusade and The Conquest of Constantinople is a classis Middle East history text by Geoffrey de Villehardouin and Frank T. Marzials. Be it known to you that eleven hundred and ninety-seven years after the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the time of Innocent Pope of Rome, and Philip King of France, and Richard King of England, there was in France a holy man named Fulk of Neuilly - which Neuilly is between Lagni-sur-Marne and Paris - and he was a priest and held the cure of the village. And this said Fulk began to speak of God throughout the Isle-de-France, and the other countries round about; and you must know that by him the Lord wrought many miracles.
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(Rare insights into the chivalric age through the eyewitne...)
Rare insights into the chivalric age through the eyewitness accounts of two French knights Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade and The Conquest of Constantinople by Geoffrey de Villehardouin Chronicle of the Crusade of St. Louis by Jean de Joinville Geoffrey de Villehardouin was an eminent French knight, who set out on the Fourth Crusade in 1199. Pivotally involved in events, including the routing the campaign via Constantinople, his important chronicle was written when his experiences were still fresh in his mind. After the conquest of Byzantium he became a military leader and earned the city of Messinopolis in Thrace and the title Marshal of Champagne. Jean de Joinville embarked upon his crusade-remembered by history as the Seventh Crusade-as a young man in 1248. This Crusade was launched only seven years after the previous one failed and actually managed to briefly occupy Jerusalem. De Joinville was away upon campaign for six years, returning home from Palestine in 1254, though he did not pen his memoir until old age. This is a very 'human ' reporter full of fears, misgivings and able to provide the reader with minute detail of events. This book contains two essential, first hand accounts from the time of the crusades, and gives the reader the rare opportunity to look into the lives of medieval knights on campaign and on the battlefield; both accounts are regarded as important documents of the period.
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Geoffrey of Villehardouin is rather supposed than known to have been born at the chateau from which he took his name, near Troyes, in Champagne, about the year 1160.
A layman and a soldier, he was appointed Marshal of Champagne from 1185 and joined the Crusade in 1199 during a tournament held by Count Thibaud III of Champagne. Thibaud named him one of the ambassadors to Venice to procure ships for the voyage, and he helped to elect Boniface of Montferrat as the new leader of the Crusade when Thibaud died.
Although he does not say so specifically in his own account, he probably supported the diversion of the Crusade first to Zara and then to Constantinople. While at Constantinople he also served as an ambassador to Isaac II Angelus, and was in the embassy that demanded that Isaac appoint Alexius IV co-emperor.
After the conquest of the Byzantine Empire in 1204 he served as a military leader, and led the retreat from the Battle of Adrianople in 1205 after Baldwin I was captured by the forces of the Second Bulgarian Empire. In recognition of his services, Boniface of Montferrat gave to Geoffrey the city of Messinopolis in Thrace. After the Crusade, he was named Marshal of the Latin Empire.
In 1207 he began to write his chronicle of the Crusade, On the Conquest of Constantinople. It was in French rather than Latin, making it one of the earliest works of French prose. Villehardouin's account is generally read alongside that of Robert of Clari, a French knight of low station, Niketas Choniates, a high-ranking Byzantine official and historian who gives an eyewitness account, and Gunther of Pairis, a Cistercian monk who tells the story from the perspective of Abbot Martin who accompanied the Crusaders.
Villehardouin's nephew (also named Geoffrey) Geoffrey I of Villehardouin went on to become Prince of Achaea in Morea (the medieval name for the Peloponnesus) in 1209. Villehardouin himself seems to have died shortly afterwards. His son Erard had taken, in 1213, the title of seigneur de Villehardouin. There is evidence of his children raising memorials for him in 1218, suggesting he died around this time.
He is considered one of the most important historians of the time period, best known for writing the eyewitness account De la Conquête de Constantinople, about the battle for Constantinople between the Christians of the West and the Christians of the East on 13 April 1204. The Conquest is the earliest French historical prose narrative that has survived to modern times.
(Rare insights into the chivalric age through the eyewitne...)
( This book features the most authoritative accounts avai...)
(Chronicle of The Fourth Crusade and The Conquest of Const...)
