Jean de Joinville (1224-1319)

by Caroline Stone (See Chinese translation)

Jean de Joinville (alternative names) came from a noble family and served as hereditary Seneschal (a royal officer in charge of justice and provincial administrative control) in Champagne, France. He joined the royal court in 1241, and in 1248, with Louis IX, who took the cross in gratitude for recovering from a mortal illness, set out on the Seventh Crusade. In 1254, he returned with the King to France but, although he was very close to the King and a passionate admirer of his piety and moral integrity, he absolutely refused to go with him in 1270 on the disastrous Eighth Crusade against Tunis, where Louis died. Joinville testified at the canonization hearing in 1282 and was present at the exhumation of the saint's body in 1298.

Joinville began what he calls Livre des saintes paroles et des bons faiz de nostre saint roy Looŷs, in other words, The Life of Saint Louis, probably in 1304, at the request of Jeanne de Navarre, wife of Philippe le Bel, Louis' grandson. It was completed in October 1309, by which time Jeanne was dead and the book was dedicated to her son, the future Louis X. Joinville, on the other hand, continued to be active into extreme old age, complying with a royal summons to arms in 1315, when he was over 90.

The work is not, of course, about Joinville's travels, nor is it hagiography, but a description of the campaigns that made up the Seventh Crusade. It is one of the most important chronicles in medieval French and its vividness and immediacy are remarkable, especially given that it was set down -- almost certainly dictated -- half a century after the events described.

Little is said about the country or the places, except in a military context, but the Life is filled with fascinating and unusual details. He describes how he provided the Empress of Byzantium with dress materials when her wardrobe was carried out of reach in a storm; the uses of carrier pigeons; the problems raised in battle by the Muslims being mounted on mares, whereas the Christians preferred stallions; finding fossil fish; Muslim torture techniques; the ratio of wine to water allotted to the different ranks of the army, the cultivation of sugar cane, and so forth.

Joinville was a great admirer of the King, but he was well aware that he was no military strategist and his book chronicles a depressing series of military misjudgements and set-backs. He is even prepared to criticise Louis for his coldness to his wife and family. He is also very clear-eyed about the behaviour of the Crusaders and, as well as describing amazing feats of courage and endurance, had no qualms at mentioning that thieving, brawling and drunkenness were continual problems. His own role is very much understated although, reading between the lines, his achievements, often heroic, can be deduced.

Joinville gives us particularly interesting information about the Mongols and their country, obtained from the envoys whom King Louis had sent to the Tartar Khan and confirms much of the account of Hethoum [Hethum] of Armenia. He also describes the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258, although he was not present at it, and sets down what he learned of the Old Man of the Mountain -- Hassan-i Sabbah -- and the sect of Nizari Ismailis, known as the Assassins, from their envoys, who visited the King at Acre, as well as what was believed of Prester John the presumably mythical Christian ruler in the East.

The last section of the Life describes the King's administration of his realm and his last fatal Crusade in 1270.

The Life was apparently not widely circulated and has survived in few manuscripts. This was perhaps because it remained in the possession of the royal family and was not accessible to copyists, or alternatively because it was neither sufficiently hagiographic nor chivalric to have wide appeal. The original manuscript has not survived. The oldest copy is first mentioned in an inventory of the Royal Library in 1373, but can be dated to 1330-40, and was presumably copied from the original. A 15th century manuscript from Provence was used for the first printed edition of 1547. A 16th century manuscript was found at Lucca in 1741, apparently a copy of an earlier text and, three years later, a 14th century manuscript turned up in Brussels. This is now the standard text and is in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.