Rosalind Brown-Grant - A Chivalric Life: The Book of the Deeds of Messire Jacques de Lalaing

A Chivalric Life

A Chivalric Life

The Book of the Deeds of Messire Jacques de Lalaing

Translation, notes and introduction by Rosalind Brown-Grant and Mario Damen

THE BOYDELL PRESS

Rosalind Brown-Grant and Mario Damen 2022

All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation

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The right of Rosalind Brown-Grant and Mario Damen to be identified as

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sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

First published 2022

The Boydell Press, Woodbridge

ISBN 978 1 78327 721 6 hardback

ISBN 978 1 80010 593 5 ePub

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PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK

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Cross references refer to page numbers in the print edition

Cover: Jacques de Lalaing fights against Diego de Guzmn in Valladolid in February 1448. Livre des faits de messire Jacques de Lalaing, Paris, BnF, MS fr. 16830, fol. 81v. Photo BnF. | Design: Toni Michelle

Illustrations

Figures

1 Drawing of the tomb of Jacques de Lalaing. pitaphes recueillies dans les glises des Flandres et de lArtois, Besanon, Bibliothque municipale, MS Chiflet 64, fol. 104r. Photo Bibliothque municipale de Besanon.

2 Frontispiece showing the author as Toison dor, King of Arms of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Livre des faits de messire Jacques de Lalaing, Paris, BnF, MS fr. 16830, fol. 1r. Photo BnF.

3 Jacques de Lalaing fights against Jean de Boniface in Ghent in December 1445. Livre des faits de messire Jacques de Lalaing, Paris, BnF, MS fr. 16830, fol. 47r. Photo BnF.

4 Jacques de Lalaing fights against Jean Pitois at the Pas of the Fountain of Tears in October 1450. Livre des faits de messire Jacques de Lalaing, Los Angeles, Getty, MS 114, fol. 129v. Photo Getty.

5 Jacques de Lalaing takes his leave of the French dauphin at his palace near Valence in 1448. Livre des faits de messire Jacques de Lalaing, Los Angeles, Getty, MS 114, fol. 91v. Photo Getty.

6 The knight-defenders pavilion at the Pas of the Fountain of Tears. Livre des faits de messire Jacques de Lalaing, Paris, BnF, MS fr. 16830, fol. 124r. Photo BnF.

7 Raid outside Lokeren in May 1452. Livre des faits de messire Jacques de Lalaing, Los Angeles, Getty, MS 114, fol. 151r. Photo Getty.

8 Death of Jacques de Lalaing at the siege of Poeke in July 1453. Livre des faits de messire Jacques de Lalaing, Paris, BnF, MS fr. 16830, fol. 202r. Photo BnF.

Maps

1 The Burgundian composite state c.1450.

2 Lalaings itinerary through the Iberian Peninsula 144748.

3 The county of Flanders 145253.

Tables

1 Genealogy of the Lalaing family.

2 Gifts and payments to Jacques de Lalaing from Duke Philip the Good.

Acknowledgements

The idea to produce this book was conceived during a workshop on late medieval political literature held at the University of Odense, Denmark, in March 2017. It was further developed during Rosalind Brown-Grants tenure as a research fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) in Amsterdam from February to June 2019 and finished during Mario Damens own tenure as a research fellow at NIAS from February to June 2021. We are both deeply grateful to the Director and the dedicated staff at NIAS for their help and support in bringing this project to fruition.

Whilst the combination of our personalities and respective areas of expertise seemed to guarantee that this emprise would be a successful undertaking, it could only truly be completed with the aid of many other people to whom we would like to express our heartfelt thanks. The following have provided useful advice, data and/or bibliographical information: Jos Biemans, Margreet Brandsma, Andrew Brown, Michael H. Brown, Steen Clemmensen, Marieke van Delft, Henny Denessen, Michael Depreter, Casper van Dijk, Erin Donovan, Sonja Dnnebeil, Sanne Frequin, Peter Alexander Kerkhof, Marjolijn Kruip, Comte Frdric de Limburg Stirum, Matthieu Marchal, Elizabeth Morrison, Jacques Paviot, Eva Pibirri, Arie van Steensel, Erik Verroken and Hanno Wijsman. The maps were made by UvA-Kaartenmakers. We are particularly grateful to Hendrik Callewier and Kay Devlaminck of the Rijksarchief in Kortrijk for supplying us with a digitised copy of the Kortrijk MS of the Livre and detailed pictures of the watermarks just before the book went to press. We owe a special debt of thanks to the Comte de Lalaing and his mother, the Comtesse, for graciously allowing us to consult all the manuscripts of the Livre held in the Lalaing private family collection, as well as to Anne-Marie Legar for facilitating our visit to see this collection in the first place and for generously sharing her work on these manuscripts with us. We are also very grateful to Boydells anonymous reader for kindly providing us with a very useful list of corrections to the typescript of the book and to Caroline Palmer, our editor at Boydell, for her encouragement and understanding when we had to stop the press before submitting the final typescript in order to take account of new discoveries concerning several manuscripts of the Livre.

Numerous friends and colleagues have been especially generous in sharing their knowledge on various aspects of the text and the scholarly apparatus that accompanies our translation: Wim Blockmans commented on the Introduction and the chapters dealing with the Ghent war; Nils Bock provided valuable details on the names and functions of heralds; Jan Burgers helped us out with several paleographical problems; Estelle Doudet advised on how to translate part of George Chastelains epitaph to Jacques de Lalaing; Jelle Haemers commented on several passages concerning the Ghent war; Rudolf Knoke supplied information from the Herzog von Croysches Archiv, Dlmen; Ralph Moffat gave help on aspects of arms, armour and combat in relation to both the joust at Stirling and the Pas of the Fountain of Tears; Alan Murray advised on several heraldic issues and how best to translate blazon, i.e. the coats of arms worn by the competitors at the Pas; Margaret Scott offered guidance on defining orfvrerie; Graeme Small read the Introduction and provided suggestions on how to render place names; Michelle Szkilnik helped with the translation of some of the prayers in the entremets that followed the end of the jousting at the Pas and with the partial transcription of the Kortrijk MS; and Jane H. M. Taylor commented on both the Note to the Translation and the chapters dealing with Jacques de Lalaings travels in the Iberian Peninsula. Finally, particular thanks are due to S. H. Rigby who read not only the whole translation but also successive drafts of the Introduction, offering invaluable help with sense, structure and style.

Leeds/Amsterdam December 2021

Abbreviations