Barbara W. Tuchman - A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

By Barbara W. Tuchman

BIBLE AND SWORD (1956)

THE ZIMMERMANN TELEGRAM (1958)

THE GUNS OF AUGUST (1962)

THE PROUD TOWER (1966)

STILWELL AND THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN CHINA (1971)

NOTES FROM CHINA (1972)

A DISTANT MIRROR (1978)

PRACTICING HISTORY (1981)

THE MARCH OF FOLLY (1984)

THE FIRST SALUTE (1988)

A Ballantine Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group

Copyright 1978 by Barbara W. Tuchman
Maps copyright 1978 by Anita Karl

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

This edition published by arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

www.ballantinebooks.com

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 79-88536

eISBN: 978-0-307-79369-0

v3.1

For mankind is ever the same and nothing is lost out of nature, though everything is altered.

JOHN DRYDEN ,
On the Characters in the Canterbury Tales,
in Preface to Fables, Ancient and Modern

I would like to express my thanks to all who have helped me in one way or another to write this book: to Matre Henri Crepin, Deputy Mayor of Coucy-le-Chteau and president of the Association for Restoration of the Castle of Coucy and Its Environs, for his hospitality and guidance; to my editor Robert Gottlieb for enthusiasm and belief in the book as well as judicious improvements; to my daughter Alma Tuchman for substantial research, my friend Katrina Romney for sustained interest and to both for critical reading. For first aid in medieval complexities, I am especially indebted to Professors Elizabeth A. R. Brown and John Henneman; also to Professor Howard Garey for elucidating problems of medieval French, and to Mr. Richard Famiglietti for the benefit of his familiarity with sources in the period. For various advice, guidance, translations and answers to queries, I am grateful to Professors John Benton, Giles Constable, Eugene Cox, J. N. Hillgarth, Harry A. Miskimin, Lynn White, Mrs. Phyllis W. G. Gordan, John Plummer of the Morgan Library, and, in France, Professors Robert Fossier of the Sorbonne, Raymond Cazelles of Chantilly, Philippe Wolff of Toulouse, Mme. Therese dAlveney of the Bibliothque Nationale, M. Yves Metman of the Archives Nationales, Bureaux des Sceaux, M. Georges Dumas of the Archives de lAisne, and M. Depouilly of the Museum of Soissons; also to Professor Irwin Saunders for introductions to the Institute for Balkan Studies in Sofia, and to Professors Topkova-Zaimova and Elisabeth Todorova of that Institute for assisting my visit to Nicopolis; also to Widener Library at Harvard and Sterling Library at Yale for borrowing privileges, and to the helpful and knowledgeable staff of the New York Public Library for assistance of many kinds. To unnamed others who appeared briefly to lend a hand on my journey of seven years, my gratitude is equal.

1. The royal palace in Paris (BN: Ms. Fr. 23279, fo. 53)

2, 3. The Effects of Good Government, in the City and in the Country, by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Scala/Editorial Photocolor Archives)

4. The Battle of Poitiers (BN: Ms. Fr. 2643, fo. 207)

5. Deer hunt from Hours of Marguerite dOrlans (BN: Ms. Lat. 1156B, fo. 163)

6. Guidoriccio da Fogliano, by Simone Martini (Scala/Editorial Photocolor Archives)

7. Banquet for the Emperor (BN: Ms. Fr. 2813, fo. 473v)

8. Departure for Mahdia campaign (British Museum: Harleian mss. 4379, fo. 60b)

9. Bal des Ardents (BN: Ms. Fr. 2646, fo. 176)

Coucy-le-Chteau (from Androuet Du Cerceau, Les plus excellents btiments de France, 1648)

The abandoned castle in later years (from Alexandre Du Sommerard, Les Arts au Moyen Age, 10th ser., pl. IX)

Fortunes wheel (Morgan Library: Ms. 324, fo. 34v)

Coucys seals (AN: Bureaux des sceaux)

Chaucers squire (The Huntington Library: Ellesmere ms. 26, C9)

A 14th century carriage (Zentralbibliothek, Zrich)

View of Paris (BN: Ms. Fr. 2645, fo. 321v)

A country village (BN: Ms. Fr. 22531)

Charles of Navarre (Photo: Giraudon)

Jean II (The Louvre)

The Black Prince (Dean and Chapter of Canterbury)

English archers (British Museum: Addit. mss. 42130, fo. 147v)

View of London (British Museum: Royal mss. 16F 11, fo. 73)

The Last Judgment (Archives photographiques, Paris)

The world as a globe (BN: Ms. 574, fo. 42)

The childs education (Morgan Library: Ms. 456, fo. 68v)

Pillage and burning (BN: Ms. Fr. 2644, fo. 135)

A charivari (BN: Ms. Fr. 146, fo. 34)

The fourth horseman of the apocalypse (Muse Cond, Chantilly; Photo: Giraudon)

The Triumph of Death (Scala/Editorial Photocolor Archives)

Burial of the plague victims (Bibliothque royale, Bruxelles: Ms. 1307677, fo. 24; Photo: Giraudon)

Penitential procession (Muse Cond, Chantilly; Photo: Giraudon)

A Cardinal (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection, Munsey Fund, 1932, and Gift of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 1947)

Knights (AN; Photo: Giraudon)

Peasants (Muse Cond, Chantilly; Photo: Giraudon)

Slaughter of the Jacques (BN: Ms. Fr. 2643, fo. 226v)

Murder of the marshals (BN: Ms. Fr. 2813, fo. 409v)

The war-dog (BN: Ms. Lat. 7239, fo. 61r)

The Battle of Sluys (BN: Ms. Fr. 2643, fo. 72)

Widowed Rome (BN: Ms. Ital. 81, fo. 18)

Florence (BN: Vb, 37 fol.)

Papal palace at Avignon (Prints Division, New York Public Library)

Coins (American Numismatic Society)

A Sienese army (from Aldo Cairola, Il Palazzo Pubblico di Siena, Copyright 1963 Editalia)

. The Swiss campaign (Berner Chronik, facsimile ed., Bern, 1943, vol. 1, pls. 202 and 206, Copyright 1943, Aare Verlag Bern)

Sir John Hawkwood (Scala/Editorial Photocolor Archives)

Pierre de Luxemburg (Muse Calvet, Avignon; Photo: Braun)

Jew (Cathedral of Tarragona; Photo Mas, Barcelona)

Christine de Pisan (BN: Ms. Fr. 835, fo. 1)

Jean de Berry (Archives photographiques, Paris)

Philip of Burgundy (Photo: Giraudon)

Charles V receiving Aristotles Ethics (Bibliothque royale, Bruxelles: Ms. 950506, fo. 1)