Froissart, JEAN, was born at Valenciennes about 1337. His father was a painter of armorial bearings. He was educated for the church, but spent his youth in gaiety and dissipation, being, by his own confession, a dear lover of dances and carolling, of minstrelsy and tales of glee. 'My ears,' he says, 'quickened at the sound of un-corking the wine-flask, for I took great pleasure in drinking, and in fair array, and in delicate and fresh cates.' When he was twenty years of age, he began, at the command of his 'dear Lord and Master, the Sieur Robert of Namur, Lord of Beaufort,' to write the history of the wars waged during his days in France, England, Scotland, and Spain. The first part of his Chronicle, which deals with the events of the years 1326-56, was principally compiled from the writings of one Jean le Bel, Canon of Liège. Having completed this section of his work in 1360, Froissart set out on his long travels in quest of adventure and good company, and that brilliant spectacle of martial and courtly pageantry in which all through his life he found unsating delight. The first country which he visited was England, where he received a gracious welcome from Philippa of Hainault, the wife of Edward III. Philippa appointed him her secretary or clerk of her chamber, a post which he held for some years, but which he resigned on account of a hapless passion for a lady of Flanders. In 1364 he travelled through part of Scotland, riding, he informs us, on a grey palfrey with his valise behind him, and having a white greyhound as his only companion. His reputation as a poet and historian, his gay and courteous converse, secured him an honourable reception in Scotland as elsewhere. He was the guest of King David Bruce, and was entertained for fifteen days at Dalkeith Castle by William, Earl of Douglas, the exploits of whose house he has frequently celebrated in his Chronicle. In 1366 he journeyed to Aquitaine in the retinue of the Black Prince, who would not, however, allow him to accompany the Spanish expedition, but sent him back to his patroness, Queen Philippa. Two years later we find him in Italy, where he was present, along with Chaucer and Petrarch, at the marriage of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III., with Jolande of Milan, the daughter of Galeazzo Visconti. For a time he settled at Lestines, in the diocese of Liège, where he obtained a curacy, and where he confesses 500 francs very quickly passed from him to the vintners. 'It may be conjectured,' says Sir Walter Scott, 'that they were more obliged to his attention than any of his other parishioners.' Before 1384 he had attached himself to Wenceslas, Duke of Brabant, whose verses he collected along with certain pieces of his own, under the title of Meliador, or the Knight of the Golden Sun. On the death of Wenceslas, Froissart repaired to the court of Guy, Count of Blois, who persuaded him to devote himself to his Chronicle. The second volume of the work was finished about 1388, and about the same date its author set out from Blois on a visit to Gaston Phébus, Count de Foix. This journey, of which he has left a very entertaining record, he performed in the company of the good knight Espaing de Lyon, who told him of the deeds of enprise that had lately been done at the various towns and castles by which they passed in the course of their wayfaring. After making a long sojourn at Orthez with the Count de Foix, of whose court he has left us a description which is equally vivid and charming, Froissart, about the year 1390, settled for a while in Flanders, and resumed work on his Chronicle. In 1395 he again yielded to the old roving impulse. He revisited England, was cordially welcomed by King Richard II., and remained abroad for about three months. He then returned to Chimay, where he had obtained a canonry, and where he ended his days in 1410.
Froissart's famous book deals with the period between 1326 and 1400. Mainly occupied with the affairs of France, England, Scotland, and Flanders, he likewise supplies much valuable information in regard to Germany, Italy, and Spain, and even touches occasionally on the course of events in Hungary and the Balkan peninsula. Except in the first part of the work, he made little use of the writings of others. An historian-errant, he gathered his materials in courts and on highways, from the lips of the lords and knights, the squires and the heralds whom he encountered. The charm of his book is perennial. He is of all medieval chroniclers the most vivid and entertaining. 'His history,' says Sir Walter Scott (who called the work his liber carissimus), 'has less the air of a narrative than of a dramatic representation.' He was a born storyteller; his pages glow with colour; his narrative glides easily and gracefully along; and he is, on the whole, accurate and impartial in his statements. 'In certain of his battle-pieces,' says Villain, 'Froissart's style is truly Homeric,' and the tribute is justly merited. The main defects in his work are the frequent repetitions and the negligent arrangement of the facts. He has been reproached for not having espoused the cause of the French against the English, as if it were to be expected that a Flemish priest, in his youth the favourite and secretary of Edward III.'s queen, should share the burning patriotism, the intense hatred of England that animated such writers as Alain Chartier and Eustache Deschamps. More plausibly might he be arraigned for indifference to the sufferings of the townsmen and peasants. He is enamoured of the pageants of chivalry, engrossed in the deeds of nobles and knights. Few historians have been less critical or so uniformly delightful.
The chronicle was edited by Buchon (15 vols. 1824-26) and Luce (8 vols. 1869-88); translated by John Bourchier, second Lord Berners, 1467-1533 (published 1523-25; ed. by Utterson, 1812, and modernised by G. J. Macaulay; new trans. by Colonel Johnes, 1803-5). Buchon edited Froissart's ballades, rondeaux, virelais, &c., which introduced a Provençal element into northern French literature, in 1829: Meliador was discovered in 1894. See monographs by Kervyn de Lettenhove (Paris, 1858), Weber (German, 1871), and Mme. Darmesteter (Paris, 1894; trans. 1895).