The French priest, poet, and itinerate reporter Jean Froissart (ca.1337-ca.1404) is known primarily as a chronicler. During his wide travels, lodging in castles from Scotland to Italy, he recorded what he observed, leaving the best picture of 14th-century feudal life.

Jean Froissart was born in Valenciennes. Educated by and for the Church, he was later received into the priesthood, but his natural inclinations were somewhat opposed to the austerity of religious life, even though he was canon of the collegial church of Chimay and chaplain to the Count of Blois. After his arrival in England in 1361 he entered the service of Queen Philippa (she too a native of Valenciennes), wife of Edward III. His early poems and his heroic stories pleased the English court, but after the death of his protectress in 1369 he returned to Valenciennes.

Four years later Froissart was received by Wenceslas of Luxembourg, Duke...