Jean Froissart was a noted poet and chronicler from northern France who thrived on the patronage of the wealthy and famous. Froissart came from a bourgeois family of limited means—or so one may surmise from the brief autobiographical indications in the poems and chronicles that constitute the most important surviving evidence for the course of his life. Born in Valenciennes, probably in 1338 (the poet's own testimony is inconsistent), Froissart received there the education for a clerical career; however, his literary and personal talents turned him away from a life in church administration. Sponsored by Jean de Beaumont, the brother of the count of Hainaut, Froissart was recommended to their niece, Philippa of Hainaut, then queen of England, and Froissart went to the English court in 1361. Though still a comparatively young man, he had already achieved some literary success under the patronage of Robert de Namur, Lord of...