Editing Guillaume de Machaut (section)

==Life==
Guillaume de Machaut was born around 1300, one of seven children, and educated in the region around [[Reims]]. His surname most likely derives from the nearby town of [[Machault, Ardennes|Machault]], 30&nbsp;km northeast of Reims in the [[Ardennes]] region.
He was employed as secretary to [[John of Bohemia|John I]], Count of [[Luxembourg]] and King of [[Bohemia]] from 1323 to 1346, and also became a [[Canon (priest)|canon]] (1337). He often accompanied King John on his various trips, many of them military expeditions around Europe (including [[Prague]]). He was named the canon of [[Verdun]] in 1330, [[Arras]] in 1332, and Reims in 1337. In 1346, King John was killed fighting at the [[Battle of Crécy]], and Machaut, who was famous and much in demand, entered the service of various other aristocrats and rulers, including King John's daughter [[Bonne of Bohemia|Bonne]] (who died of the [[Black Death]] in 1349), her sons [[John, Duke of Berry|Jean de Berry]] and Charles (later [[Charles V of France|Charles V]], Duke of Normandy), and others such as [[Charles II of Navarre]].{{sfn|Wimsatt & Kibler|1988|p=3–4}}

Machaut survived the Black Death that devastated Europe, and spent his later years living in Reims composing and supervising the creation of his complete-works manuscripts. His poem ''Le voir dit'' (probably 1361–1365) purports to recount a late love affair with a 19-year-old girl, Péronne d'Armentières, although the accuracy of the work as autobiography is contested.<ref>{{cite journal |author= Daniel Leech-Wilkinson |title=Le Voir Dit and La Messe de Nostre Dame: aspects of genre and style in late works of Machaut|journal=Plainsong and Medieval Music |year=1993 |volume=2|pages=43–73 |doi=10.1017/S0961137100000413|s2cid=161923238 }}</ref> He died in April 1377.{{refn||group=n|name=death}}