Editing Jean Froissart (section)

==Life==
[[File:Froissart.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Froissart's statue in the [[Louvre]]]]
What little is known of Froissart's life comes mainly from his historical writings and from archival sources which mention him in the service of aristocrats or receiving gifts from them. Although his poems have also been used in the past to reconstruct aspects of his biography, this approach is in fact flawed, as the 'I' persona which appears in many of the poems should not be construed as a reliable reference to the historical author. This is why de Looze has characterised these works as 'pseudo-autobiographical'.<ref>Laurence de Looze, ''Pseudo-Autobiography in the Fourteenth Century: Juan Ruiz, Guillaume de Machaut, Jean Froissart, and Geoffrey Chaucer'' (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1997).</ref>

Froissart came from [[Valenciennes]] in the [[County of Hainaut]], situated in the western tip of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], bordering France. Earlier scholars have suggested that his father was a painter of [[heraldry|armorial bearing]]s, but there is actually little evidence for this. Other suggestions include that he began working as a [[merchant]] but soon gave that up to become a cleric. For this conclusion there is also no real evidence, as the poems which have been cited to support these interpretations are not really autobiographical.

By about age 24, Froissart left Hainault and entered the service of [[Philippa of Hainault]], queen consort of [[Edward III of England]], in 1361 or 1362. This service, which would have lasted until the queen's death in 1369, has often been presented as including a position of court poet and/or official historiographer. Based on surviving archives of the English court, Croenen has concluded instead that this service did not entail an official position at court, and probably was more a literary construction, in which a courtly poet dedicated poems to his 'lady' and in return received occasional gifts as remuneration.<ref>Godfried Croenen, 'Froissart et ses mécènes: quelques problèmes biographiques', in Odile Bombarde (ed.), ''Froissart dans sa forge. Colloque réuni à Paris, du 4 au 6 novembre 2004, par M. Michel Zink, professeur au Collège de France, membre de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres'' (Paris: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 2006), 9-32.</ref>

Froissart took a serious approach to his work. He traveled in [[Kingdom of England|England]], [[Kingdom of Scotland|Scotland]], [[Wales]], France, [[Flanders]] and Spain gathering material and first-hand accounts for his ''Chronicles''. He traveled with [[Lionel, Duke of Clarence]], to [[Milan]] to attend and chronicle the duke's wedding to [[Violante Visconti|Violante]], the daughter of [[Galeazzo II Visconti|Galeazzo Visconti]]. At this wedding, two other significant writers of the Middle Ages were present, [[Chaucer]] and [[Petrarch]].

After the death of Queen Philippa, he enjoyed the patronage of [[Joanna, Duchess of Brabant]] among various others. He received rewards – including the [[benefice]] of [[Estinnes]], a village near [[Binche]], and later a canonry of [[Chimay]] – sufficient to finance further travels, which provided additional material for his work. He returned to England in 1395 but seemed disappointed by changes that he viewed as the end of [[chivalry]]. The date and circumstances of his death are unknown but St. Monegunda of Chimay in [[Hainaut Province|Hainaut]] might be the final resting place for his remains, although still unverified.