Medieval France
. Medieval French historical writing can be divided into two periods. In the 6th through 11th centuries, histories were produced at centers of literacy for various reasons: to continue old works, to imitate historical exemplars, to please a patron, or to assimilate unusual events. Relatively few early works survive, and most are monastic and idiosyncratic in method and content. After the mid11th century, increased literacy and dependence on written texts brought about a revolution in historical writing. Histories continued to be produced for the old reasons, but new circumstances gave rise to new sorts of narratives written for new audiences by new types of historians in both Latin and the vernacular. In this period, a culture historique, to use Bernard Guenée’s phrase, emerged.
Although there were historians in France before the Franks arrived—e.g., Prosper of Aquitaine (ca. 455) and Sulpicius Severus (d. 410)—French historical writing really begins with Gregory of Tours (ca. 538–594). His Histories is a narrative attempt to come to terms with the impact of the Franks on Christian, Gallo-Roman society. Gregory’s other works were largely hagiographic, in keeping with his ecclesiastical focus.
The next Frankish histories, the chronicle of “Fredegar” (covering the years 584–642) and the Liber historiae Francorum (covering 640–721) appeared after a century’s hiatus. The former was composed in Burgundy, probably ca. 658–60; the latter was written ca. 726 in Neustria. Shortly thereafter, the two chronicles came to Austrasia, where they were interwoven and continued to 751 for Charles Martel’s brother and nephew; this compilation is the first “official” Frankish history.
Martel’s descendants learned the lesson that whoever sponsored history controlled its contents. The Annales regni Francorum (covering 741–829) were probably kept at Charlemagne’s court, while his descendants maintained the three continuations. The first part (for 741–835) of the West Frankish continuation, the Annales Bertiniani, was not official, but the second (for 835–61), written by Bishop Prudentius of Troyes, and the third (for 862–82), by Archbishop Hincmar of Reims, were, as were the Annales Xantenses (covering 790–873), which were partly composed at Aix-la-Chapelle by Gerward, the palace librarian. The East Frankish continuation, the Annales de Fulda, was official until 882. Also official were the Historiarum libri quatuor of Nithard (d. 844), a layman who wrote at the request of Charles the Bald. The learned environment promoted by the Carolingians contributed to the generation of unofficial histories as well. Frechulf of Lisieux (fl. 825–52) and Ado of Vienne (d. 874) both produced universal chronicles that were learned and extensive, and most Carolingian monasteries kept simple annals, even if many just copied annals that came to hand.
Greater learning also led historians to rediscover biography. The classical biographical tradition was imitated in Einhard’s Vita Caroli (ca. 830/33) and Paschasius Radbertus’s Vita Adalardi (after 826) and Epitaphium Arsenii (ca. 850). Not all biographies were classicizing, however; the De Carolo Magno of Notker the Stammerer (ca. 884/87), for example, is a hodgepodge of fantastical and largely ecclesiastical anecdotes. Charlemagne was celebrated in the Annales gestis Caroli magni imperatoris of the Poeta Saxo (late 9th c.) and the Carmen de Karolo Magno (ca. 801) attributed to Angilbert of Saint-Riquier (both in verse); Louis I appeared in biographies by Thegan (ca. 848), the Astronomer (after 840), and Ermold Nigel (825–35). The serial biography, the lives of a series of bishops or rulers, was introduced in France ca. 784 by Paul the Deacon in his Gesta archiepiscoporum Mettensium (the form is based on the Liber pontificalis). It was imitated widely, giving rise to serial biographies of the abbots of Fontanelle (834–45) and of the bishops of Le Mans (832–63), Auxerre (873–76), and Verdun (first redaction ca. 917), among others.
The Viking invasions slowed historical production in France. Reims alone was still active in the 10th century. Flodoard (893–966), the diocesan archivist, wrote a history of the church of Reims and continued the Annales Bertiniani; his chronicle was carried forward by the annals of Reims (to 999). Flodoard’s work was also a source for Richer de Reims’s regnal history of France (ca. 996). Safe from Viking attacks, the historians of Reims documented the chronic political instability of the see, while adding to Hincmar’s legacy.
With the Viking threat abating by the 11th century, histories appeared at new regional centers. Saint-Martial in Limoges became active, producing the splendid chronicle of Adémar de Chabannes (988–1035) and annals (to 1060). At Fleury, Abbo (d. 1004) composed a brief serial biography of the popes. His disciple Aimoin wrote Abbo’s biography (Vita Abbonis, ca. 1005/08), the Historia Francorum (a history of the Franks to 654, written ca. 997–99), and Books 2 and 3 of the Miracula sancti Benedicti. Helgaud of Fleury (d. 1048) produced a life of Robert II and a history of Fleury, and André de Fleury wrote a biography (ca. 1041) of Abbot Gauzlin. This Fleuriac flurry of history appeared in part to help the monastery claim its independence from the bishops of Orléans. In Normandy, the first historian, Dudo de Saint-Quentin, wrote a serial biography of the first Norman dukes, the De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum (ca. 1015–26), concentrating on the conversion of the Normans. A half-century later, Guillaume de Jumièges abridged, secularized, and continued Dudo’s work through the Norman Conquest in his Gesta Normannorum ducum (1071). Guillaume de Poitiers composed a laudatory biography of the Conqueror ca. 1078, the Gesta Guillelmi, using Guillaume de Jumièges as a source. The Conquest inspired the last two histories and probably also encouraged Norman monasteries to begin keeping annals around the same time.
Once established, a regional center might maintain its historiographic vitality for centuries. For example, Saint-Columba in Sens began to keep annals in the 9th century. In the 11th, Odoranus of Sens composed a chronicle, a life of the founder of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif, and a history of that monastery. Around the same time, the Historia Francorum Senonensis (1015/34), a chronicle based on the earlier annals of Sens, was created. A century later, Clarius began the chronicle of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif (1108–24). Richer de Sens picked up the Senonais tradition after 1254 with his Gesta Senoniensis ecclesiae, while Geoffroi de Coulon continued the tradition at Saint-Pierre with a chronicle (to 1295). These works circulated, spawning new historiographic traditions elsewhere.
By the beginning of the 12th century, this regional pattern was supplemented by broader works. The First Crusade (1095–99), perhaps because it was seen as being triumphantly French, sparked an outpouring of historical writing not confined to any one region. The four surviving accounts of the crusade, the Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolymitanorum (ca. 1101), 1101), the Historia Francorum qui ceperunt Jerusalem of Raymond d’Agiles (after 1102), the Historia Hierosolymitana of Foucher de Chartres (begun ca. 1101), and Peter Tudebod’s Historia de Hierosolymitano itinere (before 1111), were read and then reworked, particularly the anonymous Gesta; Baudri of Bourgueil’s Historia Hierosolymitana (ca. 1107), Robert le Moine’s Hierosolymitana expeditio (before 1107), and Guibert de Nogent’s Gesta Dei per Francos (ca. 1108) were all based on the anonymous Gesta. The Pseudo-Turpin chronicle, a 12th-century, pseudohistorical, Latin Chanson de Roland, was also probably inspired by the First Crusade. Nor did interest in the crusade cease as it receded in time. Raoul de Caen, a Norman-trained cleric, wrote the Gesta Tancredi (after 1112) about Norman exploits in the Middle East. Book 9 of Orderic Vitalis’s Historia Ecclesiastica is devoted to the crusade. Albert d’Aix wrote the postcrusade history of the Middle East (after 1120), as did Gilo and Fulco in their verse history (mid-12th c.).
Regional histories continued to flourish alongside these broader works. Norman writers were still active. Orderic’s Historia Ecclesiastica is a universal history from Creation to 1141, but Anglo-Norman affairs predominate after Book 2. Orderic also interpolated Guillaume de Jumièges’s work. New histories appeared at Bec; Robert de Torigny wrote a Gesta of the abbots, added an eighth book to Guillaume de Jumièges, and began a major chronicle based on the universal chronicle of Sigebert de Gembloux (d. 1112). When Robert became abbot of Mont-Saint-Michel in 1154, he reactivated the local annals and commissioned Guillaume de Saint-Pair to write his French Histoire de Mont-Saint-Michel (before 1186). This activity was for the most part not directly inspired by the dukes. Instead, it seems that the Norman historiographic tradition was sufficiently vital to generate new works on its own, though Étienne de Rouen’s Draco Normannicus, a polemical Latin verse history of Normandy, was written specifically to influence the policy of Henry II of England.
Ducal patronage was clearly behind historical writing in Anjou, however, where the first history is a fragment written by Count Foulques le Rechin (d. 1109). Odo of Marmoutier began the Gesta consulum Andegavensium, an unofficial work, at roughly the same time. The Gesta was reworked under official auspices; the last versions were done by Jean de Marmoutier (ca. 1170), who dedicated the works to Henry II of England. Where dukes led, kings followed. As part of their efforts to establish their house, the Capetians, too, sponsored history. Abbot Suger (1081–1151), author of the Latin Vita Ludovici grossi regis and the unfinished Vita gloriosissimi Ludovici, had no formal title, but Rigord, writing at Saint-Denis toward the end of the century, was proclaimed royal chronicler for his Gesta Philippi Augusti (ca. 1196). His successor, Guillaume le Breton, author of his own account of Philip II, was also an official historian. From the 13th century on, the Capetians made steady use of Saint-Denis, having learned the old lesson about the value of historical publicity.
While it might seem more suitable to keep royal historians at court, monasteries were still better fit to produce history than anyplace else because of their records and libraries; Saint-Denis was a favorite spot for historical research. Consequently, monasteries continued to produce major historical works: the chronicle of Sigebert de Gembloux (a continuation of Jerome’s translation of Eusebius); Robert d’Auxerre’s chronicle (1181–1211), which came to supplant Sigebert’s; Aubri de Trois-Fontaines’s chronicle (1227–51); and Guillaume de Nangis’s great chronicle (1285–1300), which supplanted Robert d’Auxerre’s in popularity, were all monastic productions.
Nevertheless, the schools of the 12th century, the universities of the 13th, and the friars left their marks on historical writing. The Historia scholastica of Peter Comestor (ca. 1169), a biblical history, was intended expressly to assist theological study in the schools. Jacques de Vitry (1160/70–1240), author of the Historia Hierosolymitana abbreviata, was a student at Paris under Peter the Chanter. Vincent de Beauvais’s enormous universal history, the Speculum historiale (1244–60), was the typically scholastic project of a university-trained Dominican; Géraud de Frachet (d. 1266), another Dominican, wrote the Vitae fratrum and a universal chronicle based on Robert d’Auxerre, which enjoyed significant unmerited success. The famed Dominican inquisitor Bernard Gui was also a historian; his Flores chronicorum (1306–31), a universal chronicle, and the Reges Francorum (1312 and 1320) were widely read and translated. To the scholastics, that history had its uses was self-evident.
But not only scholastics and monks felt so; the popularity of vernacular history indicates that laypeople agreed. The earliest examples of vernacular history, the Brut (now lost) and Estoire des Engleis of Geffrei Gaimar (ca. 1140), the Brut (ca. 1155) and Roman de Rou (ca. 1160–70) of Wace, the Chronique des ducs de Normandie (ca. 1170) and Roman de Troie of Benoît de Sainte-Maure, are in verse. So were the Estoire de la guerre sainte (ca. 1195), an account of the Third Crusade by Ambroise d’Évreux, and the Crusade Cycle: the Chanson d’Antioche and the Chanson des chétifs (both reworked in the late 12th century by Graindor de Douai) and the Conquête de Jerusalem (ca. 1130). Occitan verse was preferred by Guilhem de Tudela for his Chanson de la croisade contre les Albigeois (ca. 1212–13). But by the Fourth Crusade, vernacular historians began to prefer prose, since verse, associated as it was with epics and romances, seemed untruthful. Geoffroi de Villehardouin and Robert de Clari, both writing about the Fourth Crusade, were among the first to write in prose, as did Villehardouin’s continuator, Henri de Valenciennes. Geoffrey and Robert were laymen as well; vernacular composition enabled significant numbers of laypeople to read and write history for the first time. However, prose history never completely effaced poetic history, for Geoffroi de Paris, writing ca. 1317, composed a chronicle of his own times in verse.
The audience for vernacular history was sophisticated in its tastes. Highly learned works, such as those of Peter Comestor and Vincent de Beauvais, were quickly translated. Classical history also became available in the form of the anonymous Fet des Romains (ca. 1213/14), the Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (ca. 1208–13), and the Histoire de Jules César of Jean de Thuin (ca. 1240). These works, all prose, were adaptations and translations of the work of classical historians, notably Lucan. Bernard Gui’s histories appeared in French ca. 1368 in Jean Golein’s translation. But the choice of language did imply a particular audience. It was thus natural for Guillaume de Puy-Laurens, the chaplain of Count Raymond VII of Toulouse but also an envoy to Innocent IV, to write his Historia Albigensium (ca. 1273) in Latin to reach an international audience, while it was equally natural for the anonymous authors of the French verse Chronique de Saint-Magloire (after 1307) and the Petit Thalamus de Montpellier, an Occitan civic chronicle probably begun in the 14th century, to write in the language of their anticipated audiences.
The existence of these separate audiences meant that there was always a need for histories in both Latin and the vernacular. The Grandes chroniques de France, created ca. 1274, are Primat’s French translation of the Latin chronicle of Saint-Denis; the Grandes chroniques were then kept in their own right. But the existence of the vernacular text did not mean the monks stopped writing the Latin chronicle. Indeed, both chronicles might be kept by the same person, as was the case with Jean Chartier’s (d. 1464), and both were official. Vernacular writers often based their own work on Latin originals or consulted Latin sources. For example, Jean Jouvencel, writing in 1431, abbreviated and translated the Latin chronicle of Saint-Denis, while Guillaume de Nangis (d. ca. 1300), who wrote his long and short chronicles and biographies of Louis IX and Philip III in Latin, translated the short chronicle into French himself. But Latin writers also consulted and sometimes translated vernacular works. Francesco Pippino (d. 1325) translated the Livre d’Eracles (ca. 1230), an unwieldy compendium of Middle Eastern history, into Latin for use in his universal chronicle. Historical writing was greatly enriched by this interplay of traditions and languages.
By the later Middle Ages, the habit of writing history was so deeply ingrained that history was written everywhere. Naturally, in a traditional culture in which the past was normative, it continued to be important to control the presentation of the past. Most courts had official historians, frequently the court archivists. The royal court continued to be a major market for history, hence the seven biographies of St. Louis, by Geoffroi de Beaulieu (ca. 1274), Guillaume de Chartres (before 1282), Gilo de Reims (now lost), Guillaume de Nangis (late 13th c.), Jean de Joinville (1272 and 1298–1309), Guillaume de Saint-Pathus (ca. 1302/03)—in both Latin and French—and an anonymous hagiographer of Saint-Denis (ca. 1297), all composed around the canonization process. Royal chroniclers were regularly appointed, sometimes monks from Saint-Denis and sometimes outsiders, such as Jean Castel (1463–76). Even histories that were not directly commissioned by the royal court were written with an eye to publication there. Guillaume Guiart’s Branche de royaulx lignages, a verse history of the French kings from Philip II (ca. 1306/07), was researched at Saint-Denis and clearly intended for a court audience. Christine de Pizan (1363-ca. 1429) wrote a prose biography of Charles V, which would have interested the court, as well as other works, such as her verse universal history, with a broader appeal. Likewise, the historical works of Gilles le Bouvier (1386-ca. 1455), the Berry Herald, the Chronique du roi Charles VII, the Histoire de Richard II, and the Recouvrement de Normandie, were probably written with the court in mind; Gilles also kept the Grandes chroniques for a time (1403–22).
Nowhere was the desirability of controlling history clearer than in the battle between the kings of France and dukes of Burgundy in the 15th century, which turned into a battle of the historians. Pierre le Fruitier dedicated his Mémoires (ca. 1409) to the king of France, although he was probably a Burgundian spy at the court, while Jean Mansel wrote his Fleur des histoires (before 1454) for Philip the Good. Both Georges Chastellain (1415–1475), author of a chronicle, and Olivier de La Marche (1425–1502), who wrote memoirs, were appointed official historians to the Burgundian dukes. Enguerrand de Monstrelet’s chronicles (before 1453) have a Burgundian point of view; Thomas Basin, exiled bishop of Lisieux, wrote pro-Burgundian biographies of Charles VII and Louis XI (1461–91) However, Matthieu d’Escouchy, Enguerrand’s continuator (ca. 1465), was a royal procurer in Saint-Quentin, and Philippe de Commynes, a Fleming, favored in his Mémoires (after 1489) the French kings he had come to serve.
Even lesser courts generated histories. Lambert d’Ardres wrote his Historia comitum Ghisnensium (ca. 1194) for the seigneur of Guines, chronicling the family’s history from the 10th century. It is particularly valuable for the light it sheds on nobility and family in the 11th and 12th centuries. Baudouin d’Avesnes, grandson of Baudouin IX of Flanders, commissioned the major French prose omnibus in the 13th century that bears his name. Jean d’Outremeuse (d. ca. 1400), author of a historical poem, the Geste de Liège, and a prose history, the Myreur des histors, was an official of the count-bishop of Liège. Michel de Bernis wrote a chronicle of the counts of Foix (first edition 1429), as the introduction to his inventory of their archives.
It would be a mistake to see all histories of the later Middle Ages as being created totally by patronage. A more cultivated society meant more room for individual expression. The process really begins with Joinville, who began his memoirs of Louis IX before he was commissioned to write. His writing expresses aristocratic values in an age when these seemed increasingly threatened. Jean le Bel’s Vrayes chroniques (ca. 1357–70), which concentrate on chivalric deeds far from his native Liège, and Froissart’s Chroniques (1369–1400), inspired by Jean le Bel, similarly illustrate aristocratic ideals—heroism, the glory of war, valor, courtesy—rather than political truths, The Livre des faits du bon messire Jean le Meingre, dit Bouciquaut (ca. 1408) and Cuvelier’s Chronique de Bertrand du Guesclin (ca. 1385) are both moral exemplars, accounts of men widely considered by their contemporaries to have been perfect knights.
The fitting end to this process was the rise of memoirs, the most personal historical works. Memoirs, particularly those of Philippe de Commynes, exemplify the new turn history was taking in the 15th century. Commynes was not the first to write memoirs: he was preceded by Jean de Joinville, Jacques du Clercq (1448–67), Pierre le Fruitier, and Olivier de La Marche, but his memoirs represent something new in France. To Commynes, history was as much moral instruction as a record of the past, an object lesson for the ruler and the citizen. For precisely those reasons, the humanists were urging the teaching and study of history. Commynes’s work thus marks the transition from the medieval to the Renaissance view of history.
Leah Shopkow
[See also: ABBO OF FLEURY; ADÉMAR DE CHABANNES; AIMOIN DE FLEURY; ANGLO-NORMAN LITERATURE; BENOÎT DE SAINTE-MAURE; BIOGRAPHY; BURGUNDIAN CHRONICLERS; CHRISTINE DE PIZAN; COMMYNES, PHILIPPE DE; CUVELIER; FROISSART, JEAN; GRANDES CHRONIQUES DE FRANCE; GREGORY OF TOURS; GUIBERT DE NOGENT; GUILLAUME DE SAINT-PAIR; HISTORY PLAYS; JEAN LE BEL; JOINVILLE, JEAN DE; LA MARCHE, OLIVIER DE; ORDERIC VITALIS; OUTREMEUSE, JEAN D’; PETER COMESTOR; RIGORD; ROBERT DE CLARI; ROBERT DE TORIGNY; VILLEHARDOUIN, GEOFFROI DE; VINCENT DE BEAUVAIS; WACE]
Archambault, Paul. Seven French Chroniclers: Witnesses to History. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1974.
Bautier, Robert-Henri. “L’historiographie en France aux Xe et XIe siècles (France du Nord et de l’Est)” and Ganshof, François L. “L’historiographie franque sous les Mérovingiens et les Carolingiens.” In La storiografia altomedievale. Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 1970, pp. 631–85, 793–850.
Grundmann, Herbert. Geschichtsschreibung im Mittelalter. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1965.
Guenée, Bernard. Histoire et culture historique dans l’occident médiéval. Paris: Aubier Montagne, 1980.
Kervyn de Lettenhove, Joseph M.B.C. Chroniques relatives à l’histoire de la Belgique sous la domination des ducs de Bourgogne. 3 vols. Brussels: Hayez, 1870–76.
——. Istore et chroniques de Flandres. 2 vols. Brussels: Hayez, 1870–80.
Krueger, Karl H. Die Universalchroniken. Turnhout: Brepols, 1976.
McCormick, Michael. Lesannales du haut moyen âge. Turnhout: Brepols, 1975.
Molinier, Auguste. Les sources de l’histoire de France des origines aux guerres d’Italie. 6 vols. Paris: Picard, 1901–06. [Still the place to begin; an updated edition was begun in 1971.]
Sot, Michel. Gesta episcoporum, gesta abbatum. Turnhout, Brepols, 1981.
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