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Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes
Récits d’un bourgeois de Valenciennes aka The Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes is a vivid 14th-century vernacular chronicle written by an anonymous urban chronicler from Valenciennes in the County of Hainaut. It survives in a manuscript that describes local and regional history from about 1253 to 1366, blending chronology, narrative episodes, and eyewitness-style accounts of political, military, and social events in medieval France, Flanders, and the Low Countries. The work begins with a chronological framework of events affecting Valenciennes and its region under rulers such as King Philip VI of France and the shifting allegiances of local nobility. It includes accounts of conflicts, sieges, diplomatic manoeuvres, and the impact of broader struggles like the Hundred Years’ War on urban life in Hainaut. Written from the perspective of a burgher (bourgeois) rather than a monastery or royal court, the chronicle offers a rare lay viewpoint on high politics and warfare, reflecting how merchants, townspeople, and civic institutions experienced the turbulence of the 13th and 14th centuries. Its narrative style combines straightforward reporting of events with moral and civic observations, making it a valuable source for readers interested in medieval urban society, regional politics, and the lived experience of war and governance in pre-modern Europe.
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Effigy of Aveline Countess of Lancaster is in Monumental Effigies of Great Britain.
AVELiNE Countess of Lancaster was daughter of William de Fortibus, Earl of Albemarle and Holderness, inheritrix of her father, and by her mother (age 37) Countess of Devon and the Isle of Wight. In 1267 she married Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster (age 29), died in 1269 without issue, and was buried in Westminster Abbey [Map], near the spot where her husband was afterwards interred. The effigy placed on her tomb affords a fine specimen of female costume in the thirteenth century.