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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From 1391 to 1398 Bishop Guy Mone Aka Mohun was appointed Receiver of the Chamber.
From 1391 to 1398 Bishop Guy Mone Aka Mohun was appointed Keeper of the Jewels.
From 1396 to 1397 Bishop Guy Mone Aka Mohun was appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal.
Parliament Rolls Richard II. 32. The king [aged 30] to his archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, dukes, earls, barons, justices, sheriffs, reeves, ministers, and other his bailiffs and faithful men, greeting. Know that we, considering the strenuous probity and prudent mind, distinguished conduct and nobility of birth of our beloved and faithful kinsman John Beaufort [aged 24], knight, son of our beloved uncle John duke of Aquitaine and Lancaster [aged 56], and willing therefore deservedly to exalt the same John Beaufort with the prerogative of honour, we do appoint and create John Beaufort earl of Somerset in our present parliament, and invest him with the style and name and honour of the aforesaid earl by girding him with the sword, to have to him and his male heirs issuing from his body in perpetuity. And that the same earl and his aforesaid heirs, given such name and honour, may the better and more honourably support the burdens incumbent upon the same, of our special grace in our present parliament we have given and granted, and by this our charter confirmed, to the same earl and his aforesaid heirs twenty pounds to be received each year from the issues of the aforesaid county by the hand of the sheriff of that county for the time being, at the terms of Easter and Michaelmas [29 September] in equal portions, in perpetuity. Witnessed by these, the venerable father Thomas archbishop of Canterbury [aged 44] primate of all England, John of Aquitaine and Lancaster, and Edmund of York [aged 55], dukes; Robert of London, William of Winchester [aged 77], John of Ely, Edmund of Exeter, our chancellor [aged 53], bishops; Henry of Derby [aged 29], Edward of Rutland [aged 24], Thomas of Nottingham and marshal of England [aged 28], earls; Reginald Grey [aged 35], Ralph Neville [aged 33], John Lovell, knights; Roger Walden dean of York, our treasurer, Thomas Percy [aged 54], steward of our household, Guy Mone, keeper of our privy seal, and others. Given by our hand at Westminster on 10 February in the twentieth year of our reign [10th February 1397].
On 11th November 1397 Bishop Guy Mone Aka Mohun was consecrated as Bishop of St David's.
In 1398 Bishop Guy Mone Aka Mohun was appointed Lord High Treasurer.
On 16th April 1399 King Richard II of England [aged 32] wrote his Last Will from which the following extracts are taken … Also we bequeath to our beloved nephew Thomas Holland 1st Duke Surrey [aged 25] ten thousand marks and to our beloved brother Edward 2nd Duke of York 1st Duke Albemarle [aged 26] two thousand marks and to our beloved brother John Holland 1st Duke Exeter [aged 47] three thousand marks and to our faithful and beloved William Scrope 1st Earl Wiltshire [aged 49] two thousand marks... we ordain and set aside for the fulfilment of all and singular the premises the sum of ninety-one thousand marks, of which sixty-five thousand marks are in the keeping of Sir John Ikelyngton and twenty-four thousand marks in the hands and keeping of our dear nephew Thomas Holland 1st Duke Surrey.
Of this our royal testament we nominate make and depute executors the venerable fathers in Christ Bishop Richard Mitford, Bishop Edmund Stafford [aged 55], Bishop Robert Tideman of Winchcombe, Bishop Thomas Merke and Bishop Guy Mone Aka Mohun; our beloved brother Edward 2nd Duke of York 1st Duke Albemarle, our nephew Thomas Holland 1st Duke Surrey, our brother John Holland 1st Duke Exeter and William Scrope 1st Earl Wiltshire to each of whom we bequeath a gold cup of the value of twenty pounds and our beloved and faithful clerks Master Bishop Richard Clifford Keeper of our Privy Seal, Master Richard Maudeleyn, Master William Fereby and Master John Painter Ikelyngton clerks and John Lufwyk and William Serle laymen, to each of whom we will shall be paid their expenses and necessary costs while it shall happen that they or any of them are employed about the execution of our present last will, but according to the discretion of their said co-executors...
Whom all and singular we have charged and charge that they shall do as much as in them is for the due execution and fulfilment of this our last will as they shall wish to answer before God. We create ordain depute and make overseers of this our will the reverend fathers in Christ Archbishop Roger Walden and Archbishop Richard Scrope [aged 49], William bishop of Winchester and William abbot of the monastery of Westminster Edward 2nd Duke of York 1st Duke Albemarle our uncle and Henry Percy 1st Earl of Northumberland [aged 57] our cousin.
On 1407 Bishop Guy Mone Aka Mohun died.