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.
Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.
Frank Cadogan Cowper is in Painters.
On 28th December 1876 [his father] Frank Cowper (age 27) and [his mother] Edith Elise Cadogan (age 17) were married. They had ten children.
On 16th October 1877 Frank Cadogan Cowper was born to [his father] Frank Cowper (age 28) and [his mother] Edith Elise Cadogan (age 18) at Wicken, Northamptonshire.
In 1890 [his father] Frank Cowper (age 40) and [his mother] Edith Elise Cadogan (age 30) were divorced.
1901. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 23). "An Aristocrat Answering the Summons to Execution".
1903. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 25). "Fanny, Sketch of a girl in crinoline dress".
1905. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 27). "St Agnes in Prison Receiving from Heaven the 'Shining White Garment".
1907. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 29). "Vanity". The picture borrows motifs from Giulio Romano's portrait of Isabella d'Este at Hampton Court, a picture which had inspired the young Burne-Jones half a century earlier.
1908. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 30). "Venetian Ladies Listening to "Rapunzel sings from the Tower."
1909. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 31). "Venetian Ladies Listening to "The Serenade" on the Grand Canal."
Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke
Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson.
Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.
1912. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 34). "The Morning of the Nativity".
1913. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 35). Portrait of William Walter Carlile 1st Baronet (age 50).
William Walter Carlile 1st Baronet: On 15th June 1862 he was born. In 1885 he and Blanche Anne Cadogan were married. On 3rd January 1950 he died. Baronet Carlile of Gayhurst in BucKinghamshire extinct.
1918. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 40). "The Bluebird". Painted at 2 Edwardes Square Studios, a southerly outpost of the artists' colony in Holland Park that had sprung up in the later nineteenth-century under the leadership of the President of the Royal Academy, Sir Frederic Leighton.
1919. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 41). "Our Lady of The Fruits of The Earth."
1919. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 41). "Vanity II."
1920. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 42). Portrait of Violet Miriam Nightingale Clay Baroness Vernon (age 25).
1926. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 48). "La Belle Dame sans Merci."
1928. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 50). "Titania Sleeps."
On 28th May 1930 [his father] Frank Cowper (age 81) died.
On 18th November 1933 [his mother] Edith Elise Cadogan (age 74) died.
1946. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 68). "Joan Saxton, a Student Nurse Who Trained at Cirencester Memorial Hospital".
Before 1958. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 80). "The Ugly Duckling."
Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke
Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson.
Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.
Before 1958. Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 80). "The Golden Bowl."
On 17th November 1958 Frank Cadogan Cowper (age 81) died.