Notes to Joinville


  • The Penguin Classics edition of Joinville's Life of Saint Louis is almost totally devoid of footnotes and lacks an index. What follows is an attempt to illuminate some of the obscurities and so make good these deficiencies for the benefit of readers relying on that translation.
  • Students should be warned that the chapter divisions in the Penguin Classics translation do not tally with those in the French editions, and this can lead to confusion.
  • Any suggested corrections or improvements to these notes will be most welcome.
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p. 163: Louis, son of the king of France: later King Louis X (1314-16). His title to the kingdom of Navarre and the county of Champagne and Brie had come to him through his mother, Joan of Navarre (d. 1305), who, as the wife of King Philip IV (1285-1314) had been queen of France. Joan was the heiress, descended from the counts of Champagne of J's day: Thibaut (Theobald) IV (1201-53) and Thibaut V (1253-70). The title 'king of Navarre' had been acquired by the counts of Champagne early in the 13th century by marriage to the heiress.

p. 167: six years on pilgrimage: i.e. the crusade of 1248-54.

p. 167: my Lord Louis: Louis, eldest son of Louis IX (d. 1260).

p. 169: Gilles Le Brun was from the imperial territory in the Low Countries. He married J's sister and is mentioned on a number of occasions in the account of the years 1250-54 (pp. 272, 307, 320, 321, 325).

p. 169: Robert de Sorbon (1201-74): his hostel for students in Paris was the origin of the Sorbonne.

p. 170: King Thibaut (1253-70) was king of Navarre and count of Champagne; he married a daughter of Louis IX.

p. 170: 'Predicants' = Dominicans; Provins was a chief town in Champagne.

p. 170: 'Bretagne' = Brittany.

p. 171: Prince Philippe: Philip III (1270-85), father of 'the present king', Philip IV (1285-1316).

p. 173: Guillaume, bishop of Paris: 1228-48.

p. 176: John de Nesle, count of Soissons: J's wife's cousin. He is frequently mentioned in the account of the campaign in Egypt (pp. 187, 224, 225, 250, 253, 258).

p. 178: peace with the king of England: The Treaty of Paris of 1259 included territorial concessions to Henry III of England.

p. 182: Louis's mother: Blanche of Castile (1188-1252), daughter of King Alfonso VIII of Castile.

p. 182: Comte de Boulogne: Philip Hurepel, count (by marriage) of Boulogne and brother of Louis VIII (d. 1234).

p. 182: Comte de Bretagne (= Brittany): Peter of Dreux. He joined Louis's crusade and then died on his way home in 1250 (see pp. 210, 224, 226, 250, 253, 258).

p. 183: 'the young Comte Henri' (son of Count Henry 'the Generous') joined the Third Crusade and married the heiress to the throne of the Jerusalem, Isabella I, in 1192. He remained in the East until his death in 1197, and in his absence his younger brother became count of Champagne. Alice, Henry's elder daughter (d. 1246), was wife of King Hugh I of Cyprus (1205-18).

p. 184: Troyes: a principal town of the count of Champagne.

p. 186: 'the great Comte Gautier de Brienne': Count Gautier (Walter) IV of Brienne settled in the East where he became lord of Jaffa. He was captured by the Muslims in 1244 and died in captivity (see pp. 281, 286, 297-300). Brienne is in the Champagne region, and J was related to the Brienne family.

p. 187: Saumur: this is in 1241.

p. 187: Comte de Poitiers: Alphonse, younger brother of the king and later count of Toulouse (d. 1271).

p. 187: 'was set to carve his meat.': J, then aged about 17, acted as a squire to his lord, Thibaut IV of Champagne.

p. 187: Comte de Artois: Robert, the king's brother (d. 1250 in Egypt).

p. 187: Imbert of Beaujeu: constable of France (1240-50); died in Egypt (see pp. 208, 218, 223, 225, 250, 253, 273).

p. 187: 'great King Henry': Henry II of England (1154-89).

p. 188: St Elizabeth: daughter of the king of Hungary and wife of the Landgrave of Thuringia; d. 1231; canonized 1235.

p. 188: Taillebourg (1242): Henry III of England aimed to work with rebels including his step-father, the count of La Marche, against Louis IX in Poitou in the hope of recovering lands lost earlier in the century. The English effort was a total failure.

p. 191: Louis took the cross in 1244; he was probably influenced by the loss of Jerusalem and the serious Christian defeat at Gaza (La Forbie) earlier that same year.

p. 191: Charles, comte of Anjou: later (1266-85) king of Sicily; frequently referred to in J's account of the years 1248-50. Persuaded Louis to go to Tunis in 1270.

p. 191: Hugues, duc de Bourgogne (Burgundy): (1218-72). See pp. 201, 218, 222, 223, 231, 237.

p. 191: Guillaume, comte de Flandre (Flanders): (d. 1251). See pp. 222, 233, 237, 253, 258, 268-9.

p. 191: Hugues of St Pol: d. 1248 in Cyprus. Gautier (Walter), his nephew, is elsewhere described as lord of Châtillon, and died in Egypt (pp. 225, 229, 232, 238, 261).

p. 191: J tells nothing of his cousins' activities after their departure. For Gobert see also p. 233.

p. 192: 'I was not then his vassal.': J was a vassal of Count Thibaut IV of Champagne, a man who did not accompany the king on his crusade in 1248. (Thibaut had been on crusade to the East in 1239-40.)

p. 193: provost (prévôt): senior royal official. In canon law priests may not shed blood, although we later find J's chaplain doing just that. See p. 230.

p. 195: 'pilgrim's staff and wallet': crusaders were pilgrims - receiving the symbols of pilgrimage was distinct from the ritual of taking the cross.

p. 195: the Abbey of St-Urbain had been founded by J's ancestors, and J himself continued to act as lay patron. See pp. 332-4.

p. 197: Cyprus: Louis had arrived in Sept 1248, having already determined that it should be his base for operations.

p. 197: Tartars: i.e. Mongols. Envoys from Eljigidei, the Mongol commander in western Persia, arrived in Cyprus in Dec. 1248. In contrast to previous contacts, their message was friendly. They claimed that many Mongols were Christians and promised co-operation against the Muslims. Louis's embassy was led by a Dominican, Andrew of Longjumeau, and returned to the king in 1251. (The editor's note at p. 360 confuses Andrew's mission with that of William of Rubruck.)

p. 198: the Empress of Constantinople: Mary of Brienne, wife of Baldwin II, Latin emperor of Constantinople, who was a cousin of King Louis.

p. 199: Iconium: the Turkish sultanate of central Anatolia with its capital at Konya (the ancient Iconium).

p. 200: Armenia: i.e. the Christian kingdom of Cilician or Lesser Armenia in present-day southern Turkey (to the north of Cyprus). The king had submitted to the Mongols in about 1246 and went in person to the Mongol court in 1254.

p. 201: Prince of Morea: William II of Villehardouin, prince of Achaea (1246-78), the Latin ruler of southern Greece conquered after the Fourth Crusade.

p. 202: Jean de Beaumont: one the king's chamberlains. He and J seem generally to have been at odds. See pp. 207-8, 270.

p. 202: Madame de Beirut: Eschive of Montbéliard, widow of Balian of Ibelin, lord of Beirut (d. 1247). The Montbéliard, Brienne and Joinville families were related, and there were branches of both the Montbéliards and the Briennes among the French aristocracy in the Holy Land.

p. 203: 'the standard of St Denis': the 'oriflamme' or standard of the Abbey of St Denis (near Paris), since the early 12th cent. the principal abbey of which the king was patron. It was a processional banner and served the kings as a sort of standard-cum-talisman in time of war.

p. 203: Comte de Jaffa: John of Ibelin (d.1266), a cousin of Balian of Ibelin mentioned above. He was one of the wealthiest magnates in the kingdom of Jerusalem and is famous for his treatise on feudal custom and court procedure. His arms were a red serifed cross on a gold ground.

p. 204: The legate: Odo (or Eudes) of Châteauroux, cardinal bishop of Tusculum, and papal representative on the crusade. See also pp. 209, 245, 269-70, 290, 302, 305, 307, 312, 314, 317.

p. 206: King Jean: John of Brienne, king (by marriage) of Jerusalem 1210-28. In 1219 he led the army of the Fifth Crusade which captured Damietta after a siege lasting over a year. Damietta was lost again in 1221.

p. 206: The Patriarch: Robert, patriarch of Jerusalem (1240-54). See pp. 254-5, 298, 318.

p. 206: Jean de Valery: see pp. 222-3, 238, 247.

p. 207: 'good custom of the Holy Land': this incident illustrates the tension that could arise between local custom and the wishes of a powerful crusading leader form the West. Behind this particular point lay the more fundamental question of whether the conquests in Egypt were to be part of the kingdom of Jerusalem or disposed of by Louis as he saw fit.

p. 208: Geoffroy de Sargines (or Sergines): a prominent member of the king's military household. See pp. 239, 241, 256, 257, 272, 308. He remained in the East after Louis's return to France in 1254 and commanded the French garrison in Acre maintained at the king's expense. He rose to become seneschal of Jerusalem.

p. 209: St Remigius: 1 October.

p. 211: St Nicholas: 6 October.

p. 213: Jocelin de Cornaut: see also p. 240.

p. 214: The sultan al-Salih Ayyub had died at Mansourah in November 1249. (See p. 200 for J's fictive account of the events surrounding his death.) His son and heir, al-Muazzam Turanshah, was far away in northern Syria at the time, and his widow, Shajar al-Durr, concealing the fact of al-Salih's death, appointed Fakhr al-Din ibn Shaykh al-Shuyukh ('Scecedin son of the sheik') commander in chief until Turanshah should arrive. As J reports (p. 230), Fakhr al-Din died in the battle of Mansourah in Feb. 1250. Turanshah arrived shortly afterwards; his murder in May 1250 is described by J (pp. 251-2).

p. 214: Pierre d'Avallon: a kinsman of J who later married a member of the Frankish-Syrian nobility and became lord of Adelon and constable of Tiberias (see p. 272).

p. 218: 'men of highest rank from overseas': the nobility of the crusader states in the East.

p. 226: Guy Mauvoisin: see also pp. 232-3, 269.

p. 227: Ali: not uncle of the Prophet Mohammed but his cousin and son-in-law. His adherents later became known as shi'ites. Though the Bedouin encountered by J were shi'ites, not all followed this branch of Islam. See p. 279.

p. 227: Old Man of the Mountain: the Assassin leader based in Masyaf in northern Syria. The Assassins were Isma'ilis, another branch of Shi'ism, and were famed for their political assassinations and so gave the word to the English language. 'Assassin' is itself derived from 'hashishi', i.e. a taker of hashish, which the sectaries were believed to use to gain a vision of paradise and so fortify themselves for the martyrdom which commonly concluded their assassination missions. See pp. 277-80, 312.

p. 232: Guy d'Ibelin and his brother Baudouin: cousins of the count of Jaffa referred to above (p. 203), and respectively constable and seneschal of the kingdom of Cyprus. They commanded the Cypriot contingent (said to include 200 knights) during the campaign. See pp. 246-8, 250, 252-3.

p. 232: Guillaume de Sennac (or Sonnac): master of the Templars, 1247-50. See p. 226.

p. 234: The Comte of Chalon was J's kinsman.

p. 235: bahariz: The custom of training boys sold into slavery to form the élite corps in the army was well established. The warriors, known as mamluks, had come to dominate the Egyptian army, and it was members of their high command who in May overthrew Turanshah and with him the Ayyubid dynasty which had ruled Egypt since the time of Saladin (1169-93). Bahariz is J's rendering of Bahriyya which is thought to be derived from the fact that they were stationed on an island fortress in the Nile (Arabic: Bahr al-Nil) at Cairo.

p. 235: Halca (more usually Halqa): troops under the direct command of the sultan.

p. 236: Comte de Montfort and the Comte de Bar: Amaury of Montfort was taken captive and Henry of Bar was killed in or soon after the battle at Gaza in 1239.

p. 236: Bundukdari: Baybars al-Bunduqdari, a leading member of the mamluk high-command involved in the death of Turanshah. He became sultan in 1260 and died in 1277. J may be alluding to an invasion of Cilician Armenia in 1266.

p. 236: seneschal, constable and marshal: it is anachronistic of J to suggest that the sultan had officers with these essentially European titles, but the underlying point that Turanshah replaced his father's senior officers with men from his own retinue and that the resentment thus caused led to his murder is correct.

p. 241: Philippe de Montfort: (d.1277). Nephew of Simon de M. the Elder, leader of the Albigensian crusade, and a cousin of Simon de M. the Younger, earl of Leicester. He was also a cousin of the Ibelins and had been living in the East since about 1240 where he was lord of Tyre. See also pp. 247, 260, 307.

p. 243: 'a Saracen from the Emperor of Germany's land': presumably a convert to Islam, although there had been a Muslim community in Sicily until well into the 13th century. For another European convert to Islam, see p. 262.

p. 245: The Emperor Frederick: J's great-aunt had married Frederick Barbarossa (1152-90), Frederick II's grandfather.

p. 245: Jean my good priest: see above p. 230.

p. 247: 'the reigning Emperor of Germany': Frederick II (d.1250) was the father of Conrad, titular king of Jerusalem. In fact Conrad never visited the East, and the barons and administrators had long since refused to obey either him or his father. Frederick had been well-regarded by the Ayyubids. See pp. 214, 245, 274.

p. 252: Faress-Eddin-Octay: i.e. Faris al-Din Aktay al-Jamadar, a leading mamluk emir. See p. 263. He was killed in the internecine power-struggle among the mamluks in 1254.

p. 255: The idea that the Muslims contemplated making Louis sultan is farfetched. I am not aware of evidence to corroborate this claim.

p. 257: Philippe de Nemours: Louis's chamberlain (d.1270). See also pp. 260, 271.

p. 258: Master of the Trinity: The Trinitarians were a religious order whose principal charitable work was the ransoming of prisoners.

p. 258: The Templars were noted as bankers; they could not give the king money from what were in effect safe-deposit boxes belonging to individual investors, and so they connived as this charade of having the money taken by force.

p. 266: Barthélemy: see p. 246. J was related to the lords of Montfaucon.

p. 267: Sephouri: i.e. the Templar had been demoted and sent to run one of the Order's estates in the Holy Land.

p. 271: Prince of Antioch: Bohemond V, prince of Antioch and count of Tripoli (1233-51). It is not clear (at least, not to me) how J could claim to be his kinsman.

p. 272: 'colts' = Old French 'poulains': a derogatory term used of descendants of crusaders born in the East.

p. 274: Sultan of Damascus: al-Nasir Yusuf, Ayyubid ruler of Aleppo (1236-60) and Damascus (1250-60), who in 1251 made war on the new regime in Egypt.

p. 275: King Baudouin of Jerusalem: Baldwin IV of Jerusalem (1174-85). Presumably the incident referred to was the battle of Montgisard (1177) in which the Christians defeated a much larger Muslim force under Saladin.

p. 277: Old Man of the Mountain: see note to p. 227.

p. 281: Jean de Valenciennes: A knight in Louis's entourage who married in the East and became lord of Haifa. See also p. 309.

p. 281: Saida = Sidon

p. 281: Gautier de Brienne: see note to p. 186.

p. 282: Comte de Bar and Comte de Montfort: see note to p. 241.

p. 282: Tartars: see p. 197 and note. It is difficult to know how much of what follows was told J by Andrew of Longjumeau and how much represents largely fanciful tales about the Mongols circulating in the West.

p. 286: Gautier de Brienne: the Khwarazmians, displaced by the Mongols from their homelands in the Asiatic steppes around the Aral Sea, had entered Syria and lent their military might to various Muslim rulers in turn. In 1244 they fought alongside the Egyptians and defeated a force made up of Muslims from Damascus and Christians from the crusader territories. Gautier was among the captives.

p. 289: Alenard: not identified. Possibly Waldemar, duke of S. Jutland (d. 1257).

p. 289: Philippe de Toucy: a grandson of Agnes, sister of King Philip Augustus of France (1180-1223). Agnes had been married successively to the emperors Alexius II (1180-83) and Andronicus I (1183-85) before marrying Philippe's grandfather. Philippe himself was a vassal of the Latin emperor of Constantinople.

p. 289: Emperor of Constantinople: Baldwin II (1228-61, d. 1273). The Comans (more usually 'Cumans') were a pagan Turkic people from the south Russian steppes.

p. 289: Vataces: John III Vatatzes (1222-54), emperor of the Greek Byzantine successor-state based on Nicaea in Asia Minor. In 1261 it was the then emperor of Nicaea who recovered Constantinople for the Greeks.

p. 292: 'sitting on their mantles': presumably on the bare earth, not on mats (see p. 291.)

p. 294: Comte d'Alençon: Peter, fifth son of St Louis, born at Château Pèlerin (Atlit), a Templar castle south of Acre, in 1251.

p. 294: The queen: Margaret of Provence, Louis's wife.

p. 295: The treaty: Louis's idea was to ally with the mamluk regime in Egypt against the Ayyubid ruler of Damascus and Aleppo who in 1251 had attempted to invade Egypt. In return the Egyptians would cede Jerusalem and the other holy places. However, the sultan of Damascus drove a wedge between the allies by occupying Gaza.

p. 295: Comte de Jaffa: John of Ibelin. See p. 203.

p. 295: Indulgences: remission of penance had evidently been offered to those assisting in the re-fortification of Jaffa.

p. 296: Elephant: probably the animal Louis later gave Henry III of England.

p. 296: Comte d'Eu: John son of Alphonse de Brienne, count of Eu (Normandy).

p. 296: Prince of Antioch: Bohemond VI, prince of Antioch and count of Tripoli (1251-68). Antioch was suffering the consequences of the depredations of Turcoman nomads in the surrounding countryside at this period.

p. 297: Greater Armenia: the Armenian region in the Caucasus as opposed to Lesser Armenia (in Cilicia).

p. 297: Gautier of Brienne: see above pp. 186, 281. His wife was Maria, sister of King Henry I of Cyprus (1218-53), and at the time of her marriage to Gautier would have been regarded as the heiress to the throne.

p. 297: Shah of Persia: leader of the Khwarazmians. See p. 286 and note.

p. 297: Tabarie (Tiberias): Tiberias was captured by the Muslims in 1247. Odo (Eudes) of Montbéliard, constable of Jerusalem, was the husband of the lady of Tiberias.

p. 298: Safad: a Templar castle in Galilee.

p. 298: The engagement described here is the battle of Gaza (or La Forbie/Harbiya) of October 1244. Christian losses were very heavy.

p. 300: The truce between Egypt and Damascus was agreed in April 1253 and effectively ended Louis's hopes of profiting from Muslim disunity.

p. 300: St Lazarus: a Military Order which included knights stricken with leprosy.

p. 301: St John the Evangelist: 6 May 1253.

p. 302: Lord of Arsuf: John of Ibelin (d. 1258), brother of Guy and Baldwin of Ibelin (see p. 232), was constable of Jerusalem. He had been appointed governor of the kingdom of Jerusalem by King Henry of Cyprus who was regent for the absentee king of Jerusalem, Conrad of Hohenstaufen. Arsuf is on the coast between Jaffa and Caesarea.

p. 303: Simon of Montbéliard: probably an error for Thibaut de Montléart.

p. 303: Maccabees: leaders of Jewish resistance to Hellenistic rule. Maybe the site referred to was Latrun, about half way between Jaffa and Jerusalem.

p. 304: King Philippe: Philip Augustus who was in the East in 1191 during the Third Crusade. Duke Hugh III of Burgundy died in 1192; his grandson, Hugh IV, died in 1272. This reference has given rise to the view that J's original memoir of the crusade was written in the early 1270s.

p. 304: King Richard: the story of the duke of Burgundy's action in sabotaging Richard's advance is probably fictional, but it is nevertheless clear that the two men were constantly at odds during the closing stages of the Third Crusade.

p. 306: St Peter and St Paul: 29 June 1253.

p. 307: Colts' ford: Passe Poulain (Ras al-Naqura) to the north of Acre.

p. 397: Banyas: the ancient Caesarea Philippi, north of the Sea of Galilee. The Christians had held it for periods in the 12th century, but it had been in Muslim hands since 1164.

p. 397: Philippe de Montfort: lord of Tyre. See note to p. 241.

p. 309: Olivier of Termes: (d. 1275) See pp. 165, 321. A southern French noble who had previously been suspected of harbouring pro-Cathar sympathies. He returned to the East in 1264 and later became commander of the French garrison in Acre.

p. 311: Baghdad: Baghdad did not fall to the Mongols until 1258, i.e. well after J's return to the West. This story could reflect later accounts of the 1258 sack of Baghdad circulating in Europe.

p. 313: 'The Great Comnenus, lord of Trebizond': Manuel Comnenus, emperor of Trebizond, a Byzantine successor-state on the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor. The emperors of Trebizond employed the title 'Grand Comnenus'.

p. 313: Constantinople: the Latin emperor, Baldwin II. See notes to pp. 198, 289.

p. 313: Lady Blanche: Louis's daughter born in 1253.

p. 314: Tortosa: Tartus, north of Tripoli. The crusader cathedral which contained the shrine survives.

p. 314: Camlet: woollen cloth, traditionally of camel hair.

p. 314: prince of Tripoli: Bohemond VI, prince of Antioch and count of Tripoli.

p. 315: fossil fish are to be found in the Sidon area.

p. 316: Queen of Navarre: Isabella, Louis's eldest surviving child, married Thibaut V of Champagne and king of Navarre in 1255.

p. 316: Queen Marguerite: Louis's queen, d. 1295.

p. 317: The legate, Odo (Eudes) of Châteauroux, returned to the West in Sept. 1254.

p. 318: St Mark: 24 April 1254.

p. 319: Mountain of the Cross: Stavrovouni - a hill-top monastery which owned the relic of the cross of the penitent thief crucified with Christ.

p. 319: John of Monson: see also p. 261.

p. 320: Archdeacon of Nicosia and custodian of the royal seal: Raoul Grosparmi, later bishop of Evreux (1259) and cardinal bishop of Albano (1261).

p. 322: St Nicholas of Varangeville: near Nancy. A 16th-century inventory of its possessions includes 'un navire avec des chaînes d'argent, pesant 19 marcs'.

p. 322: The present king's sister: Blanche, daughter of Philip III and sister of Philip IV, married Rudolf, son of the emperor Albert in 1300.

p. 323: Lampedusa: a small island to the west of Malta.

p. 324: Pantalaria: Pantelleria - between Sicily and Tunis.

p. 326: Our Lady of Vauvert: Carthusian abbey near Paris.

p. 326: Blécourt: near Joinville (Haute-Marne).

p. 326: Hyères: in Provence, east of Marseille. Aigues-Mortes (in the Rhône delta) was the sole royal port on the Mediterranean coast of France.

p. 327: Olive: Olena in southern France.

p. 328: Brother Hugh: Hugh de Digne (see p. 176).

p. 329: Aix: Aix-en-Provence. The church of St Maximin has a relic of St Mary Magdalene.

p. 329: Dauphine de Vienne: Guy, Dauphin of Viennois (Rhône valley), was the son of J's sister Mary. Guy's wife was Beatrice of Savoy.

p. 329: Comte de Chalon: J's mother's brother who had married the heiress to the county of Burgundy. (N.B. The county of Burgundy and the duchy of Burgundy were distinct.)

p. 329: Jean de Bretagne: John count of Brittany had married Blanche, daughter of Thibaut IV of Champagne and Navarre by his second wife. At the time Blanche was disputing Thibaut IV's inheritance with Thibaut V, his son by his third wife.

p. 330: Thibaut V: see note to p. 316.

p. 332: J repeats the story recounted at pp. 177-8.

p. 332: St-Urbain, an abbey under J's own patronage. The dispute between J, the lay patron, and the bishop of Châlons, the local diocesan bishop, over how to proceed seems to have been settled in J's favour. The dispute came to head in 1261. See also p. 195.

p. 333: St Remi of Reims: the ancient and wealthy abbey in the centre of Reims. It would appear that the issue of whether it was under the patronage of the king or the archbishop was in dispute.

p. 334: King of England: the treaty of Paris of 1259 was designed to settle outstanding claims. J is repeating remarks made at p. 178.

p. 335: Luxeuil: an ancient abbey in eastern France (Haute Saône).

p. 335: Gervais d'Escraines: see also pp, 320, 325.

p. 335: Thibaut de Bar: d. 1296.

p. 335: Henri de Luxembourg: d. 1288.

p. 335: Lorraine: Lorraine, including Luxembourg and the county of Burgundy, lay outside the kingdom of France, in imperial territory.

p. 336: Much of what follows from this point to the end of the book has been adapted by J from earlier accounts of Louis's life and miracles.

p. 337: General ordinance: this dates to 1254. For a discussion, see W.C. Jordan, Louis IX and the Challenge of the Crusade (Princeton, 1979), pp. 158-71.

p. 341: Etienne Boileau: he had been with Louis on crusade and became provost (prévôt) of Paris c.1261; d. 1269.

p. 343: Béguines: see translator's note at p. 359.

p. 344: Council of Lyons: convened in 1274 by Pope Gregory X (1272-6).

p. 345: Lady Day: the feast of the Annunciation: 24 March 1267.

p. 345: Reims serge: coarse cloth of little value.

p. 345: The king's chapel: the Sainte-Chapelle, built by Louis the house the Crown of Thorns, the relic of Christ's Passion he had acquired from the emperor Baldwin II of Constantinople.

p. 346: His three sons: Philip, later King Philip III, Jean Tristram, count of Nevers, and Peter, count of Alençon.

p. 346: King of Navarre: Thibaut V of Champagne, J's feudal suzerain (d. 1270).

p. 347: Louis's instructions to his son are taken from the Chroniques de Saint Denis.

p. 350: St Bartholomew: 24 August. Louis died 25 August 1270.

p. 350: St Denis: abbey in which many of the French kings were buried. Louis's remains were later transferred to the Sainte-Chapelle.

p. 351: the pope: In 1280 Pope Martin IV commissioned the archbishop of Rouen and others to investigate Louis's claim to sanctification. The formal pronouncement was made by Pope Boniface VIII in 1297.