EDITOR’S PREFACE.

The Scandalous Chronicle forms so valuable a supplement to the Memoirs of Commines, that I have determined to follow the example of previous editors, and insert it in this place. In reliance on the opinion of Petitot, I have ascribed its authorship to Jean de Troyes.

The literary history of this work is somewhat singular. The first known edition was published under the following title,—The Chronicle of the very Christian and very victorious Louis of Valois (whom God absolve!), eleventh of the name; with various other adventures which occurred in the kingdom of France, as well as in neighbouring countries, from the year 1460 to the year 1483 inclusive. It is a small folio volume, printed in Gothic characters, and was probably published about the end of the fifteenth century, though the title-page bears no date, and mentions neither the author’s nor the printer’s name. The three following editions are equally silent as to the authorship of the work; but the fifth edition, published in 1529, ascribes it to a clerk in the Hotel de Ville of Paris. In 1583, Gilles Corrozet, in his Trésor des Histoires de France, quotes it as “The Chronicle of King Louis XI. otherwise called the Scandalous Chronicle, by Jean de Troyes;” and in the following year, La Croix du Maine, in his Bibliothèque Française, makes this statement: “Jean de Troyes was a French historian of the time of Louis XI., king of France; he wrote a chronicle of the said king, which is vulgarly called the Scandalous Chronicle, because it makes mention of everything done by the said king, and relates matters which are not greatly to his advantage, but rather to his dishonour and scandal.”

Such is the authority for the name and authorship of the work; and though slight, it has been deemed sufficient by most bibliographers, notwithstanding the controversies raised by some eminent writers on the subject. The Chronicle was first appended to the Memoirs of Commines, in Jean Godefroy’s edition, published at Brussels in 1713. It will also be found in Lenglet du Fresnoy’s edition, published in 1747.

The present translation is from the text in Petitot’s great collection of memoirs relating to the history of France.

But although it has been agreed to attribute this Chronicle to Jean de Troyes, no researches have succeeded in discovering any particulars in relation to the author himself. It has not even been positively established whether he can be identified with the clerk in the Hotel de Ville of Paris, mentioned on the title-page of some of the earlier editions. In fact, all is speculation regarding him: but it is conjectured reasonably enough by Grosley that he was a son of a certain Jean de Troyes mentioned by Juvenal des Ursins as having distinguished himself in the disturbances at Paris during the reign of Charles VI., and who was appointed Grand Master of the Artillery by Charles VII., in reward for his services.

It is hard to understand why this should have been called the Scandalous Chronicle; unless, as Sorel suggests, the name was given to it by some bookseller in order to pique the curiosity of the public. Far from seeking to defame Louis XI., the author omits all mention of a vast number of the actions most discreditable to his memory; and in regard to his gallantries, he is almost as silent as Commines. The chief characteristic of the work is its straightforward simplicity: it is full of curious remarks on passing events, such as might be made by a superficial observer, who took no pains to penetrate into the causes and consequences of the occurrences he describes. It is this quality which renders the perusal of the memoirs of Jean de Troyes most interesting, after reading those of Commines. The latter unmasks the policy of his sovereign, reveals all his intrigues, and indicates the secret springs of his conduct; the former attempts nothing of the kind, but merely portrays events in the light in which Louis XI. desired that they should be seen by his subjects. Take, for instance, the narrative of the king’s visit to Peronne, in 1468. No one would suppose, from the account given by Jean de Troyes, that Louis, a dupe to his own artifices, had imprudently placed himself in the power of the Duke of Burgundy, and been detained a prisoner by him; the treaties concluded in the town appear to have been signed freely by the French monarch, who thereupon voluntarily consented to join Duke Charles in his expedition against the Liegeois. After reading the true history of the whole affair in Commines, it is curious to notice the colour which the king gave to it in the eyes of his subjects, in order to keep them in ignorance of the dangers he had incurred by his own fault, and of the excess of humiliation to which he had been subjected by his less wily rival.

In many other respects, this Chronicle is no less valuable and instructive. It is not only remarkable for many curious traits characteristic of its individual author; but it contains interesting details of the manners and customs, of the habits and domestic life, of the Parisians, and of the view they took of contemporary events. Indeed, no existing work supplies us with a better picture of Paris as it was towards the end of the fifteenth century.

As Jean de Troyes for the most part relates only what he heard, and was seldom an eyewitness of the occurrences which he chronicles, there are many errors in his memoirs; but these may easily be rectified by reference to the parallel passages in Commines, where they have not been expressly corrected in the notes.

A. R. SCOBLE.