The Chronicle of the Good Duke Louis II Bourbon

Duke Louis of Bourbon was a descendant of the French King Louis IX (Saint Louis, d. 1270) and of the first Duke of Bourbon (a position created in 1327). As a royal cousin of Kings Charles VI and Charles VII, and the ruler of a key French duchy, Louis was a major player in the Hundred Years' War; a general, diplomat, and mediator, successful warlord, first in his campaigns against the English, then later in the campaigns launched by the French into the Baltic region, Muslim North Africa, and the Iberian peninsula. A man of war, he was also considered a pious Christian, who moderated the worst excesses of the French royal dukes in the latter years of the 14th century, making him a rare figure: A leader in every aspect of a blood war, from battlefield to high level politics, who came out of it as a hero. At least, that is how his friends saw it. What they thought of him is preserved in The Chronicle of the Good Duke Louis II, which not only gives us a dramatic account of Louis as prince and warlord, but also shows his friends observing him in action. The resulting Chronicle is as much a portrait of Louis' circle of friends as it is of Louis himself. The book, very like a collection of legends, gives modern readers a striking picture of the Hundred Years' War, provides a vivid picture of the war camps, courts, and battlefields of the late fourteenth century. Historian Steven Muhlberger renders his translation, the first of the Chronicle into any modern language, in crisp modern language that conveys the excitement of vivacity readers would have experienced six centuries ago.