SHF 3-1 sync
How master Jehan Froissart undertook rigorous inquiries in order to document how the wars had been conducted in all parts of France.
I have put off speaking of the affairs of more distant lands for quite a long time now. My reason for having put them aside is that events closer to home have been so fresh and recent in my mind, and so much to my predilection. Yet in the kingdoms of
Castile and
Portugal, and just as much also in
Gascony and
Rouergue, in
Quercy,
Auvergne and
Limousin, and in the marches of Toulouse and the Bigorre, there were bold men who were in no way reticent about pursuing their own advancement, endlessly hatching schemes and devising strategies for engaging with one another in combat and for scaling and capturing fortified towns, castles and fortresses.
And for this reason I, master
Jehan Froissart, having devoted myself to compiling and setting forth this history at the request and instigation of my good lord and master, the noble and illustrious
prince Guy, count of Blois, concluded that there was little hope of any great feats of arms taking place in
Picardy and
Flanders, as these regions were at peace. Yet I had no wish to remain idle, for I knew full well that far into the future this history will still be in wide circulation, with all noble men surely still taking pleasure in it and finding in it precepts for good behaviour. Moreover I wished to find out about more distant wars as well as those taking place closer to home, and so I resolved to visit my lord the great and powerful
count of Foix and Béarn. I knew full well that if I could be admitted to his household there would be no better place I could choose for gathering news, as it is continuously and keenly frequented by all manner of foreign knights and squires. And so I presented my proposal for this journey to my most dear and venerable master the
count of Blois, who provided me with letters of introduction addressed to the
count of Foix.
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