England

Island kingdom bounded to the west by the Marcher lordships and the (still contested) principality of Wales conquered by Edward I; English lordships included parts of modern south Wales (from southern Pembrokeshire through Swansea, Cardiff and on towards Gloucester in England); bounded to the north by the kingdom of Scotland, to the east by the North Sea and to the south by the Channel; included Somerset, Devon and Cornwall to the south-west. Population up to the Black Death of 1348-9 approximately 4 million souls.

Italy

Jehan Froissart

Jehan Froissart (?1337- ?1404). Poet and chronicler from Valenciennes in the county of Hainault. Author of four Books of Chroniques, of an Arthurian romance (Meliador), and of a considerable body of lyric and crypto-autobiographical and dream poetry inspired in part by the Roman de la Rose and the works of Guillaume de Machaut.

Kingdoms of Castile and Portugal

This refers to the kingdoms of Castile and Portugal.

Rouergue

France, Midi-Pyrénées; corresponds approximately to the modern department of Aveyron; traversed from east to west by the River Aveyron which flows through Rodez, the major city; bounded to the north by Viadene and Auvergne; the west by the Causses de Gramat and Limogne, and by Quercy; the south by Languedoc and the east by Gévaudan and the Causses du Larzac; to the north-east by the Causse de Sauveterre; (ceded to the English in 1360 under the treaty of Brétigny; held by them until early 1369).

Limousin

France, centre (modern departments of Corrèze, Creuse and Haute-Vienne); bounded to the north-east by La Marche, the east by Auvergne, the north-west by Poitou, the west by Périgord and Angoumois, and the south by Quercy. Principal city: Limoges, many of whose surrounding fortresses (including Chalusset, Rochechouart, Isle, Châlus, etc) were occupied by routier garrisons during the early 1370s.

Bigorre

France, south-west; occupied most of the modern Hautes-Pyrénées; capital: Tarbes; other towns: Lourdes, Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Tournay, Lannemezan; confiscated by Philip IV of France in 1292; ceded to the English crown in 1360 under the treaty of Brétigny; recaptured by the French with the aid of the count of Foix after 1370.

Jehan Froissart

Jehan Froissart (?1337- ?1404). Poet and chronicler from Valenciennes in the county of Hainault. Author of four Books of Chroniques, of an Arthurian romance (Meliador), and of a considerable body of lyric and crypto-autobiographical and dream poetry inspired in part by the Roman de la Rose and the works of Guillaume de Machaut.

Guy II, count of Blois (d. 1397)

Guy II of Châtillon, count of Blois. He was the youngest son of Louis I of Châtillon and Jeanne of Hainault. On the death of his elder brother John in 1381 he succeded to the lordships of Schoonhoven and Gouda and the counties of Blois and Soissons. He married Marie of Namur in 1372. Their son and heir Louis died in 1391, before his parents. In that same year Guy sold the counties of Blois, Soissons and Dunois to Louis of Orléans, who became count after Guy’s death on 22 December 1397. Guy was buried in the Francisan convent in Valenciennes. He was an important patron of Froissart.

Picardy

A historical province of France.

Flanders

County of Flanders, a historical region in the Low Countries.

Manuscript reading: Beauvois

Emended reading: Beaumont