Louis: The French Prince Who Invaded England (39 page)

The principal series which contains the works dealing with French history is the
Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France
which initially ran to twenty-four volumes published in Paris between 1738 and 1865; a second series of another twenty-four volumes then followed between 1869 and 1904. The works of Rigord, William the Breton and Nicholas de Bray are all available both in their original Latin and in French translation in this series, which also includes the Latin-only
Ex Chronico Turonensi
(
Chronicle of Tours
) and the Old French
Chronique des rois de France
(
Chronicle of the Kings of France
) by the Anonymous of Béthune. The entire
Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France
series can be freely consulted on the website
http://gallica.bnf.fr/
hosted by the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The Anonymous of Béthune’s other work, the
Histoire des ducs de Normandie et des rois d’Angleterre
(
History of the Dukes of Normandy and the Kings of England
), is available in its original Old French in a printed volume of 1840 and on the
https://archive.org/
website. It is perhaps due a new edition, as is the anonymous
Vie de Louis VIII
(
Life of Louis VIII
; 1825) and the
Récits d’un ménestrel de Reims
(
Tales of a Minstrel of Reims
), also in Old French and also in printed form only, in a volume published in 1876. A rather melodramatic and not terribly reliable translation of the Minstrel’s text can be found in Edward Noble Stone’s 1939
Three Old French Chronicles of the Crusades
; this gives a flavour of the Minstrel’s writing, but for the purposes of the present volume I have carried out my own translations of his work. Other translations in this book are from the published English versions of works, where available, and my own where not, except for the long quote from the
Chronicle of Tours
in Chapter 9 assessing Philip Augustus and his life and reign, which appears in John Baldwin’s book
Paris, 1200
.

The works relating to the Albigensian crusade are more widely available in modern printed editions;
La Chanson de la croisade albigeoise
, by William of Tudela and an anonymous continuer, is available in the original Occitan with a facing-page translation into modern French (1989), and also as
The Song of the Cathar Wars
in English (1996); Peter of Les-Vaux-de-Cernay’s Latin
Historia albigensis
is available in both French (1951) and English (1998) translations, the latter entitled
The History of the Albigensian Crusade
.

The major series which collates the medieval historical writing of England is the Rolls Series, which comprises ninety-nine works in 253 volumes published between 1858 and 1911. The complete works or
Opera
of Gerald of Wales, the
Chronica Majora
of Matthew Paris, the
Flores Historiarum
of Roger of Wendover, and the monastic chronicles of Ralph of Coggeshall and the Barnwell, Dunstable and Waverley annalists are all in this series, although in Latin only. Roger of Wendover’s work has been translated into English as
Flowers of History
and can be consulted on the
https://archive.org/
website; a selection of the
Chronicles of Matthew Paris
(1986) is available in English, as are some of Gerald of Wales’s texts, including the one which has been quoted in this book,
De principis instructione
or
On the Instruction of a Prince
, originally translated in 1858 as
On the Instruction of Princes
(reprinted 1991).

For many years the only available edition of the biography of William Marshal was Paul Meyer’s three-volume
L’Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal
(1891–1901) in the original Old French; this was superseded by the superb
History of William Marshal
of A. J. Holden, S. Gregory and D. Crouch (2002–6), also in three volumes, which includes both the original text and a facing-page translation into English, thus making the work more accessible to a much wider audience.

All of these primary sources, plus others consulted, are listed in the Bibliography. Further details on the English texts and their authors can also be found in Antonia Gransden’s
Historical Writing in England
, vol. 1:
c.550–c.1307
(1974).

Secondary sources

No work on Louis could possibly be complete without owing a great debt to the French medievalist and scholar Charles Petit-Dutaillis, whose monumental
Étude sur la vie et le règne de Louis VIII 1187–1226
(1894) contains a list of all Louis’s official acts as king and a complete itinerary of where he was during every month of his reign, as well as a myriad of detail about his life and government. Two more recent biographies also written in French are Gérard Sivéry’s
Louis VIII le lion
(1995) and Ivan Gobry’s
Louis VIII, fils de Philippe II, 1223–1226
(2009). The fact that the title of the latter needs to signpost that Louis was Philip’s son is indicative of the way his reign has been overshadowed in historical writing; the implication is that even the French public might not know who he was without the hint.

Most of Louis’s life was lived during his father’s reign, so biographies of Philip and works dealing with his era are very useful sources of information, although the details on Louis tend to be hidden in the background and need careful attention. I have found Jim Bradbury’s
Philip Augustus
(1998) very valuable in this regard, and John Baldwin’s immense
The Government of Philip Augustus
(1986) has been a constant companion. Equally, information on Louis can be gleaned from the early sections of the many available biographies of Louis IX; Jacques LeGoff’s
Saint Louis
(2009) is the definitive text here. Louis VIII remains one of the few medieval kings to have a wife who has been the subject of more biographies than he has; I was able to gain many insights into their relationship from Philippe Delorme’s
Blanche de Castille
(2002).

The Albigensian crusade is mentioned in passing in many books on the crusades generally, but the classic dedicated work is Zoe Oldenbourg’s
Le Bûcher de Montségur
(1959), available in English translation as
Massacre at Montségur
(1961, 1998). More recent titles include Mark Pegg’s
A Most Holy War: The Albigensian Crusade and the Battle for Christendom
(2008) and Sean McGlynn’s
‘Kill Them All!’ Cathars and Carnage in the Albigensian Crusade
(2015).

There is a wealth of material available on the early thirteenth century in England. W. L. Warren’s
King John
, in the Yale English Monarchs series (1961, 1997), remains among the most in-depth biographies of Louis’s opponent, joined by those written by Ralph Turner (1994) and Stephen Church (2015) and Church’s edited volume
King John: New Interpretations
(1999). Magna Carta is equally well documented, James Holt’s seminal 1965/1992 volume being joined more recently by Nicholas Vincent’s
Magna Carta: A Very Short Introduction
(2012) and David Carpenter’s
Magna Carta
(2015), which looks set to become the definitive work on the subject. Carpenter’s
The Minority of Henry III
(1990) is invaluable for information on Louis’s invasion and on his later conflict with Henry’s forces in France; Holt’s
The Northerners: A Study in the Reign of King John
(1961) provides indispensable information on the barons and their reasons for rebelling; and, finally, McGlynn’s detailed and thorough
Blood Cries Afar: The Forgotten Invasion of England 1216
(2011) is the first and so far only book dedicated solely to Louis’s campaign.

Full publication details of these and all other works consulted may be found in the Bibliography.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary sources

Anonymous of Béthune,
Histoire des ducs de Normandie et des rois d’Angleterre
, ed. F. Michel (Paris: 1840)

Anonymous of Béthune,
Chronique des rois de France
, in
Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France
, vol. 24, ed. L. Delisle (Paris: 1870)

Barnwell annalist,
Memoriale Walteri de Coventria
, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols (London: Longman, 1879–80)

La Chanson de la croisade albigeoise,
ed. Henri Gougaud (Paris: Livres de Poche Lettres Gothiques, 1989)

Conon de Lausanne,
Cartulaire du Chapitre de Notre Dame de Lausanne
, ed. A. Jahn, F. Forel and F. de Gingins (Lausanne: Georges Bridel, 1851)

Delisle, L. (ed.),
Catalogue des actes de Philippe Auguste
(Paris: 1885)

Dunstable annalist,
Annals of Dunstable Priory
, in
Annales Monastici
, ed. H. Luard, 5 vols (London: Rolls Series, 1864–9), vol. 3

Epistolae Innocentii papae III
, ed. J. P. Migne (Paris: 1855)

Ex Chronico Turonensi auctore anonyme S. Martini Turonensis canonico
, in
Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France
, vol. 18, ed. Michel-Jean-Joseph Brial (Paris: 1822), pp. 290–322

Extraits d’un abrégé de l’histoire de France
, in
Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France
, vol. 17, ed. Michel-Jean-Joseph Brial (Paris: 1818), pp. 428–32

Gerald of Wales,
Giraldi Cambrensis Opera
, ed. J. S. Brewer, J. F. Dimcock and G. F. Warner, 8 vols (London: Rolls Series, 1861–91)

Gerald of Wales,
Gerald of Wales: On the Instruction of Princes
, trans. Joseph Stevenson (London: Selleys, 1858; repr. Felinfach: Llanerch, 1991)

Gestes du roi Louis VIII, extraits des Grands Chroniques de France dites de Saint-Denis
, in
Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France
, vol. 17, ed. Michel-Jean-Joseph Brial (Paris: 1818), pp. 417–21

Giles de Flagi, Prologue surviving from
Histoire de Philippe Auguste
, published by Paul Meyer,
Romania
, 6 (1877), 494–8

L’Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal,
ed. Paul Meyer, 3 vols (Paris: Renouard, 1891–1901)