e of the same reign. Of these Juvenal des Ursins takes the
first rank, and is one of the best authorities for his period; but from
a literary point of view he cannot be very highly spoken of, though
there is a certain simplicity about his manner which is superior to the
elaborate pedantry of not a few of his contemporaries and immediate
successors.

The second class has the longest list of names, and perhaps the most
interesting constituents. First may be mentioned _Le Livre des Faits et
bonnes Moeurs du sage roi Charles V._ This is an elaborate panegyric
by the poetess Christine de Pisan, full of learning, good sense, and
sound morality, but somewhat injured by the classical phrases, the
foreign idioms, and the miscellaneous erudition, which characterise the
school to which Christine belonged. Far more interesting is the _Livre
des Faits du Marechal de Bouciqualt_[140], a book which is a not
unworthy companion and commentary to Froissart, exhibiting the kind of
errant chivalry which characterised the fourteenth century, and in part
the fifteenth, and which so greatly assisted the English in their
conflicts with the French. Joan of Arc was made, as might have been
expected, the subject of numerous chronicles and memoirs which have come
down to us under the names of Cousinot, Cochon, and Berry. The Constable
of Richemont, who had the credit of overthrowing the last remnant of
English domination at the battle of Formigny, found a biographer in
Guillaume Gruel.

Lastly have to be mentioned three curious works of great value and
interest bearing on this time. These are the journals of a citizen of
Paris[141] (or two such), which extend from 1409 to 1422, and from 1424
to 1440, and the so-called _Chronique scandaleuse_ of Jean de Troyes
covering the reign of Louis XI. These, with the already-mentioned
chronicle of Juvenal des Ursins, are filled with the minutest
information on all kinds of points. The prices of articles of
merchandise, the ravages of wolves, etc., are recorded, so that in them
almost as much light is thrown on the social life of the period as by a
file of modern newspapers. The chronicle of Jean Chartier, brother of
Alain, that of Molinet in continuance of Chastellain, and the short
memoirs of Villeneuve, complete the list of works of this class that
deserve mention.

Examples of the three great French historians of the middle ages
follow:--

VILLEHARDOUIN.

La velle de la saint Martin vindrent