GEOFFREY OF VILLEHARDOUIN was born in around 1150 in the county of
Champagne, east of Paris. In 1185 he was appointed to the office of
marshal of Champagne, a post that nurtured both his administrative
and military expertise. Having taken a crusade vow in 1199 he was
subsequently appointed as an envoy and was privy to crucial
decisions made by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade, which ended in
the conquest of Constantinople from its Greek Christian rulers in
April 1204. Villehardouin was appointed as marshal in the Latin
empire of Constaninople. It was probably in late 1207 that he began
dictating The Conquest of Constantinople, his only know written
work and perhaps the earliest example of historical writing in
French prose. He died between 1212 and 1218, in circumstances that
remain obscure.
JOHN OF JOINVILLE was born in 1224 or 1225 into a family prominent
in the county of Champagne. In 1233 he inherited the office of
seneschal of Champagne that would igive him a leading role in the
administrative affairs of the county. He joined the first cruade
led by King Louis IX of France, and in 1248 set out on a campaign
that would take him to Egypt and the Near East over its six-year
course. Joinville became a close friend of Louis IX and after their
return to France he was a familiar figure at the royal court, but
refused to join Louis on his second crusade. He honoured Louis's
memory by giving evidence to the enquiry that established his
friend's sanctity and by composing The Life of Saint Louis, which
he completed in 1309. Joinville died eight years later, at the age
of at least ninety-two.
CAROLINE SMITH studied History at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, from
where she graduated with a Ph.D. in 2004. Her publications include
Crusading in the Age of Joinville (2006). She lives and works in
New York, where she continues to pursue her research on the
crusades and thirteenth-century French society, and on the life and
writings of John of Joinville.
Margaret Shaw received a first from Oxford in languages, after
which she taught in Bradford, before moving to Paris. She did
research on Laurence Sterne and published a book about his 'Letter
to Eliza'. She became a tutor at St Hugh's, Oxford and translated
Stendhal for the Penguin Classics. She died in 1963.
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