"The Walter Scott of the Middle Ages."

John Froissart (born 1337, date of death unknown,) has been called the "Walter Scott of the Middle Ages." His "Chronicles" present a brilliant and life-like picture of the fourteenth century and form the most important written historical monument of the Middle Ages that has come down to us. He traveled in Flanders, France, Scotland, Italy, and other countries, and his "Chronicles" are the result of his own observations. They are not considered reliable as history, but are valued as a faithful portrayal of the condition of places, customs and manners of the people during his time. The "Chronicles" embrace all of western Europe. Froissart was a Churchman and a scholar. Living as he did, in unsettled times, before nationality had become well developed, he was destitute of patriotism, and therefore the more reliable as a cosmopolitan chronicler. Though Froissart is much better known as a historian than as a poet, yet his poetical productions are numerous. They remain, however, mostly in manuscript, in the Bibliotheque Royale, in Paris.