English wayfaring life in the middle ages : (xivth century) / by J.J. Jusserand ... tr. from the French by Lucy Toulmin Smith.

  • Jean Jules Jusserand
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: English wayfaring life in the middle ages : (xivth century) / by J.J. Jusserand ... tr. from the French by Lucy Toulmin Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    A Sarazin if I slcc shall, I slcc tlic soûle forth withall, And that was never Cristes lorc.” ' It was found convenient, however, to talk of Crusades, and some still believed that they would be made. For this Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady Clare, desired that five men-at- arms should fight in her name in case there should be a “ common voyage ” within seven years following her death.2 The nierit of their works would be attributed to her, and they would receive a money com- pensation amounting to 100 marks each. But the com- mon voyage remained a project for ever, and the only expéditions set on foot were private enterprises.3 In this case religions enthusiasm was not the only lever ; the chivalric and stirring instincts which filled this âge of combats caused half the dévotion which urged these little troops to start. A good number of them came from England ; the English were already, and even before that time, great travellers, as they are now. They were to be met with everywhere, and also, as now, their knowledge of French served them in some degree in every country on the Continent, It was the language of the upper classes, as Mandeville reminds us,4 it was also that which was spoken in the East by ' ‘'Confessio Amantis,” Pauli’s edition, vol. ii. p. 58. = She died November 4, 1360, Nichols’ “Wills of Kings and Queens,” &c., 1780, p. 29. 3 The last effective Crusade ended in 1272, with the rcturn of Prince Edward (Edward I.) to takc the crown on his father s dcath. Thèse holy wars had covered a period of ncarly two hundred years. [L. T. S.] “* Hc says (in Frcnch) : ‘‘And know that I would hâve put this little book into Latin for brevity, but bccausc niany understand