Joinville Jeande

Joinville, Jean de, was born of distinguished family in Champagne, France, in 1224. He took service under the Counts of Champagne, went to the court of Louis IX.. and in 1248 joined that king in the first crusade, shared his captivity, and returned with him at the end of six years. Deeply attached to his saintly master, he remained one of his close personal attendants until his departure on his fatal expedition, and he bore testimony in favour of his canonisation. He was over seventy when, at the request of Jeanne de Navarre, he began to compile his Histoire de St. Louis, and it was not completed until 1309. His gossiping and even garrulous chronicle is exceedingly interesting, but it is redeemed from pettiness by the honest veneration which is everywhere shown for the character of the chivalrous king. The writer died at the age of ninety-five on his estate at Joinville. which in 1688 passed to the Dukes of Orleans, and so gave a title to a younger member of that family.