Believe it or not, this Jan Van Boendale's 14th century manuscript chronicle was discovered
in the 19th century in a tobacconist shop… where was used as wrapping paper.
The chronicle is divided in
five parts or books, of which the first four describe the history of Brabant
before Jan Van Boendale lifetime (link goes to a poor author's BIO I could find in english), and the fifth is devoted to the three dukes
contemporaneous with him: Jan I (d. 1294), Jan II (d. 1312), and Jan III (d.
135).
The scene showing the killing
of the Duchess above is Marie of
Brabant (link to wikipedia's BIO), who was beheaded by her husband for adultery- following the
standard practice for women found guilty of adultery; however, proof of guilt
of adultery on her part could never be validated. Maria was the fifth of six
children born to Duke Henry by his first wife. Her mother Maria was a daughter
of Philip of Swabia.
The Chronicle of Brabant (“Brabantsche Yeesten”) is owned and
hosted by the Royal Library of Belgium (in French). This site I recently discovered has -in my opinion- a good digitalization project ongoing, excellent high res quality- but is purely online based.
The Brabant Chronicle is a voluminous work of around 16,000
lines and was not written in one effort. First version dates from 1316, the fifth
from 1347, and a sixth version may have been written around 1351, each one providing
an updated version of the history of the Duchy.
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