JOINVILLE, JEAN, SIRE DE, author of the Histoire de St Louis, and one of the ornaments of his age, was born in 1223 or 1224. Sprung from an ancient and noble house of Champagne, he spent the first years of his life with Thibaut, king of Navarre, at whose court, then one of the most refined in Europe, he learned all the knightly graces and accomplishments. When St Louis set out on his first crusade in 1248, Joinville accompanied him at the head of several hundred men raised on his own estates, fought by his side in the bloody engagements that followed the capture of Damietta, and shared the fate of the greater part of the French army in being taken prisoner by the infidels after the disastrous campaign of Massoura. Escaping with difficulty on the payment of a heavy ransom, he followed his royal leader into the Holy Land, enjoyed his confidence and friendship, was with him in every battle of the campaign, and finally returned with him to France in 1254 on board the same ship. He had thus advantages for studying the character and actions of the hero-saint, such as were open to no other chronicler of the time. Accordingly, the Histoire de St Louis, IX. du nom par Jehan Sire de Joinville, written with a charming simplicity both of style and thought, is as interesting as the Chronicles of Froissart. In delineating his king, Joinville gives us unconsciously a portrait of himself. The gay, free-handed knight, careless of life and money, witty, shrewd, slightly worldly, proud of his rank, yet fond of society in all its grades, stands out in strong
and curious contrast with the self-denied, austere, and saintly king. Yet, contrasted as their natures were, the two men lived together on terms of brotherly familiarity. At one time the king asks his friend whether he would not rather be a leper than commit a mortal sin? To which Joinville, who abhors lying, naively replies, that he would rather commit thirty mortal sins than be a leper. At another, he asks him if he ever washed the feet of the poor on Holy Thursday, and Joinville replies "that he never will wash the feet of these rascals." Joinville's respect for Louis's noble nature and splendid intellect increased in proportion as he knew him better, and he records many notable instances of both. On their return to France, they continued as intimate as ever, and Louis very often invited his old brother-in-arms to eat at his own table, "à cause du subtil sens qu'il connoissait en lui." When the French king set out in 1259 on his second crusade, so disastrous to himself and thousands of other brave men, Joinville declined to go with him, alleging as his excuse the ruin that in his absence had overtaken his estates. Joinville's grief when he learned the fate of the expedition was very poignant. From this time he seldom appeared at the court of Louis's successors; but when Louis X. was preparing to invade the Netherlands, Joinville, though in his ninety-second year, joined the army at Arras. He died not long after; but the exact date of his death is unknown. The best editions of Joinville's work are those of 1668, with curious and learned dissertations by Duchange; and of 1761, edited by Mellot, Sallier, and Chapeyronnier, and printed at the royal press. The previous editions, of which there are several, are all more or less incomplete.