Froissart was born in Valenciennes and educated in the Church, and entered the service of the counts of Hainaut (in modern Belgium). Although his family was not noble, he spent his life in the courts of Europe. In 1361 he moved to London as a secretary to Queen Philippa of
Hainaut, the wife of Edward III. Since he also served the Black Prince and the duke of Clarence (Chaucer’s patron), he traveled to Scotland, southern France, northern Italy, and Rome. This experience gave him a view of Europe afforded few writers of the period. When he returned home after the queen’s death in 1369, he soon found work with important patrons such as the count of Blois and the duke of Luxembourg and Brabant. Froissart became a priest and in 1384 a canon at Chimay and later at Lille. During the winter of 1388-89 he served at the court of Gaston Phoebus, count of Foix (d. 1391), a poet and man of letters.
Froissart wrote a history of Europe from the reign of Edward III to the death of Richard II. In that history, Froissart provides a detailed but somewhat idealized account of the first phase of the Hundred Years War. Although his history is filled with fascinating anecdotes, Froissart’s point of view is decidedly on the side of his aristocratic patrons, whose lives he sees as glamorous and noble. He constantly checked and revised his history in an attempt to be accurate and at the same time please his patrons. Froissart also wrote poetry and romances. Nineteenth-century writers relied heavily on his narrative as they wrote their own romantic novels on medieval subjects.
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