I, Jean, Lord of Haynin and of Louvegnies, Knight by the grace and will of God, my creator, and to the blessed Virgin Mary his mother, all my heart and all of my power I have by his grace, it is through him that I have been guarded and preserved and brought back from all of the lands, dangers and perils that I have been through in all of the time that has passed until this very hour that I presently live and commence to write, which is the Wednesday before the Pentecost XXe day of the month of May in the year of his grace one thousand four hundred and sixty-six. For it has to be remembered that it is all too often that the first time one ventures into danger, where many men of good and noble manner have undertaken to venture, many are never to come back or return again; and with that I ask of God that He grant me enough time and some small space so that I am able to write and
to record this task that I have set before me, in accordance to my small understanding and memory, to the correction of those who are more
knowledgeable and more obvious than I, they having a better perspective and being regarded higher; For not I nor others who are elsewhere are able , put
quite simply, to remember and retain everything. For me it is a judicious thing to do, and a way to pass the time when I am not set to another task (ed. Note: could also be translated as ‘fit to steel’ it may be a play on words). I see to busy myself to commence writing at the present time, not because I am anything of a clerk, a letter carrier without retort (ed. Note: could also be translated as ‘an envoy bearing a letter’ or ‘an academic with nothing to say’ but the intention is clear) ; not unlike such a thing as steel I am completely frank and to the point (ed. Note: This could also be translated as ‘I have undertaken to be completely frank and to the point’). I pray that all will give me pardon if I misprint something, it is not my intention to put anything to writing that I have not seen myself, and where
I have written about that which I haven’t seen firsthand as aforementioned I made enquiries to many Lords, Knights, Gentlemen, Officers of Arms, and others, reliable and trustworthy, the which I have made several enquiries and questioned repeatedly about that which I did not know for reliable truth. God is with me as I commence, from now until the end.

Chapter 1:

Of various things of interest in the year of his grace 1465 and the first causes why the voyage and enterprise that very high and powerful Prince, Charles, Count of Charolais made on the Royalty of France with others, etc.

After Louis, eldest son of Charles King of France, VIIth of his name, the said Louis being the Dauphin de Vianne, had left and absented hastily Viannois and other of his lands, due to the fury and outrage of his aforementioned father, King Charles, the cause for this I know not why, and
for a time he made for Savoy, for Burgundy, and for Luxembourg and Brussels and came to that very high and powerful Prince, my Lord the Duke Phillip of Burgundy, Vth of his name, his cousin and good uncle, who received him with
great happiness and all honor, treated him like his sovereign lord, who he
would become further in the future after the fall of the aforementioned King
Charles his father, the said Dauphin made the aforementioned Duke of
Burgundy to pay for him, Madame de Dauphin, his second wife, daughter and
eldest child of the Duke of Savoy, and keeled up the funds of my Lord
Joachim his (the duke of Savoy’s) oldest son, who passed away soon after being born, and he was made to pay and to deliver, for the entertainment of him and his estate, XXXVI thousand gold ecus per year, for the five years or thereabouts that the said Dauphin resided his estate at Gemappe in Brabant, and for the lands and lordships of the said Duke of Burgundy, where he saw fit to take the deductions freely and at his pleasure, the which payment the Duke of Burgundy made to him for feasts, and the residence that the Dauphin made in his lands when he was great in the disfavor of the King Charles his father, because this he showed very well, the said Dauphin did not pay him any part of rent, and had the King Charles his father made out to have taken and seized all that he had, and himself to have no part to give which became famous and ran and ran, so that the aforementioned King Charles had little to do with the audacity of his son the Dauphin, who pretended with the aid
and assistance of many princes and lords of the court that it was Charles, his brother who was the cause of the problem and the irritant. Doubting that after the passing of the said King Charles, the princes and others of the realm would see to hold him to his purpose, the Duke of Burgundy made a
great gathering of men of arms and made a great showing of love, of loyalty, and of service to the King Louis, his sovereign lord, in so much that he proved that he was owed to be held as one of the court, that he made very certain, and this he did to the said King Louis XIth of his name, and there was not one of the royal court who saw this showing and dared to speak against him, could only gape at this unforeseen obstacle, for all of the
most part of the peers of France, princes, lords, bonne villes, and others had envoyed to depose him and assure their loyalty and offer their services, and upon that the great gathering was made to put this away or to make many pay a great price to have the lands of the Duke of Burgundy, for the said gathering contained those expressly that held them and was made up of for the most part a great number of men of arms all on horseback and the best who were to be found, that could resist against all the power of the realm, that would go against their king, and make him by force to do right, and that was the intension of the Duke of Burgundy; because of the late King Charles he had made a request and was promised, this was made at the Peace of Arras, that after his reign and his eldest son Louis became the sovereign
lord that he would keep the terms of the treaty, that he would to ensure and to entreat the loyalty he had promised, so that it would always be. And to better ensure this the Duke of Burgundy had a very fine company of men of arms and other men to accompany the King to his consecration and coronation at Reims, and to his entry into Paris, the which was very special because of the presence of the company of the Duke of Burgundy, who put forth the riches of their coffers and their clothes and their horses, and in such great number, with the best coverings and trappings on the horses, of cloth of gold, of orfafverie, of embroidered velvets, of damask, of satin, and of many other manners such that the memory of man will not know another suchrich entry of a King to Paris, the which I pass over briefly in writing this book, because I have put all of it to writing in another book that I made before this one, and so, the King was in Paris, the Duke of Burgundy and his company went along with the King and then they returned to their land.

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Cheers

It's a bit of a bear to translate due to spelling inconsistencies.

Jenn

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