Brandon Meredith’s Reviews > A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century > Status Update

I have a theory that the Evremondes of "A Tale of Two Cities" were based on Enguerrand de Coucy, who is up to all sorts of mischief in the 1300s and who was both an earl in England and baron in France, simultaneously. You see, he had been "captured" by the English and then managed to marry the King of England's older, spendthrift daughter.

Anyway, that's happened, and now we're on to marauding bandit squadrons!

Welp, the king of France had been caught by the Brits. England rained down terror upon France during the interregnum, and the three estates (1: dauphin and regent, 2: nobility, 3: peasants) were too busy fighting each other to fight back effectively. After an insane ransom and a swap for a whole bunch of french nobles, England returned King Jean to France. And then he left town to go on a crusade! Wtf, Jean?!

The Jaquerie is going for it!

I put this down for a bit and am now just picking it up again. It’s a fascinating period. One that shapes our image of the Middle Ages. The Black Plague and European wars and monarchies and nobility and raiders and the Church. It’ll probably take me several more years to finish. Ha.