A Distant Mirror_ The Calamitous 14th Century - Barbara W. Tuchman [0]
BIBLE AND SWORD (1956)
THE ZIMMERMANN TELEGRAM (1958)
THE GUNS OF AUGUST (1962)
THE PROUD TOWER (1966)
STILWELL AND THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN CHINA (1971)
NOTES FROM CHINA (1972)
A DISTANT MIRROR (1978)
PRACTICING HISTORY (1981)
THE MARCH OF FOLLY (1984)
THE FIRST SALUTE (1988)
A Ballantine Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 1978 by Barbara W. Tuchman
Maps copyright © 1978 by Anita Karl
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
This edition published by arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
www.ballantinebooks.com
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 79-88536
eISBN: 978-0-307-79369-0
v3.1
Contents
Cover
Map
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Maps and Illustrations
Foreword
Part One
1. “I Am the Sire de Coucy”: The Dynasty
2. Born to Woe: The Century
3. Youth and Chivalry
4. War
5. “This Is the End of the World”: The Black Death
6. The Battle of Poitiers
7. Decapitated France: The Bourgeois Rising and the Jacquerie
Photo Insert
8. Hostage in England
9. Enguerrand and Isabella
10. Sons of Iniquity
11. The Gilded Shroud
12. Double Allegiance
13. Coucy’s War
14. England’s Turmoil
15. The Emperor in Paris
16. The Papal Schism
Part Two
17. Coucy’s Rise
18. The Worms of the Earth Against the Lions
19. The Lure of Italy
20. A Second Norman Conquest
21. The Fiction Cracks
22. The Siege of Barbary
23. In a Dark Wood
Photo Insert
24. Danse Macabre
25. Lost Opportunity
26. Nicopolis
27. Hung Be the Heavens with Black
Epilogue
Bibliography
Reference Notes
About the Author
“For mankind is ever the same and nothing is lost out of nature, though everything is altered.”
—JOHN DRYDEN,
“On the Characters in the Canterbury Tales,”
in Preface to Fables, Ancient and Modern
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my thanks to all who have helped me in one way or another to write this book: to Maître Henri Crepin, Deputy Mayor of Coucy-le-Château and president of the Association for Restoration of the Castle of Coucy and Its Environs, for his hospitality and guidance; to my editor Robert Gottlieb for enthusiasm and belief in the book as well as judicious improvements; to my daughter Alma Tuchman for substantial research, my friend Katrina Romney for sustained interest and to both for critical reading. For first aid in medieval complexities, I am especially indebted to Professors Elizabeth A. R. Brown and John Henneman; also to Professor Howard Garey for elucidating problems of medieval French, and to Mr. Richard Famiglietti for the benefit of his familiarity with sources in the period. For various advice, guidance, translations and answers to queries, I am grateful to Professors John Benton, Giles Constable, Eugene Cox, J. N. Hillgarth, Harry A. Miskimin, Lynn White, Mrs. Phyllis W. G. Gordan, John Plummer of the Morgan Library, and, in France, Professors Robert Fossier of the Sorbonne, Raymond Cazelles of Chantilly, Philippe Wolff of Toulouse, Mme. Therese d’Alveney of the Bibliothèque Nationale, M. Yves Metman of the Archives Nationales, Bureaux des Sceaux, M. Georges Dumas of the Archives de l’Aisne, and M. Depouilly of the Museum of Soissons; also to Professor Irwin Saunders for introductions to the Institute for Balkan Studies in Sofia, and to Professors Topkova-Zaimova and Elisabeth Todorova of that Institute for assisting my visit to Nicopolis; also to Widener Library at Harvard and Sterling Library at Yale for borrowing privileges, and to the helpful and knowledgeable staff of the New York Public Library for assistance of many kinds. To unnamed others who appeared briefly to lend a hand on my journey of seven years, my gratitude is equal.
Maps and Illustrations
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