Hausens love laments exalt the lady as desirable
but unattainable; his general lack of concrete imagery
and hypotactic style (employing subordinate clauses)
adumbrate Reinmar. However, situational references
such as those detailing a love reverie while riding, set
him apart from the later singer. Though his songs of
love from afar parallel similar songs by, for instance,
the troubadour Jaufré Rudel, they also fi t what we know
about his history (he was often absent from home in
the service of his liege lord). Though his praise of a
lady and of ladies was part of a broader courtly fi ction,
there are defi nite parallels between the love at court he
discusses and the life at court he led. He wrote several
crusading songs in which, in contrast, for example, to
Albrecht von Johansdorf, the service of God trumps
service of his lady. In his scorn for the slackers who
remained at home (Des Minnesangs Frühling [MF],
song no. 53,21), he both echoes Romance lyric motifs
and touches on a topic that doubtless resonated with
the actual courtiers of his day. He is the fi rst singer for
whom a song (MF no. 42,1) is transmitted in three dis-
tinct versions, which examplifi es minnesong’s inherent
mutability. His extended monologue in the woman’s
voice (MF no. 54,1, three strophes in C) presents a lady
as skilled in lamenting the dilemma her intense love
for her worthy suitor causes her as Reinmar’s persona
is in stating his (MF no. 165,10). This has led various
scholars (probably incorrectly) to consider as spurious
the song’s ascription to Hausen.
See also Frederick I Barbarossa;
Heinrich von dem Türlin
Further Reading
Bekker, Hugo. Friedrich von Hausen: Inquiries into His Poetry.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977.
Moser, Hugo, and Helmut Tervooren, eds. Des Minnesangs
Frühling. 2 vols., 36th ed. Stuttgart: Hirzel, 1977.
Mowatt, D.G. Friderich von Hûsen: Introduction, Text, Com-
mentary and Glossary. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1971.
Schweikle, Günther, ed. Friedrich von Hausen: Lieder. Stuttgart:
Reclam, 1984.
Herbert Heinen
FROISSART, JEAN (1337–after 1404)
The greatest French chronicler, as well as an outstand-
ing poet and romancer, Jean Froissart was born the year
the Hundred Years’ War began, to a humble bourgeois
family of Valenciennes, which lay then outside the
French kingdom. After a clerical education, he entered
the service of the counts of Hainaut. All his life, Frois-
sart was a servant of powerful nobles. His ability to
please his aristocratic patrons and protectors is his chief
characteristic as a man and writer. In 1361, he went to
England to become one of the clercs de la chambre of
Philippa of Hainaut, wife of Edward III. He remained
in that service until her death in 1369. His stay in Eng-
land was interrupted by extensive travels to Scotland,
to southern France in the suite of the Black Prince, and
later, in the retinue of Edward’s second son, Lionel,
duke of Clarence (patron and protector of Chaucer), to
northern Italy, where Lionel married the daughter of
the duke of Milan. After the wedding, Froissart trav-
eled to Rome and returned to England via Hainaut and
Brabant. These travels doubtless furnished him with
the “pan-European” outlook informing much of his
Chronicles. The youthful service at the very French
court of Philippa imprinted in him a permanent, ideal-
ized image of a chivalric “paradise lost” so evident in his
romance Meliador. After the death of Philippa, Froissart
returned to his native Hainaut in search of new patrons.
His chief benefactors were Robert de Namur (d. 1392);
more importantly, Gui II, count of Blois (d. 1397), who
in all probability urged him to work on the Chroniques;
and Wenceslas, duke of Luxembourg and Brabant (d.
1383), who certainly encouraged his poetry, for he was
a poet in his own right. We know that Froissart took
holy orders and that, in 1373, he received a benefi ce in
Les Estiennes near Mons. In 1384, he became a canon
at Chimay. Sometime later, he received another canonry
at Lille. He spent the winter of 1388–89 in Orthez, at
the splendid court of another aristocratic man of letters,
Gaston Phoebus, count of Foix (d. 1391). He traveled
to the Low Countries, and in 1394 he briefl y revisited
England. Little is known about Froissart’s declining
years. He died some time after 1404.
Froissart’s main achievement is Les chroniques de
France, d’Angleterre et de paï s voisins..., a history of
almost all of western Europe spanning the years 1327
(the accession of Edward III) and ca. 1400 (the death
of Richard II). This history, although providing us with
an enormous wealth of realistic detail, is written from a
distinctive point of view. Like so much of Froissart’s po-
etry, it embodies a frank glorifi cation of an aristocratic,
idealized, “international,” chivalric life. Up to 1361, his
work is a recasting of Jean le Bel’s (ca. 1290–1370)
Vrayes chroniques, which present the fi rst years of the
reign of Edward III and the beginnings of the Hundred
Years’ War. After this date, Froissart follows his own
observations, hearsay, and, occasionally, documents.
He was certainly conscious of partisan points of view
in history and took some pains to ascertain the facts,
interviewing eyewitnesses and participants in the events
described. He traveled widely to seek out sources and
constantly recast the fi rst two books of his Chroniques
to suit changing political circumstances and the tastes
and views of his patrons.
Froissart’s Chroniques are divided into four books.
Book 1 was recast by the chronicler into four redactions.FRIEDRICH VON HAUSEN