Customer Reviews

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

5 star:		(89)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Who is Enguerrand de Coucy and why should we care?

Coucy was a French noble whose life and position intertwined neatly with many of the momentous events that defined the 14th Century. He appears, Zelig-like, at the head of armies, at the elbow of both the Kings of France and England and in the great councils of state that determined the actions of a nascent French nation.

His story is remarkable and remarkably well documented. His life and actions serve as the central thread that ties the events surrounding the Hundred Year's War between England and France together in this marvelous book.

Tuchman displays this late Middle Age period in all of its nasty burtality. The Great Plague hit in several waves, reducing Europe's population by between one half and one third. A century of warfare left roving bands of knights and armed men loose in the countryside to pillage and destroy between summons to fight for king and country. The common man and woman, evolving from a status of near slavery to severe oppression, owed service to their lord and taxes to almost everyone.

Tuchman brilliantly weaves the above facts of life with the politics and struggles between rival nobles, kingdoms and a corrupt church. This book is very well written, as I had always heard Tuchman's works to be. She possesses the rare ability to write solid history -- this book is fact filled, and thoroughly documented -- in the manner of a great storyteller. Her characters and events, leavened by Tuchman's wry observations and logical conclusioins, are marvelously developed.

So much happened in this time period that it does bear scrutiny. Chivalry, the code of the Knight that was suppossed to benefit people in exchange for a life free from common worries, had denegrated into a corrupt facade that shielded ruthless brigands from law and sanction. The great Church, long the common denominator among disparate peoples became first hopelessly corrupt then divided for decades by rival popes more interested in Europe's balance of power among earthly kingdoms than in promoting the Kingdom to whom they suppossedly gave vasselage. Great landed nobility struggled with each other and began a transformation from nearly autonomous players in an ever changing system of alliances across nationalities to becomming the building blocks of the infant state. Policy and war rose and fell on the ability, whim and maturity of changing kings.

Although our own recently passed Twentieth Century could witness evil and bloodletting on a more sustained and organized basis than any that preceeded it -- hence the title "Through a Distant Mirror," Tuchman's work also illustrates how far society has come in those parts of the world where it is civil and grounded in natural rights. Thus, Tuchman's book shows both the constant danger through time of man's darker side as well as the progress earned by those who have managed to diffuse power and ground everyday people with a voice in their affairs and rights that can not be abrogated.

This is a marvelous work from every facet. I am now ordering other Tuchman books to see how she handles man's affairs in centuries distant from that enjoyed by Enguerrand de Coucy.

Barbara Tuchman is a great guide for readers beginning their voyage into medieval history. This is also a marvellous period, in terms of action, romance and great events, with which to begin such a journey.

I would also urge readers who are spurred on to further investigation, to read the seminal text from which much of Tuchman's work is based, the Chronicles of Jean Froissart. Froissart was one of the great raconteurs of any age. He was basically the Herodotus and Homer of his era.

The Amazon reviewer might have noted that Enguerrand's disposition towards the peasants under him was dictated to him by one of the truly cataclysmic events of the era. The uprising of the Jacquerie created a hitherto unknown fear and unease on the part of the aristocratic order of the time, to such a degree that reprisals and attitudes were indeed shaped for generations to come. But one must read Froissart to reach a true appreciation of the scope and social repercussions of that horrifying event. The Jaquerie were bent on total devestation of the upper classes and carried out their revolution in countless acts of rape, murder, infanticide and any other mayhem they could engender. Enguerrand was seen as an avenging Angel by his contemporaries. The lords, barons and knights were not merely defending their order, but their lives.

This is Tuchman's finest accomplishment, in terms of rendering historical drama and in the cohesive quality of the details she marshals to illustrate her story. It really was not just a calamitous, but quite a remarkable century in terms of the wars that were fought, the leaders of France and England that fought them and the hardships the nobles and the commons all endured. It definitely was not an era for the timid or the weak either in body or in spirit. I guarantee that if you read this work, which is as exciting as any novel, you will want to read the chronicles as well.

With painstaking detail and bittersweet humour, Tuchman delves into the history and events surrounding one of the greatest of the French knights. Enguerrand de Coucy is a knight caught between old and new world orders. Perhaps the highest example of a crumbling ideal - chivalry - he shows the fatal flaws in an oppressive system beginning to decay before his birth, leading to some of the greatest excesses within his lifetime, and finishing with the fall of the French monarchy in the 18th century.

Parts of Tuchman's tale are more gripping than an adventure novel, more humourous than a comedy, and more unbelievable than fiction. In fact, her story is so engaging because of its truth.

Anyone intersted in the Avignon Papacy, the Great Schism in the Church, Popes and Antipopes, the Black Plague, Feudalism, Protestantism, the persecution of witches and sorcery, the prelude to the Renaissance, Italian banking, Antisemitism, and the Medieval in general should adore it.

I must admit, my jaw dropped several times while reading this book, particularly during the chapters focusing on the schism in the church. It is not easy to escape the image of a furious Pope screaming anathema and excommunication from the walls of the Castel Sant'Angelo upon the beseigers below. Unbelievable arrogance and mercilessness seem the hallmark of the times, and Tuchman captures the essence of these with great alacrity.

Following de Coucy lets us experience life through the attitudes of someone placed firmly in the time. While many of his attitudes may seem foreign to us, his more modern qualities allow us to identify, if perhaps not sympathize, with him.

I highly recommend this book both as an introduction to the study of the 14th century, and as fascinating reading for anyone interested in the human condition.

I am always amazed at people who don't seem to enjoy or understand the relevance of history. Trying to understand the present without a knowledge of the past is like trying to figure out what's wrong with a clock by examining its face. It's like being a leaf that doesn't know it's part of a tree.

In Tuchman's comprehensive look at 14th century Europe, we see the beginnings of our modern market economy, the notion of romantic love, trade unions, urbanization, nationalism, anti-semitism (portents of the Holocaust), ideas of chivalry in warfare being torn down by advances in technology, and on and on. I found this book to be endlessly fascinating, told in a lively and engaging manner.

If you don't think civilization has made much progress, read this book. It will give you a new perspective on just how far we've come--despite the sometimes eerie similarities.

Our all time favorite history book, a well-written history of western civilization between 1300 and 1450. Tuchman writes in a way that makes this an enjoyable read.

She doesn't paint a pretty picture, for mankind was dealing with the expectations of chivalry, the rise and development of Christianity, the Plague, numerous battles (the 100 Years War, the Inquisition, the Crusades), not to mention the difficulties of ordinary life. One reviewer complained that the book had too much about battles in it -- unfortunately, the struggle for power and land-ownership was what mattered most in this time period. It was not a generally peaceful time to be alive. This book is considered a classic now.

If you are interested in this time period, and haven't read this book, it's a great place to begin!

My copy of "A Distant Mirror" is aptly illustrated with the ominous vision of the pale horsemen leading the legions of the dead against men. The men of the picture are an army themselves, caught while besieging a city. One of the unfortunates, on spotting the column of cadavers raises his arms in surprise, though he could just as easily be rebuffing death itself - "we're busy now - can you try back, like during the Renaissance?" In fact the pages of "Mirror" are so redolent with death and suffering - owing largely to ceaseless and purposeless wars, plague and other unfortunate events, one wonders how death itself was able to keep pace with mankind.

"Mirror" charts the bloody ebb and flow of the calamitous 14th century in Europe. With the crusades over, and the renaissance yet to begin, 14th century Europe saw endless fighting - most of it between England and France. The combatants tear at each other for land and for ransoms, but are inspired by a sense of chivalry - which means that the combatants were better at romanticizing wars than fighting them. While ennobling the institution of Knighthood, knights themselves were prone to freebooting, sack & pillage and other acts that darkened the word "medieval" but were miserable failures at actually winning their battles. The "Hundred Years War" bookends the story, but historian Barbara Tuchman focuses the story on Enguerrand VII, Sire De Coucy - an uncommonly wise noble atypically free of much of the avarice of his class. Coucy is seldom much of a director of the events of the age, but his peculiar strength of character provides a valuable frame of reference for Tuchman's often incisive survey of the "Calamitous 14th Century". When the nobles aren't fighting their futile wars, marauding soldiers rove the countryside of France, Italy and the German states selling their services (or buying "protection" from those services) from nearby towns. When the soldiers aren't busy enough, the plague picks up the slack, decimating whole populations. The nobles, endlessly hungry for revenue to fuel their wars, increase the tax burden on the survivors. Religious fervor underlies much of the conflict, but also fails to make a dent on the course of events - that is until the great schism of the Roman church. With a pope and cardinals reigning in each of the cities of Rome and Avignon, the Papacy is fatally divided. Coucy aside, the principal actors in this sorry tale are the successive French and English Kings, and the bellicose nobles on either side - Lancaster, D'Anjou, Berry, Burgundy to name a few.

The fatal flaw of the age isn't simply being medieval - with all of primitive connotations our conceited era has condescended to attach to it. Rather a lack of genuine nationalism, makes it impossible to end what we now call the Hundred Years War. Lacking the cohesion of national identity, combatants have no critical reason with which to favor one side or another, and end up plotting against each of the other sides. Instead, each side fights for prospective sovereigns - either English or French contenders for the throne of France. Neither is there the stability of the modern nation state. Ironically, the stability would come in the next century with the rise of Charles VII, ill-famed as the effete weakling in Shakespeare's "Henry V" and the legend of Joan of Arc. But until then, Europe suffers the hubris of the age of chivalry, of ignoble wars, the Black Death and papal schism. European rulers stir themselves to martial pursuits with the intention of uniting against "The Grand Turk" but spend more time fighting against each other. Tuchman closes her tragic survey with the battle of Nicopolis, when the pretensions of European chivalry - with its love of silks, guilt armor and traveling pavilions - are crushed by determined Turk foot soldiers.

For all the dry boredom one could associate with medieval European history, Tuchman makes for 500+ pages of unstoppable reading. Tuchman's talent for sentence structure and word usage, her understanding of social dynamics and a superhuman capacity to avoid condescension makes "A Distant Mirror" a book that sticks in your mind, at times becoming - dare I say it - a book I couldn't put down. I was first introduced to Barbara Tuchman through her unforgettable "March of Folly" which, to this book, is merely a primer.

My history tutor at University snapped at me when I mentioned Barbara Tuchman. She was not 'an historian'. This book is a superb read from beginning to end and delights in telling a wonderful story of a very violent era. I am not sure that Tuchman actually proves her case that the 14th century was a distant mirror, but it is a fine piece of historical writing in any case. Even though Tuchman focuses on one slightly obsure nobleman, she manages to sweep across the history of the time and place with a relentless curiousity and drive.

I disagree with my tutor and I believe this is a fine book with some of the best historical prose in the English language.

As for the mirror, well it is a great title and gets you thinking, but I cannot see the link apart from the violence, which seemed to be present in every century.

Barbara Tuchman does a masterful job of sifting through reams of medieval manuscripts to create this fascinating portrait of 14th century Europe. First, I had no idea that there was still so much original material for a historian to work with. Second, I didn't realize how much could be gleaned from reading between the lines of these precious documents. Tuchman delves beneath and behind the recorded words to shine a light on the truth of living in that calamitous time. It was a century in which the Black Death and the Hundred Years' War combined to demoralize and radicalize a weakened populace. It was a century in which the pillars of society, both secular and religious, seemed lethally pervaded with corruption and incompetence. It was a time of peasant revolts that prefigured the popular revolutions of the 18th century and a time when the Church's utter lack of spirituality set the stage for the 16th century reformers. Yet it was also a century of crusading heroes and prophetic witnesses, in which national identities were solidifying.

Tuchman focuses on a single figure, previously unknown to me, who found himself at many of the critical events of the century. Le Sire de Coucy, thoroughly a man of his time, exemplified the great strengths of his day and (to a lesser extent) its weaknesses. Proud, noble, courageous, discreet and intelligent, Coucy is the epitome of the knight in shining armor, in a time when the virtues of that calling were more sung about than lived. I came away from "A Distant Mirror" with a great admiration for this previously anonymous "chevalier."

Tuchman calls the 14th century a mirror of the troubled 20th century. The parallels were less clear to me, and this is the sole weakness of the book. We will have to see whether the calamaties of the 20th century (genocidal world wars, global economic disruptions, decolonialism) will set the stage for a wholesale power shift on the part of present-day society.

That said, "A Distant Mirror" is a sparkling jewel of the popular historian's art, bringing to life a time and place that are otherwise known only through myth and romance.

"A Distant Mirror" is about as entertaining as a history book can get. Barbara Tuchman is a captivating storyteller, and it speaks for the quality of her narrative history of France in the 14th century that the book remains in print after 25 years.

The red thread that runs through her book is the folly, pride and irrationality of behavior that she sees as characteristically human: "For mankind is ever the same and nothing is lost out of nature, though everything is altered," as the quote from John Dryden says on one of the first pages of the book. The title itself reflects this philosophical position: the 14th century as a distant mirror for the 20th century. To be honest, I found this a bit far-fetched. The two centuries do not share that many similarities. Of course, human nature as such has not changed in the course of six centuries, and the madness of the two world wars is comparable to that of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453). But the 20th century, for example, saw no epidemic like the plague that killed off more than one third of the population; on the contrary, the discovery of penicillin in 1928 and its application as an injectable drug in 1941 improved the chances of surviving a serious illness dramatically. More importantly, the 20th century did not see the first signs of disintegration of an established political order that would later give rise to a new one (the replacement of feudalism by the nation state); on the contrary, democratic states successfully withstood the challenge from totalitarian systems.

Where the book really shines, is the narrative. Barbara Tuchman gives a vivid and detailed picture of life in the 14th century, in particular the life of the nobility. She does not leave out the scandals or the slaughter of battles, the machinations of nobles greedy for power and the suffering of the peasants. Her style is descriptive and detailed. She does not simply tell that, say, realism was the desired effect of miracle plays and mysteries staged for the populace in the 14th century, she shows it in unforgettable detail: "When John the Baptist was decapitated, the actor was whisked away so cunningly in exchange for a fake corpse and fake head spilling ox blood that the audience shrieked in excitement."(311/312) Her style is also not without the occasional wink at the reader. A fine example for her subtle sense of humor is the list of possessions of the Duc de Berry (famous for the illustrated book "Les Tres Riches Heures" he commissioned): "He owned one of Charlemagne's teeth, a piece of Elijah's mantle, Christ's cup from the Last Supper, drops of the Virgin's milk, enough of her hairs and teeth to distribute as gifts, soil from various Biblical sites, a narwhal's teeth, [and some more unique curiosities]"(427).

While I found the story telling absolutely captivating, there are two things about "A Distant Mirror" that made me choose four rather than five stars. One is the lack of analysis, the other Ms. Tuchman's occasional lapses into pop psychology.

The peripheral role of analysis in the book is perhaps a consequence of her narrative style. While Ms. Tuchman feasts on descriptions and details, she does not really want to dwell on the technicalities of changes in technology (other than those in the art of battle), medicine and economics, or on theories that try to put these developments in a broader perspective. At its worst, the reluctance to use analytical tools produces a kind of historical mysticism: "Times were to grow worse over the next fifty-odd years [after 1400] until at some imperceptible moment, by some mysterious chemistry, energies were refreshed, ideas broke out of the mold of the Middle Ages into new realms, and humanity found itself redirected."(581)

The lapses into pop psychology happen when Ms. Tuchman generalizes; for example, when she concludes, "Human beings of any age need to approve of themselves, the bad times in history come when they cannot."(451) Or when "pride and folly" become driving forces of history, because "Vainglory, however, no matter how much medieval Christianity insisted it was a sin, is a motor of mankind, no more eradicable than sex."(577)

On the whole, though, "A Distant Mirror" is a pleasure to read, and I am sure the book will continue to find readers who enjoy the colorful and vivid stories Ms. Tuchman unfolds about the "calamitous" 14th century.

Barbara Tuchman sticks us right into the heart of the late Middle Ages, geographically and temporally, in her 1978 history "A Distant Mirror". Her talent for penetrating, minute analysis and ripping narrative are readily apparent in the opening pages. But as the book goes on, it is weighed down by a pedantic downbeat perspective and a failure to connect an overlong book thematically.

At the center of "A Distant Mirror" - and its key fault as I see it - is Tuchman's focus on one French nobleman, Enguerrand de Coucy VII. Tuchman needed a hook to tie together her sprawling narrative of this far-removed time, and Coucy has the advantage of being in several important battles and intrigues. But as Tuchman readily acknowledges, not much is known of Coucy, and that vagueness leaves a hole at "Distant Mirror's" center.

France in the 1300s was an ugly place to be alive, she makes clear. There was the Black Plague, which killed off roughly half of the population. The Hundred Years' War was fought largely in France, leaving things such a mess King Jean II chose English captivity over his throne. You also had two popes, each declaring the other a heretic; a Moslem invasion in the East; and roving bands of mercenaries who shook down towns and popes alike for easy gain.

"Oh happy posterity who will not experience such abysmal woe and will look upon our testimony as a fable," says the contemporary historian Petrarch in one pungent Tuchman quote.

Tuchman acknowledges at the beginning that the time period is one that defies modern understanding, then goes on to call out the rampant hypocrisies in withering tones. Calling the book "A Distant Mirror" begs a parallel the narrative doesn't really deliver - that 1300s France is analogous to the world in the late 20th century.

Which is fine enough when what Tuchman does deliver are such gems of scholarship and writing as her heartbreakingly detailed chapter on the Black Death, about as winnowing a read as anyone could ever endure. We also get snapshots of characters like John the Blind, a Bohemian king so combat-loving that at the Battle of Crecy he had his retainers lead him sightless into a suicidal charge, so he could go down swinging. Tuchman is at her best explicating the origins of the Hundred Years' War.

As the book goes on, and on, characters become more of a blur and Tuchman's disengagement more apparent. With the exception of Charles V, who restored a semblance of stability to France, the parade of leaders on both sides of the Channel proves uninspiring. Tuchman brings up Coucy a few times as a rational exception to a mad age, even to the point of taking exception to criticism against him by Jean Froissart, the main chronicler of the time and Tuchman's acknowledged chief source. Alas, Coucy's presence at battles like Mahdia and Nicopolis aren't exactly points in his favor as a ranking figure; they were French defeats brought on by bad leadership Coucy either directed or failed to counter. I was not impressed by the guy.

The first half of "A Distant Mirror" is a fascinating read, and people with an interest in the period will gain from the book. With her scholarship and her ability to deliver an interesting story, Tuchman always merits attention. If only the focus had been better.