MONSTRELET, Enguerrand de(ob. 1453) (who, rather owing to accident than to merit, held, until within the present century, the same position as chronicler of French affairs during the early part of the 15th century as Froissart deservedly holds with regard to the last half of the 14th), was born at an uncertain date, apparently not later than 1400, and died in July 1453. He was of a noble family in the district of Boulogne. He held in 1436, and later, the office of lieutenant-gavenier (receiver of the gave., a kind of church rate) in the city of Cambray, and seems to have usually resided there. Besides this he was for some time bailiff of the chapter of that city, and later provost. He was married, and left children. But this almost exhausts the amount of our knowledge respecting him, except that he was present, not at the capture of the Maid of Orleans, but at her subsequent interview with the duke of Burgundy. As a subject of this latter prince he naturally takes the Burgundian side in his history, which extends in the genuine part of it to two books, and covers the period from 1400 to 1444. At this time, as another chronicler Matthieu de Coucy informs us, Monstrelet ceased writing. But, according to a habit by no means uncommon in the Middle Ages, a clumsy sequel, extending to a period long subsequent to his death, was formed out of various other chronicles and tacked on to his work. The genuine part of this, dealing with the last half of the Hundred Years War, is valuable because it contains a large number of documents which are certainly, and reported speeches which are probably, authentic. It has, however, little colour or narrative merit, is dully, though clearly enough, written, and is strongly tinged with the pedantry of its century,— the most pedantic in ...