CHRONICLES, HISTORIES, MEMOIRS. 



(Fig. -574), and Jacques du Clercq, all of whom were attached to the court of 

 Burgundy in the fifteenth century. The sixteenth century possessed a brilliant 

 series of Memoirs, from those of the Sire de Fleurange, of Martin du Eellay, 

 and of the Seigneur de Vieilleville (compiled by his secretary, Carloix), in the 

 reigns of Francois I. and Henri II., to the Memoirs of Gaspard de Saulx- 

 Tavannes, Montluc, Castelnau, and Marguerite de Valois during the rest of 

 the century. The Memoirs of Brantdme were the last of the Valois dynasty, 



Fig. 372. Miniature from the " Livre de Fails d'Armes et de Chevalcrie," by Christina de Pisan. 

 Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century. In the Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot, Paris. 



and are in striking contrast to the "Economies Royales," or the political 

 Memoirs in which the Due de Sully described the reign of Henri IV. 



But the sixteenth century cared most for long historical works and 

 books of general history. The "Chroniques de St. Denis" had fallen 

 into undeserved discredit since the reign of Louis XII., which king had 

 brought back with him from Verona an Italian historian who wrote in Latin 



