A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman

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.

Straordinario affresco del Trecento in Europa. Scritto benissimo, Da non perdere

A Distant Mirror / 9780307793690

I selected this book for a book club discussion, not realizing that it’s ~700 pages long rather than ~400 pages long. Whoops! However, this is a completely awesome book and everyone had a ball reading and discussing it, even if several members weren’t able to finish on time, and I recommend it highly as a fun and fascinating, as well as wonderfully researched and sourced, look into 14th century culture.

“A Distant Mirror” is a look at the 14th century and follows the life of Enguerrand de Coucy VII as a vehicle for examining every facet of life during this time period. If the idea of following the life and biography of a 14th century French lord you’ve probably never heard of turns you off to the idea of this book (as it briefly did me when selecting this book to read), don’t let it! Tuchman is an absolute master at her work, and manages to make Enguerrand VII’s life deeply interesting and entertaining, while using the larger narrative to talk about every aspect of 14th century life in griping detail.

Indeed, the first 8 chapters (of 27 total) deal largely with 14th century life before even really introducing Enguerrand VII, and while the entire book is 100% concentrated awesome, these opening chapters are definitely my favorite. Tuchman examines the 14th century ideals of religion and chivalry (as well as when and how and why the ideal diverged from reality), the social and political climate of the 14th century for France and some of her surrounding neighbors, the daily lives of both nobles and commoners (including their entertainments, their religious observances, and their access to medicine), and the impact of the Black Death and the Papal Schism in shaping history and social thought.

Tuchman is a truly entertaining writer, and I love how she shows her work as she goes along, and grounds sources before using them by warning the reader as to how accurate and/or unbiased the source is understood to be. (One terribly amusing anecdote of a brigand company shaking down the Pope for money is prefaced with the note that “it has been said of Cuvelier that ‘the tyranny of rhyme left him little leisure for accuracy.'”) And while this is absolutely a history book, it reads just as fluidly and fascinatingly as you could ever hope for — I finished all ~700 pages and was left with nothing but admiration for this book and the feeling that Tuchman had made a really large and complex subject very accessible to the lay-person.

A note on the audiobook version of this book: There are currently two different versions of this book available on Audible, one narrated by Nadia May and one narrated by Aviva Skell. I tried listening to both books, and I recommend the Nadia May version. Her narration is a little slower than Aviva Skell’s (indeed, there is a 2.5 hour difference between the two versions, and I think that’s entirely pacing and not reflective of new/added material between the versions), and I found the pauses and slower pace necessary in order to adequately process all the material in this book. And Nadia May’s pronunciations of the French names and places in this book are delightful to hear, so there’s no need to worry that you might not be getting the full experience with her.

I absolutely recommend this book if you have any interest in the 14th century or in chivalry and its effect on nations when large sections of a privileged populace are armed and dangerous.

~ Ana Mardoll

Gibbon claimed, that the Second Century AD was the best time to be alive. Well the 14th Century is probably the worst time period, anyone could have lived through. The 14th Century starts out with the Little Ice Age. The first half of the century produced poor harvests, due to the cold weather conditions. This led to wide spread famines throughout Europe. Tuchman begins her review, in the middle of the 14th Century. This is also when, the first wave of The Black Death starts hitting Europe. England and France will soon enter an era, of almost non-stop war. This conflict will later be called The Hundred Years War.

In hindsight, we know that Europe was in a period of transition. The Medieval time frame is ending and The Renaissance is starting to take root. Periods of drastic change, always seem to produce large social upheavals. This book outlines many of the; disruptions, disasters, and revolutions, that took place in the 14th Century. There are also a number of interesting social aspects, regarding the Black Death. The reader can make comparisons with the current Corona Virus Pandemic of 2020.

Barbara Tuchman is an outstanding writer of history. This book is highly recommended, to anyone that enjoys reading history.