Prologue

In most holy and blessed praise and glorification of Our Saviour Jesus Christ and his most glorious mother, who are the cause and motivation behind all good deeds and without whom nothing worthy can be set in motion or brought to completion, and because the memory of man fades and disappears at the end of life, all things being lost and forgotten if they are not written down and committed to the page, and in order that the glory and praise formerly won by our predecessors of ages past be not extinguished but rather increased and remembered as an example to noble and virtuous men of the present, I have chosen to record and write down the great deeds and valiant exploits that Messire Jacques de Lalaing accomplished in his day. As the eldest son of the lord of Lalaing, he sought to attain immortal glory and so took great pains and made huge efforts during his lifetime to augment and increase the fine renown and the high honour of the house from which he was descended. Because I, the author of this present work, witnessed a certain number of his great deeds, and wish to avoid idleness, the mother of all vices, it has given me pleasure to commit them to memory. I therefore beseech all those who read this subject matter to pardon my limited and dull wit and understanding and to pray that Our Lord grants me the grace to bring it to completion in such a way that it may be pleasing to all those who read it or hear it read aloud!

As is well known, the flower of chivalry, the finest that one could seek to find, was formerly to be found in the land of Hainaut and its surrounding area, since it was the custom there at that time that as soon as a young man came of an age to bear arms he would undertake unceasingly, without fear of danger, peril or harm that could befall him, to search out opportunities for performing great deeds of arms and for embarking on fine campaigns overseas and elsewhere. By virtue of their noble acts of valour, such men increased their renown and had it made known throughout all lands. This is still the case today, as you shall hear hereafter.