The Chronicles of Fernão Lopes

Volume III of the first complete English translation of the chronicles of Fernão Lopes chronicles the War of Succession (1383-1385), the rise of the House of Avis under João I, and his acclamation by the Cortes in Coimbra. Until now, the chronicles of Fernão Lopes (c.1380-c.1460) have only been available in critical editions or in partial translations. Comparable to the works of Froissart in France or López de Ayala in Spain, the chronicles provide a wealth of detail on late fourteenth-century politics, diplomacy, warfare and economic matters, courtly society, queenship and noble women, as well as more mundane concerns such as food, health and the purchasing power of a fluctuating currency. Lopes had a keen eye for detail and a perspective especially attuned to the common people, and his chronicles provide an invaluable source for the history of Western Europe in the later Middle Ages.