Reviews for Time and Chance; A Romance and a History: Being the Story of the Life of a Man

The average rating for Time and Chance; A Romance and a History: Being the Story of the Life of a Man based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-01-09 00:00:00 Kenneth Temprano This is an account of the Seventh Crusade written by Jean de Joinville, who was close to the French king Louis IX, who in turn was later made a saint. Basically, the crusade aimed to take pressure of the crusaders in Palestine by attacking Egypt. They took the port of Damietta, but then seemingly did very little, and eventually they were defeated. The most interesting thing about this book is the account shows very little evidence of any clearly thought-out strategy. The crusaders turned up, they fought, they got bogged down, and they sustained very serious losses such that when the critical battle turned up, they were in no position to fight it anyway. Basically, they had no replacements for losses. There followed a ransom once captured, and about a third of the total income of France for a year was handed over. The surviving Crusaders then went to Acre, and we see what was going on there, which was not much, then they return to France. There, Louis got around to some presumably highly needed reform, and he issued edicts designed to eliminate corruption. We don't find out whether they worked. Louis was very devout, and Joinville shows this clearly. A very interesting account of the times, but there is a little reading "between the lines" required.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-07-26 00:00:00 David McDonald Fascinating look into the life of St. Louis (Louis IX of France), as told by his devout seneschal. A little too many anecdotal tales about the life of his seneschal for my taste, but I enjoyed the stories of the charity, simplicity, and faith of St. Louis.