Jean de Joinville (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ də ʒwɛ̃vil], 1 May 1224 – 24 December 1317) was one of the great chroniclers of medieval France.

[2] Son of Simon of Joinville and Béatrice d'Auxonne [fr], and brother of Geoffrey de Geneville, Jean belonged to a noble family from Champagne.

He received an education befitting a young noble at the court of Theobald IV of Champagne, including reading, writing, and Latin.

In 1244, when Louis organized the Seventh Crusade, Joinville decided to join with the Christian knights just as his father had done 35 years earlier against the Albigensians.

In 1250, when the king and his troops were captured by the Mameluks in the Battle of Al Mansurah, Joinville, among the captives, participated in the negotiations and the collection of the ransom.

Joinville probably brought himself even closer to the king in the difficult times that followed the failure of the crusade (including the death of his brother Robert, Count of Artois).

Any enthusiasm Joinville had for the previous crusade had been knocked out of him, and he refused to follow Louis, recognizing the uselessness of the enterprise and convinced that the duty of the king was not to leave the kingdom that needed him.

From 1271, the papacy carried out a long inquest on the subject of Louis IX, which ended with his canonization, announced in 1297 by Pope Boniface VIII.

As Joinville had been a close friend of the king, his counselor and his confidant, his testimony was invaluable to the inquest, where he appeared as a witness in 1282.

In addition, the oldest existing manuscript ends with this note: " Ce fu escript en l'an de grace mil .CCC.

This copy remained in the royal library and then passed to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, before reaching Brussels, where it was lost.

[citation needed] He wrote about everything he personally experienced during the reign of Saint Louis, essentially the crusade in Egypt and their stay in the Holy Land.

Certain medievalists explain this by supposing that Joinville had often recounted his past orally or that he had previously committed it to writing before beginning his work.

And in fact, in Joinville's work he shows the king to have an ardent love of God, benevolent to his people, humble, moderate and courteous, wise and just, peaceful, loyal and generous.

For proof of this there is a small work of edification, composed in 1250, titled li romans as ymages des poinz de nostre foi, where Joinville makes a brief commentary on the Credo.

[citation needed] Joinville recounts equally the high deeds of Saint Louis, in particular the unfolding of the Seventh Crusade and the following stay in the Holy Land, which occupies most of the book.