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A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

Barbara W. Tuchman

Start date: October 15, 2025

Finish date: December 15, 2025

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What Members Thought

Aug 16, 2009 Jill Hutchinson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: world-history

I have been a Tuchman fan for years but put off reading this book because it concerned a period of history of which I was not particularly interested. Wrong!!! Chock full of details, it fills in all the details of a bloody, unenlightened time in history where war for no justifiable reason was the norm, crusades against distant lands were the epitome of a knight's duty, and the Black Death was decimating half the world's population.
As usual, the author has done extensive research and although it ...more

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Jan 29, 2015 Jim rated it it was amazing

I tried to read this book several years ago and did not get very far, largely because I had no grounding in European history, but also because most of the people and place names are French which I find very difficult to follow. Recently I decided to give it another try however, partially because I had done more reading about European history and thought I would be better able to understand the historical and geographical references, but also because I had access to the audio format of the book w I tried to read this book several years ago and did not get very far, largely because I had no grounding in European history, but also because most of the people and place names are French which I find very difficult to follow. Recently I decided to give it another try however, partially because I had done more reading about European history and thought I would be better able to understand the historical and geographical references, but also because I had access to the audio format of the book which I thought might make it easier to deal with the French language aspects. I was right. This is a fascinating and extremely well written look at what is referred to as the “Crisis of the Late Middles Ages” that encompasses events occurring during the 14th and 15th centuries in Europe. These events set back centuries of progress, devastated local economies and killed off nearly half its population.

Starting with the little ice age in 1314, and encompassing the Black Death which killed up to half the population of Europe, the Hundred Years War between England and France, and the Schism in in the Catholic church, Europe suffered through over one-hundred years of demographic and religious upheaval, and economic collapse. It was a period characterized by popular uprisings among the bourgeois and peasants in France, England and Switzerland, by devastation wrought by brigandage, nearly constant warfare between England and France and the shifting loyalties of the nobility in both countries, devastating antisemitism, and the last gasps of crusade against the enemies of Christianity.

Barbara Tuchman recounts all of this using one French noble as the focus of her narrative. Enguerrand de Coucy VII, the Lord of Coucy was a French noble who seemed to be involved in nearly all of the momentous events that took place during this period. Largely loyal to the various French sovereigns that inhabited that throne during his lifetime, he nevertheless became the son-in-law of Kind Edward III of England after marrying his daughter Isabella. Named the Earl of Bedford by King Edward, de Coucy was granted estates and land in England, thus demonstrating the often shifting loyalties of the nobility during this period. de Coucy finally died as the result of hardships endured as the captive of Bayezid I, Sultan of the Ottoman empire who defeated crusaders sent to drive them out of Bulgaria at the Battle of Nicopolis.

Using Froissart’s Chroicles, considered the best account of the Hundred Years War and of the chivalric culture in England and France as one of her main sources, Tuchman is able to distill what has to be fairly sparse and often contradictory documentation, into a very coherent narrative. Ultimately she demonstrates the vacuity of this chivalric ethic, which emphasized bravery, piety and nobility. When presented with the opportunity to either enrich themselves monetarily or by the acquisition of power, or to honor the chivalric code, nobles invariably chose the former option.

My favorite parts of the book were sections that dealt as much as was possible with available sources, the ways different sections of society lived their day to day lives, how they conducted business, ate, worshiped, reproduced, and dealt with illness and death. On the other hand, the narrative describing the battles that took place between various factions during the Hundred Years War became kind of tedious for me, not because they were not well written, but because while each was perhaps interesting on its own terms, the nature of this war was such that they did not really push the story on to an ultimate conclusion. In the end the war just sort of petered out. I also found the sections detailing the Papal schism to be fascinating.

Tuchman is perhaps more well known for her definitive account of the lead up to World War I, The Guns of August, a book I have yet to read. If that book is as clear and forceful as this one I definitely have something to look forward to. ...more

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