Editors’ introduction

Gilles le Bouvier was a herald at the court of King Charles VII. As a consequence of the books he produced, he might be the best-known herald of the entire medieval period. He composed several works, including two chronicles and a catalogue of contemporary coats of arms, all of which have, arguably, received more attention than Le Livre de la description des payes de Gilles le Bouvier, dit Berry, premier roi d’armes de Charles VII, roi de France. His Armorial de France, Angleterre, Écosse, Allemagne, Italie et autres puissances was an exhaustive study of European heraldic devices which established him as a leading authority on a subject of great import to medieval European elites. He also wrote a chronicle, Le Recouvrement de Normendie, describing the final recapture of Normandy from the English, as well as another work illuminating the reign of his king, Charles VII, Les Chroniques du roi Charles VII par Gilles le Bouvier dit le hérault Berri. ¹ This latter work of his is probably the most noted; it forms the cornerstone evidence for all studies for the crucial reign of King Charles VII, victor of the Hundred Years’ War.