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It appears that he was born in poverty and that his father died in his youth, but that his mother, for whom he wrote one of his most famous ballades, was still living when her son was thirty years old.
He was brought up in the Cistercian community of The Fontfroide Abbey in the heart of the Corbières by the Chanoine Jehan Nouvel, his « plus que père dont il prendroit le prénom en hommage ».
The name "Ascuiz" was stated by the sixteenth-century historian Claude Fauchet to be merely a common noun in the foothills of the Pyrenees.
"Professor Hugh Payne, son of John Payne (1842 - 1916) the english poet and translator of the Villon Society, Professor of Medieval French Literature at Rutgers University in New Jersey confirmed us before his retirement in 2004 that Jehan’s poetry was originally written in Occitan, or Langue d'Oc.
But the poems we have are believed to be 17th century French translations from the original Occitan - Certain rumours, admittedly unconfirmed, suggest they may have been perpetrated by the young Racine.
Jehan's talent and genius can be found according to Professor Hugh Payne in the fact that “he synthesised the troubadour or trouveur forms of some two centuries before - The trobar clus, trobar clar and trobar ric - baked them together into a hitherto unprecedented poetic soufflé…. "
Jehan was a great innovator in terms of
the themes of poetry and, through these
themes, a great renovator of the forms. He
understood perfectly the medieval courtly
ideal, but he sometimes chose to write
against the grain, reversing the values and
celebrating the lowlifes, and constantly
innovating in his diction and vocabulary.
Jehan first met in Narbonne the Dauphin Louis (future king Louis XI) in may 1439 who was at that time
Lieutenant Général of Languedoc and Jehan was already a well known poet.
Louis XI the Prudent later to be known and informally nicknamed l'Universelle
Aragne (old French for "universal spider"), or the "Spider King, (This epithet of "Spider King" was due to both his appearance and his authoritarian and unscrupulous character) was the son of Charles VII and Marie of Anjou.
Like most princes of his day, Louis XI learned classical Latin but also achieved a highly developed command of written French and langue d’Oc and is one of the few kings who has a distinguished personal literary style so meeting and enjoying Jehan’s poetry was for him quite naturally.
At the time Louis was married Margaret Stuart, daughter of James I of Scotland.
Jehan accompanied him through the south of France and Massif Central and wrote many pages on Louis’ role in
defending these provinces against bands
of roving mercenary soldiers who had
terrorized the countryside for most of
the century and also for collecting
taxes, always a chief concern of the
impoverished King of France.
In 1440, apparently at the instigation of the dukes of Alençon and Bourbon, the
Dauphin Louis joined a conspiracy against his father. After Charles put down the Praguerie, as the revolt was called, Jehan again accompanied him on his journeys, but his participation in another conspiracy against the King in 1445 resulted in his banishment to Dauphiné with the Dauphin Louis, the traditional province of the heir apparent to the throne of France.
The Scottish Connexion: In 1428 a grand French Embassy headed by Darnley went to Scotland to negotiate a marriage treaty between the Dauphin Louis and James I's daughter Margaret.
The negotiations are well documented; the marriage was agreed in principle on 17th July, with the provision of an escort of 6,000 men for Margaret while she was crossing to France.
A Scottish knight the son of the 5th baron of Wishart: John, (alias Wischard, Wischart, Ouschart or Oulchart
in French records) arrived in France at Orleans in October 1428, with 48
men-at-arms and 105 bowmen.
He returned again to France in 1436 to accompany
Princess Margaret of Scotland who married the Dauphin Louis and up to 1446 went
backward and forward in between France and Scotland.
Louis's wife Margaret Stuart died in 1445 and in 1446 James II asked Jehan through Wishart to move to Scotland in order to write few poems and entertain his future wife Marie de Gueldres..
Liber Pluscardensis:
A chronicle closely following the first five books of John of Fordun's Chronica Gentis Scotorum,
(as given in Bower).
Then follows 15 chapters of Book VI, somewhat abridged from Bower, Book VI, Cap. 9 to 23 inclusive, and nearly as compiled by Fordun, concluding with a memorandum stating that the preceding part of the work was due to Fordun -
The subsequent part being down to the time of James II to Bower.
Then come the rest of book VI, and five more books, being an abridgement of the rest of the Scotichronichon.
The manuscript is written in two different hands, and contains merely the text of the chronicle.
The chronicle was compiled in 1461, and at one time was believed to be the work of Bishop Elphinstone of Aberdeen.
The Glasgow manuscript was a transcript of the original made between 1478 and 1496 for William Scheves, Archbishop of St. Andrews.
It would appear that the copier was a Frenchman ignorant of the Scottish tongue.
It is our belief according to our researches that Norman Leslie of Pitcullo – and Jehan L’Ascuiz are the same person.
Jehan (alias Norman Leslie) refers more than once to his unfinished Latin Chronicle - That work, usually known as "The Book of Pluscarden," has been edited by Felix Skene, in the series of "Historians of Scotland".
Nevertheless Mr Skene introduction and notes may suffice to say that the original manuscript of the Latin Chronicle is lost; that of six known manuscript copies none is older than 1480; that two of these copies contain a Prologue.
The date of the lost Latin original according to us is 1461, as the author himself avers. He also, in his Prologue, states the purpose of his work. At the bidding of an unnamed Abbot of Dunfermline, who must have been Richard Bothwell, he is to abbreviate "The Great Chronicle," and "bring it up to date," as we now say.
The Monk of Fife: Jehan is to recount the
events of his own time, "with certain other
miraculous deeds”, which he had cognisance
of, seen, and heard, beyond the bounds of
this realm. Concerning a “certain marvellous
Maiden, who recovered the kingdom of France
out of the hands of the tyrant, Henry, King
of England. "The aforesaid Maiden I saw, was
conversant with, and I was in her company in
her said recovery of France, and till her
life's end I was ever present".
Unfortunately Jehan de l’Ascuiz never fulfilled his promise of telling, in Latin or Occitan , the history of the Maid as her career was seen by a Scottish ally and friend. Nor did he ever explain how a Scot, and a foe of England, succeeded in being present at the Maiden's martyrdom in Rouen.
It might be guessed that the original manuscript fell into English hands between 1461 and 1489, and that they blotted out the name of the author, and destroyed a most valuable record of their conqueror and their victim, Jeanne d'Arc.
So, after explaining the true position and character of Jehan l’Ascuiz, we leave his book to the judgment, your judgement which it has tarried for so long.
(Ask for a copy)
"I was born in the kingdom of Fife, being, by some five years, the younger of two sons of Archibald Leslie, of Pitcullo, near St. Andrews, a cadet of the great House of Rothes. My mother was an Englishwoman of the Debatable Land, a Ascuiz of Netherby, and of me, in our country speech, it used to be said that I was "a mother's bairn."
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