"Livre des saintes paroles et des bons faiz de nostre saint roy Looÿs" (as author himself called it). John, Lord of Joinville, hereditary Seneschal of Champagne, was born between 1220 and 1228 A.D. and was only twenty-three when he joined King Louis's Crusade. In 1282 and 1297 he gave evidence to the enquiry into Louis IX's sanctity and on request of Joan of Navarre he produced an account of the king's holy words and good deeds. It was completed by 1309 and dedicated to the future king Louis X, as Joan of Navarre was by this time no longer alive. The seneschal died two years later, on 24 December 1317, at the age of at least 92. The manuscript that was given to Louis X has not survived. The oldest copy was found in the inventory of 1373 of the library of Charles V of France and now located in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The present translation as indicated in the preface: "is by Colonel Johnes of Hafod, and is given entire, with all the notes which are really illustrative of the author."