St. Loius

I finally finished The Life of St. Loius by Jean de Joinville.   This was a hard book to pick up and continue reading, but I persevered and have completed it.  I must say the last few chapters were by far the best.  They depict a right and just monarch who treated the poor with respect and ruled his country benevolently.  I imagine the middle ages would have been a nicer place had all monarchs been as charitable as St. Louis.  Also, there would have been a lot more Crusades.  He was pious, he was also a zealot for Christianity and went on two crusades.  His most important was the 7th, which most of the book dealt with because the author was a companion of the king, so this history was written from the first person perspective, a rarity for the time.

It had it's good points and not so good points.  At close to 200 pages it tended to drag a little.  I think reading too much popular history has soured me a bit on primary sources.  I'll know more after I read some Geoffrey of Monmouth.