Eustache Deschamps

Eustache Deschamps (1328-1415) was a medieval French poet. Born at Vertus, in Champagne, he studied at Orleans University and traveled through Europe. His estate pillaged by the English, in consequence of which, he continuously abuses them in his many poems.

Deschamps wrote as many as 1,175 ballads, and he is sometimes credited with inventing the form. All but one of his poems are short, and they are mostly satirical, attacking the English, whom he regards as the plunderers of his country, and against the wealthy oppressors of the poor.