Alain Chartier was born in
Bayeux to a family marked by considerable ability. His eldest brother
Guillaume became
bishop of Paris; and Thomas Chartier became notary to the king.
Jean Chartier, a monk of St Denis, whose history of
Charles VII is printed in vol. III. of
Les Grands Chroniques de Saint-Denis (1477), is also said to have been a brother of the poet. Alain studied, as his elder brother had done, at the
University of Paris. He then went to work for the Duke Louis and
Yolande of Anjou, whose daughter Marie was engaged to the youngest son of Charles VI. He followed the fortunes of the
dauphin, afterwards
Charles VII, acting in the triple capacity of clerk, notary, and financial secretary. He later would become a member of several important ambassadorial trips, serving as orator and secretary for Charles VII, travelling to Vienna and Buda to see
Sigismund; to Venice to appear before the Senate, to Rome to deliver a letter to the Pope, and to Scotland to negotiate the marriage of the daughter of James I,
Margaret, then not four years old, with the dauphin, afterwards
Louis XI. He appears to have taken holy orders and was named canon of Paris, rector of the parish of Saint-Lambert-des-Levées, and even Archbishop of Paris. He died in
Avignon in 1430; the reason for his presence there remains a mystery. An epitaph for his tomb was commissioned by his brother Guillaume Chartier, but the stone has not survived. == Literary career ==