Jeanne de Clisson

Jeanne de Clisson was born in the year 1300 as Jeanne Louise de Belleville to her parents Maurice IV de Montaigu and his second wife Létice de Parthenay. Her father died when she was 4 years old, and after his death her mother never remarried. Jeanne had a half-brother named Maurice V de Montaigu, who did nothing historically significant, except die when Jeanne was 37 and leave her the entire family fortune. High five, Maurice.

Jeanne’s first marriage to Geoffrey de Châteaubriant VIII, a Brenton nobleman, took place in the year 1312. For those of you following along at home, something about that math ain’t mathin’ quite right. Yes, she was first married as a 12-year-old girl and she gave birth to her first child, Geoffrey IX, at the ripe old age of 14. Jeanne gave her husband another child, their daughter Louise, two years later. Jeanne and Geoffrey VIII were married for 14 years, and everything seemed to be going fine until in 1326, when Geoffrey decided to just go ahead and die, leaving Jeanne a single mother at 26 years old with two kids in the 14th century.

So, Jeanne had to find herself another man in order to protect herself and her children. So, she found herself a guy, Guy de Penthièvre, who seemed neither extraordinary nor terrible. However, his family had some problem with Jeanne and asked Pope John XXII annul their marriage. Everyone just kind of shrugged and moved on with their lives. This was 1330, and marriage was a business transaction first and foremost. Sometimes business deals fall through, and emotions need not get involved. Just as well, Guy died suddenly a year later, and Jeanne would have been on the hunt again anyway.

Jeanne still needed herself a husband though, and it was then that she came across Olivier IV de Clisson, a recent widower and wealthy landowner in Brenton. He also happened to need a wife. So, since this was the 14th century and marriage was a business transaction they decided to go ahead and get married. Except for Jeanne and Olivier, it wasn’t. For Jeanne and Olivier, it was love. That factors a lot into what happens later. They had five children together: Isabeau, Maurice, Oliver V, Guillaume, and Jeanne.

Stuff You Kind of Need to Know

The War of the Breton Succession played an important early part in the Hundred(16) Year’s War. The Dutchy Of Brittany was a medieval state/peninsula off of Europe that is now in Northwest France that everyone has been fighting over since the 8th century. So, we have to go back to Duke Arthur II Dreux who was married twice, first to Mary of Limoges, then secondly to Yolanda of Dreux. Arthur II and Mary had 3 children: John III, Guy de Penthièvre (same Guy from before), and Peter. After Mary died in 1291, Arthur and Yolanda had six children, John de Montfort (enough with the Johns already) and 5 girls.

Are we still together?
Okay, Papa Arthur died in 1321 and that left the entire dutchy to John III. John III was still SO MAD about stepmom Yolanda moving in on Daddy that he spent *years* trying to get her marriage with his father annulled and their children declared bastards. He just couldn’t make that happen, so he wanted to make sure that side never saw any of the family estate. John III had no children, so instead of making his half-brother John de Montfort his heir (which is what one would expect for the times), he brushed him aside for his niece, good ol’ Guy’s daughter, Jeanne de Penthièvre.

Jeanne married Charles de Blois whose uncle happened to be the King Philip VI of France. BUT, in 1340 John III had this epiphany, or something came over him, because he suddenly reconciled with his half-brother John de Montfort. Now John and John are going around being friends, and John is telling everyone that now he wants John to be his heir. (Does everyone see why we can’t have all the Johns now?) Okay, so then the very next year, in 1341, John III got sick. “You get yourself a second dessert, Honey” sick. He was on his deathbed, and everyone was pressing him to name a successor. So, he said:
“For God’s sake leave me alone!”
and died. John III was finished this mortal life and left everyone else to figure it out and pay off the bill. Now it was a showdown for the dutchy between John de Montfort, who had the support of King Edward III of England, and Charles de Blois (on behalf of his wife Jeanne de Penthièvre), with the support of Uncle King Philip VI of France.
**How it Matters to This Story**
Every noble family had to choose a side. The de Clissons sided with Charles de Blois and the French King, and Olivier rode off to defend his country, as was his duty. He ended up posted as one of the commanders at the town of Vannes and here’s where everything gets set into motion. The English tried to take the town four times and on the fourth try King Edward III said, “This is ridiculous” or something of the like, and he took charge. The town finally fell, and Olivier and some of his other officers are captured. If you captured a nobleman in those days, you could ransom them for quite a bit of money, but Olivier was the only one ransomed and for a surprisingly low sum. They brought him home, but King Philip and Charles de Blois became convinced that Olivier had purposefully let Vannes fall and was in collusion with Montfort and English forces.
So, France and England made up, and signed the Truce of Malestroit in 1343. King Philip invited Olivier and 115 other noblemen to a tournament to celebrate, but it was a trap. He and Charles de Blois had the group arrested and thrown in jail in Paris. Jeanne was distraught, because these were obviously false charges. Jeanne bribed a sergeant of the prison in Paris, but that plan was discovered. Jeanne was summoned to France to face the crime of trying to cheat the king of his justice, but she thought it best to not go. She was convicted *in absentia* of *Lèse-majesté* - “a crime against the crown”, which she ignored as well. Her only thoughts were of Olivier and finding a way of bringing him home.
On August 2nd Oliver was executed and it was shocking, even to his contemporaries. As for his conviction itself, there was no evidence at all to show he was guilty. The charges were very obviously false and for whatever reason Olivier was being killed, it was not for the reason being made public. His body was completely desecrated, a punishment usually reserved for low-class criminals who have committed heinous crimes, causing scandal and disgust among the nobility. It gets rough:
His body and head were separated, and his body was put up at the Gibbet of Montfaucon, which was located in Paris and was basically a big display case for dead bodies to serve as a crime deterrent. The edifice was taken down in 1760, but this is a sketch of what it mostly likely looked like based on descriptions:

Olivier’s head was brought to Nantes put on a spike. Jeanne brought her sons Olivier V and Guillaume to look upon their father’s head, and she told them that there were two men responsible for their father’s death: Charles de Blois and the King of France. Let’s not forget she’s also still wanted by the King of France, in a bad way. She was able to avoid arrest with the help and protection of Jean de Clisson, Olivier’s son from a previous marriage.
Jeanne returned home, sold what de Clisson estates hadn’t been confiscated, and raised a loyal force of 400 men. They marched on a castle in Touffou, which was under the command of one of Charles de Blois’s men, officer Galois de la Heuse. He recognized Jeanne but was kind of clueless about what was going on.

He let her in, and her men overran the castle. They slaughtered all but a single man who was kept alive to tell King Philip VI and Charles de Blois who did this and why. It wasn’t poor Galois. She and her men continued to attack on land for a time, still leaving only one or a few men alive to tell the king that he really shouldn’t have killed her husband. She and her men would come upon and take out entire divisions of the French army, and it really pissed off King Philip. She realized though that if he decided to organize the entire French army against her, things were not going to go her way. My enemy’s enemy is my friend so… she hit up the King of England, Edward III, to see if he still hated the French. Turns out he did! and was willing to back her financially. She now aligned herself with Edward III and John (de Montfort), bought 3 ships, and painted them black with red sails. This was the beginning of her Black Fleet, and she named her flagship My Vengeance in case anyone was still unclear what she was all about.

She and her men started pillaging French shipping vessels in the Bay of Biscay, then spread out into the English Channel. If they caught a vessel with a noble aboard, she would have them brought to her ship. Noblemen would come aboard willingly enough, expecting to be ransomed because of how extremely valuable their personage (sniff). Jeanne had a different policy and would personally remove their heads with an axe. At this point Jeanne had earned herself the nickname the Lioness of Brittany, along with a reputation for killing all save for one man who was kept alive for the sole purpose of telling King Philip VI and Charles de Blois who did this and why. Word was getting around.

King Philip was not having it, so he sent a bunch of ships after Jeanne, and she faced the French fleet in all her angry, beautiful glory.

Agnes of Dunbar

Ea-Nasir