marthajefferson:history meme: 03/06 women | Jeanne de Clisson or de Belleville, La Tigresse Bretonne
marthajefferson:history meme: 03/06 women | Jeanne de Clisson or de Belleville, La Tigresse BretonneJeanne de Clisson, born into an affluent French family in 1300, spent most of her life as a noblewoman. In 1330 she married Olivier de Clisson (a marriage of love) who was an important Breton noble that spent years in service defending Brittany against the English. When the Duke of Brittany died with no male heir in 1341, both King Edward III of England and Phillip VI of France saw an opportunity to take the land. Olivier served the French in defending Brittany from the English. But the French authorities began to doubt his loyalty. Rumours spread that Olivier had defected to the English side. King Philip VI and his nephew Charles de Blois, had Olivier captured and tried with treason. In 1343, he was executed by beheading . Olivier’s head was then sent to Nantes and displayed on a pole outside the castle of Bouffay. Jeanne took her two young sons to Nantes, to show them the head of their father at the Sauvetout gate. Enraged and bewildered over her husband’s execution, she swore vengeance against the King and his nephew. The first thing Jeanne de Clisson did was to sell off her lands and raise a small force of loyal men with whom she attacked pro-French forces in Brittany. When her situation became too dangerous on land, she purchased three warships and took to the seas.She had her ships painted black and dyed their sails red to intimidate her enemy, earning the title “The Black Fleet”. Her main ship was named Ma Vengeance -My Revenge. The Black Fleet patrolled the English Channel for French ships, especially those owned by King Phillip and members of the French nobility. Her crews, as merciless under her orders as she was herself, would kill entire crews, leaving only one or two alive to carry news to the king that she had struck again. This earned Jeanne the epithet, “The Lioness of Brittany”, reviled as a monster by some, praised as a heroine by others.In her efforts to keep the English Channel completely free of French ships, she formed an alliance with the English, laundering supplies to their soldiers for battles. She continued her work as a pirate even after the death of her enemy, King Philip VI, in 1350.Jeanne de Clisson fought as a pirate for thirteen years. Her quest for revenge ended when Jeanne found love in English noble Sir Walter Brentley, who had been King Edward III’s lieutenant. She married him in 1356 and settled into a quiet life in the Castle of Hennebont in France, which was a territory of her allies.fancast : Alicia Vikander as Jeanne. -- source link