The Beast of Gévaudan claimed more than a hundred victims between 1764 and 1767, in the province of Gévaudan , in the south of Auvergne. The extremely unusual wounds, such as bite size and decapitation, could not be done by a wolf but only by a "beast ". Faced with the scale of the massacre and the inefficiency of the local lords, the peasants ended up soliciting Louis XV. Official hunts or village expeditions will have the greatest difficulty in putting an end to the murders and the real psychosis which then took hold of the country of Gévaudan.
The man and the wolf, between fascination and terror
Zoologically, the wolf (Canis lupus) belongs to the canidae branch and its main characteristics are an attachment to a hunting area, the stability of the pairs created and a certain collective organization . Very present even today in Canada, Russia, Siberia and Scandinavia, it has practically disappeared from Western Europe. But in the Middle Ages, in the countryside, it sows panic:because it attacks, rarely it is true and always in packs, during the great winters of famine.
Also the animal exerts fascination and terror for a long time. It is often represented as the symbol of evil, in opposition to the dog, man's faithful friend par excellence. And many legends even accredit the myth of the werewolf, a man who changes into a wolf and acquires bestiality. Any animal attack that escapes rational explanation, that is to say that does not fall within the usual behavior of the animal concerned, quickly gives rise to rumors and then, often, real psychoses. Many examples bear witness to this up to the present day, the most famous of which in France is that of the "beast of Gévaudan".
The Beast of Gévaudan sows terror
On June 30, 1764, an event that will mark the consciences occurs in the village of Hubacs, near Langogne, on the plateaux of the upper Vivarais, in the Massif Central. Indeed, that day, a young fourteen-year-old shepherdess, Jeanne Boulet, was found dead, after having been attacked by a ferocious beast, according to the priest who buried her. This is not the first time that a "beast" has attacked a young girl in the region. Already at the beginning of the month, a cowgirl had returned injured, her clothes in tatters.
From there, the attacks on young shepherds will multiply, despite great beatings, and psychosis will spread in this breeding region called Gévaudan, which corresponds to the current department of Lozère. We will henceforth evoke the famous “beast of Gévaudan”. Subsequently, several witnesses will affirm that it is "a beast with a very large head, reddish sides, with a black band all along the back, a very bushy tail, wide legs with large claws ".
The king forced to intervene
The excitement is such that King Louis XV decides to send a regiment of soldiers, dragoons, to the scene, but in vain. The number of victims increases and nothing seems to be able to stop "the beast". Finally, on September 21, 1765, a king's arquebus holder named François Antoine killed a large lynx on the grounds of the royal abbey of Les Chazes. We are then convinced that it is “the beast”. The wolf of the chazes is stuffed and sent to Versailles, for which the case is closed.
However, other victims are to be deplored afterwards. It is believed today that there were several "beasts", probably wolves or large dogs. Eventually, the attacks ended on June 19, 1767, shortly after a peasant named Jean Chastel killed an animal identified as a large wolf or a large dog.
This story had negative consequences on the already complicated end of Louis XV's reign. Not only were the peasants still under threat from the "beast", but they were exhausted from the many hunts without being able to plow their fields. Moreover, Louis XV became the laughingstock of the courts of Europe, especially in England, and the underground newspapers severely attacked his authority. The case fascinated all French people and became one of the main topics of conversation for many years.
Did the Beast of Gévaudan really exist?
From 1765 to 1768, the disappearance of around fifty people is attributed to the existence of a pack of wolves, the last of which was killed in 1787. would act more like a criminal case:men would have used wolves to commit their crimes. However, this mysterious affair feeds the popular imagination and transforms these wolves into a unique mythical beast, half-lion, half-hyena:the “Beast of Gévaudan”.
To go further
- The Beast of Gévaudan, by Michel Louis. Tempus, 2003.
- The Beast of Gevaudan:Myths and Realities, by Jean-Marc Moriceau. Tallandier, 2021.