Bertrand du Guesclin, born in 1320 in La Motte-Broons near Dinan, died July 13, 1380 in front of Châteauneuf-de-Randon, was a constable of France from one of the oldest families in Brittany.
The Black Mastiff of Brocéliande
Eldest son of Robert II du Guesclin (v. 1300-1353), lord of La Motte-Broons and his wife Jeanne de Malesmains (died in 1350), lady of Sens, his ugliness (it is said of him that he is " the ugliest that there was from Rennes to Dinan"), and his brutality earned him paternal opprobrium, and he had to win the respect of the nobility at the point of his sword. He stood out from his childhood for his strength, his skill in physical exercises and his bellicose tastes. During a tournament where he is forbidden to participate, he defeats all his opponents, before refusing to fight his father by tilting his spear out of respect at the time of the game (to the great surprise of the assembly). He is 15 years old.
Bertrand du Guesclin became known in 1357 by participating in the defense of Rennes besieged by Jean de Gand, Duke of Lancaster. Eléastre de Marès knights him at the Château de Montmuran in the Iffs, and appoints him captain of Pontorson and Mont Saint-Michel. He began to show his bravery in the wars between Charles de Blois and Jean de Montfort for the inheritance of the Duchy of Brittany:he supported the rights of the former.
In 1360, he was lieutenant of Normandy, Anjou and Maine then in 1364, captain general for the countries between Seine and Loire and chamberlain of France.
The battle of Auray, d' after the Chronicle of Bertrand du Guesclin by Cuvelier
The Battle of Auray, after the Chronicle of Bertrand du Guesclin by Cuvelier
He spent in 1361 in the service of France and celebrated the accession of Charles V in April 1364, by winning the battle of Cocherel against the army of the King of Navarre. He receives the duchy of Longueville in Normandy.
After this victory, he again flew to the aid of Charles de Blois in Brittany; but in September 1364 at the Battle of Auray, despite all his efforts, his party was defeated, he was taken prisoner by John Chandos, head of the English army (Sept. 1364). The King of France pays his ransom of 100,000 pounds.
In 1365, at the request of the King of France, he liberated the kingdom and trained the Great Companies, masses of undisciplined soldiers who ravaged the provinces. He persuaded them to go and fight in Spain, put himself at their head, and led them to Spain to defend the rights of Henry of Transtamare who disputed the throne of Castile with Peter the Cruel. He covered himself with glory, and he had already annihilated the party of Peter the Cruel, when the latter called to his aid two valiant English captains, Chandos and the Black Prince.
Du Guesclin was defeated and taken after prodigies of valor at the battle of Najera, fought against his advice (1367). He was taken prisoner and was only released against a large ransom, again paid by Charles V. He participated in and avenged his defeat at the Battle of Montiel in 1369. He restored Henry to the throne and as a reward for these actions in Spain he is made Duke of Molina.
Constable of France
In October 1370, back in France, he was made constable by Charles V. His big business was to expel the English. Contrary to the habits of French chivalry, he did not proceed in large campaigns with the entire French host, but preferred to methodically reconquer entire provinces, besieging castle after castle. He will chase the English from Normandy, Guyenne, Saintonge and Poitou.
Very often the siege does not last, the outcome being hastened by a victorious assault or even more often by a ruse.
* in 1373, he participated in the campaign against Brittany, with his cousin Olivier de Mauny - knight banneret, notably lord of Lesnen and Peer of France;
* in 1374, he fought at La Réole;
* in 1376, he received the seigneury of Pontorson in Normandy;
* Charles V, having in 1378 confiscated Brittany from Jean IV of Brittany, the soldiers Bretons, jealous of the independence of their country, desert Du Guesclin's army, and the constable himself is suspected of treason. Indignant at such a suspicion, he immediately sends the constable's sword back to the king, and wants to go to Spain with Henri de Transtamare; but, soon appeased by the king, who recognizes his mistake, he returns to the South to fight the English again.
In 1380, he fought against the Great Companies in Auvergne, and he laid siege to Châteauneuf-de-Randon:after several terrible assaults, the place promised to surrender to the Constable himself, if it was not rescued in 15 days. . The hero died in this interval (of having drunk too much ice water after having fought in full sun), on July 13, 1380, and the governor comes, the truce expired, to deposit the keys of the place on his coffin. His body is deposited in Saint-Denis.
After his death
Du Guesclin had wished that his body be brought back to Brittany. The road was long, it was hot and we decided to embalm him. In the absence of the royal embalmers, the body was eviscerated and brainless, which was bathed in a mixture of wine and spices, but without obtaining the expected effect:a few days later, a cloud of flies obscured the procession, following near the cart on which the body had been placed. It had to be boiled in a large cauldron to detach the flesh from the skeleton. This and the heart continued on their way to Brittany until King Charles V decided, almost uniquely for a cadet of small birth, to invite the bones of his late constable to rest in the royal basilica of Saint -Denis, alongside the kings of France. His burial, like those of most of the princes and dignitaries who rested there, was desecrated by the revolutionaries in 1793, as were the tombs containing his entrails (in Le Puy) and boiled flesh (in Montferrand). His heart alone reached Brittany where it was placed under a slab in the Jacobin convent in Dinan. In 1810, the tombstone and the urn containing the heart were transferred to the Saint-Sauveur basilica in Dinan. His four tombs are all still visible and adorned with monuments. The recumbent statue of St-Denis allows us to observe a figure and a face apparently sculpted in the likeness of the subject, who is also known by physical descriptions and several contemporary miniatures, all emphasizing the ugliness and pugnacity revealed by his face.
See Eustache Deschamps:Ballad on the Death of Bertrand Du Guesclin.
Unions
We know two unions for Bertrand du Guesclin:
* he was the husband, in first marriage, probably in 1363 in Vitré, of Tifenn Raguenel (died in 1373), daughter of Robin III Raguenel, lord of Châtel-Oger, hero of the battle of the Thirty, and of Jeanne de Dinan, Vicomtesse de La Bellière;
* he married, in second marriage, on January 21, 1374 in Rennes, Jeanne de Laval (died after 1385), daughter of Jean de Laval (died in 1398), and by Isabeau de Tinteniac. After her widowhood, in 1380, Jeanne de Laval remarried, on May 28, 1384, with Guy XII de Laval (died in 1412), lord of Laval.
We know of no legitimate descendants of Bertrand du Guesclin. On the other hand, Jeanne de Laval, by her second marriage, is the ancestor of an incalculable number of commoners, nobles and sovereigns of all Europe.
Relationship
Bertrand du Guesclin had a brother:
* Olivier du Guesclin:(died in 1403). On the death of Bertrand du Guesclin he resumed the title of Count of Longueville.
and two cousins:
* Olivier de Mauny:Captain General of Normandy and Chamberlain to Charles VI of France.
* Olivier du Guesclin:Lord of Vauruzé, supporter of Charles de Blois, Duke of Brittany.