Jeanne Louise de Belleville (sentenced to banishment on 26 August 1343)
Born in the year 1300, Jeanne de Belleville was the daughter of Maurice IV Montaigu, seigneur of Belleville and Palluau, and Létice de Parthenay. To save you from a quick Google check, I will note that Belleville and Palluau are both in the Loire valley (Pays de la Loire), in the province of Poitou, just south of Brittany, while Parthenay was then in the Aquitaine, also on the border between France and Brittany. Remember the Brittany part . . .
 |
| Jeanne's Belleville coat-of-arms |
Most of the accessible information about Jeanne de Belleville focuses on her "career" as a pirate, and we'll get to that. But her life is more than a rollicking narrative of a swashbuckling female pirate.
A bit more about her family history first. Jeanne's mother, Létice de Parthenay, was Maurice Montaigu's second wife--he was first married to Sybille de Chateaubriant. Some sources claim that Sybille gave birth to a daughter, named Olive, while others indicate that Olive was Létice's daughter. And according to various sources, Maurice's second wife, Létice, gave birth to birth to a son, Maurice V, as well as to Jeanne (saying nothing about Olive).
The most complete and seemingly reliable genealogical information that I've found, one documenting its claims with references to contemporary records, indicates that Maurice V was born during Maurice IV's first marriage, to Sybille, and thus he was Jeanne's half-brother. And this source does not refer to any daughter named Olive. (For another reliable source, the Dictionnaire historique et généalogique des familles du Poitou. click here.)
Sorry, but I love these complicated bits of genealogical information and the research involved. In any case, brother or half-brother, Maurice V succeeded his father when Maurice IV died between 1304 and 1308--dates vary, depending on the source.
In 1312, when she was twelve years old,* Jeanne was married to Geoffrey de Châteaubriant VIII. She quickly gave birth to two children: a son, Geoffrey, in 1314, and a daughter, Louise, in 1316. Just four years later, in 1320, Jeanne's brother, Maurice V, died--although he had married twice, he had no children to succeed him, leaving Jeanne to inherit both Montaigu and Belleville. As a result, she gained control of "a great domain": "La Garnache, Beauvoir-sur-Mer, Palluau, Belleville, Les Deffens, Montaigu, Châteaumur et les îles de Bouin, Noirmoutier et Yeu. . . ."
But by 1326, Jeanne's husband was dead and Jeanne was a widow. Two years later, in 1328, Jeanne married for a second time. Her new husband was Guy de Bretagne, count of Penthièvre, the second son of Arthur II, duke of Brittany. At the time of the marriage, Guy's older brother, John, had succeeded his father as duke of Brittany. The two brothers had long-standing conflicts, and there were objections to the match, instigated by the Charles of Blois (who would later go to war over the ducal title).
After an investigation carried out by the bishops of Vannes and Rennes, the marriage was annulled in 1330 by Pope John XXII, who immediately made up the loss of a wife to Guy by authorizing his marriage to Marie of Blois, niece of the French king. Unfortunately, poor Guy died before he could remarry--his claims to Brittany--whatever they might be--were passed to his daughter, Jeanne de Penthièvre. (Still reminding you to keep Brittany in mind.)
And so, by age thirty, Jeanne de Belleville was the mother of two children, and she had been widowed and had a marriage annulled. In 1330, she married for a third time. Olivier IV de Clisson was a Breton lord who was a vassal of the duke of Brittany. The marriage was advantageous for both--their combined territories (Olivier's were in southwest Brittany, Jeanne's in Poitou and Châteaubriant) made them a power in the region.
 |
| Territories of Jeanne de Belleville and Olivier de Clisson (map by Carical Rooikat) |
In the years immediately following their marriage, all was well. Jeanne gave birth to four children: Maurice (b. 1333-d. 1334), Olivier, who would succeed his father as Olivier V de Clisson (b. 1336), Guillaume (b. 1338), and Jeanne (b. 1340).
At this point, Jeanne lived a life that was completely expected for a woman of her social class: described as having a "sweet" and "timid" character, she cared for her family, rode and hunted, and managed not only her own estate but her husband's, during his frequent absences. She did sue him once, though--evidently to enforce some element of her marriage contract--but even that seems to have been normal.
As for Olivier, he followed Philip de Valois, later King Philip VI of France, in a number of actions against the English before and during the Hundred Years' War (he was on military campaigns with Philip at various times between 1324 and 1338). During these years he also maintained ties with John III, duke of Brittany, even named as a beneficiary in the codicil to the duke's will (1341).
Now here is the Brittany part of Jeanne de Belleville’s story:
The death of the duke of Brittany triggered what has become known as "The War of the Breton Succession," which played out against the Hundred Years' War, pitting John de Montfort, John III's half brother (backed by Edward III of England) against Charles of Blois, married to John III's niece (backed by Philip VI of France). Interestingly, two women figured prominently in this war over the succession: John de Montfort's wife, Joanna of Flanders, and Charles of Blois' wife, Jeanne de Penthièvre, through whom he made his claim to Brittany.
During the conflict over the succession, Olivier de Clisson supported Charles of Blois (though some members of the family supported the Montfort claim, and early in 1342 his brother, Amaury, changed sides and declared his support for John de Monfort as well).
After an extended siege at the English-controlled city of Vannes in 1342--it was captured by Charles of Blois, retaken by the forces of Montfort, returned to the control of the Blois army, then once again under siege by the English--Olivier de Clisson was captured by the victorious English forces. He was taken to England, but ultimately redeemed for what seemed to Philip VI and his counselors as a suspiciously small ransom. (For an extended account of all this by the contemporary chronicler, Jean Froissart, click here, pp. 119-24)
 |
A detail from the Belleville Breviary, produced for Jeanne de Belleville (Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits. Latin 10483) |
On his release and return to France in July 1343, Olivier was lured to his death by a ruse--invited to participate in a tournament, he was instead arrested by order of the French king "in front of the entire court" and taken as a prisoner. Without a trial, Olivier de Clisson was executed on 2 August 1343--he was beheaded, his body left hanging on a gibbet and his head sent to the Breton city of Nantes, where it was displayed on a pike. This brutal action was shocking, according to Froissart: it "occasioned great grief, for no one could find a sufficient reason for it."
In the meantime, Jeanne de Belleville had attempted to intercede for her husband. She was accused of having tried to bribe a captor to set Olivier free. Summoned to answer the charges laid against her, she managed to evade arrest--on 26 August, she was condemned in absentia and the couple's property was confiscated by the crown and redistributed.
These events transformed Jeanne de Belleville. In the words of the nineteenth-century historian Auguste Lefranc, ''she was suddencly transformed by grief and hatried into a kind of Fury, breathing only with vengeance" (elle fut tout-à-coup transformée par la douleur et la haine en une sorte de furie ne respirant plus que la vengeance).
Jeanne de Belleville, now a widow, regarded the French king as an enemy. In Biographie bretonne, Prosper Levot writes that "Jeanne was no longer a woman" (Jeanne n'est plus une femme); she had become, he says, "a wild beast" (une bète fauve). With a small force of loyal men, she successfully attacked a series of castles in Brittany, killing their garrisons when she was victorious.
Banished by the French king, Jeanne fled the country with her two surviving sons and her daughter, hoping to find asylum in England. She took to the sea, and in order to avoid capture by the French, she engaged with a number of vessels as she fled. Her own ship was sunk, and she and her children were adrift for several days. The younger boy, Guillaume, died, but eventually Jeanne and her eldest, Olivier V de Clisson, were rescued.**
The two were at first taken to Brittany by supporters of John de Montfort. She then went to Hennebont, where she was under the protection of Joanna, countess of Montfort, but she eventually made her way to England, where she found refuge with Edward III. She also found a fourth husband, marrying Walter Bentley, who had campaigned with the English king in Brittany. To celebrate the marriage, Edward III awarded Jeanne with some territories in France, but control of these were disputed, and when the English king changed his mind and decided to negotiate with Charles of Blois, he ordered return of some of the properties.
After years of dispute over lands she had been given and had then seen taken away, Jeanne de Belleville and her fourth husband finally accepted a settlement in 1357. They settled at Hennebont, the castle still held by allies of the Montforts. Jeanne de Belleville's fourth husband died at Hennebont in December 1359, and she seems to have died a short while later.
 |
A full page from the Belleville Breviary (Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits. Latin 10484) |
*Twelve was the canonical age for marriage for girls: "The marriageable age is fourteen full years in males and twelve full years in females, under penalty of nullity (unless natural puberty supplies the want of years)."
**This period is what has given rise to the legend of Jeanne de Belleville as a pirate. The Wikipedia entry for "Jeanne de Clisson" summarizes the legend of her "Black Fleet" and offers sources for her "career" as a pirate, if you would like to pursue more. For a succinct overview of the fiction and the facts, you might start with "Jeanne de Belleville, Pirate or Politician," available at James Adams, Historic Enterprises (click here).
