Who was France’s fiercest female pirate, the ‘Lioness of Brittany’?

Jeanne de Belleville (c.1300-c.1359), is a fascinating character, says her biographer Laure Buisson: "Her reputation as a female pirate has been richly embroidered but the truth is almost as extraordinary."

Born at the Château Belleville in Poitou, just south of the Breton border, her noble family owned swathes of land including the islands of Yeu and Noirmoutier, both of which were strategically important to the family's commercial exportation of the salt and wine produced on their estates. 

Her father, Maurice IV de Montaigu, died during her infancy, making her a wealthy heiress. In c.1314 she married 19-year-old Geoffroy, the Seigneur de Châteaubriant, in Brittany. 

They had two children; Geoffroy IX (1314-1347) and Louise (1316-1383). She was widowed in 1326, and went on to marry Guy de Penthièvre in 1328, but the marriage was annulled two years later, when she wed Olivier IV de Clisson. They had four children, Maurice (1333-1334), Olivier (1336-1407), Guillaume (1338-1345) and Jeanne (1340-?). 

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Having inherited all her mother's properties, as well as her first husband's, Jeanne was one of the richest women in the country. 

"She was ambitious, courageous, self-confident, independent, and immensely physically healthy. She had interests in business as well as politics. She always fought back. 

When Guy de Penthièvre decided to repudiate their marriage because his family contracted a more advantageous match, she fought through the courts and lost. 

When Olivier de Clisson failed to pay her the money he owed as part of the marriage contract, she took him to court and forced him to pay. She never let anyone do her down."

England vs France

In 1337, the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War did not cast any serious shadow over her life. 

In 1341, however, the Breton War of Succession rocked the countryside. As Jean de Montfort and Charles de Blois fought to rule Brittany, the conflict sucked in every noble family in the region. Jeanne's life was about to change forever.

As a nobleman with armed forces to command, Jeanne's husband Olivier swept into the struggle on the side of Charles de Blois, who had the largest army and the support of the King of France. It was reasonable to suppose that this would be the winning side.

In 1342, however, he was captured by enemy English forces who were fighting for Jean de Montfort, and taken to England as a prisoner. He was subsequently exchanged with English prisoners of war, but unusually quickly and for a suspiciously modest ransom.

In early 1343, he went off to the Royal Court in Paris to take part in a sporting tournament where the King of France, King Philippe VI de Valois, had him arrested. 

This caused a huge scandal, but the King was convinced that Olivier de Clisson had changed sides during his imprisonment and entered into a secret alliance with King Edward III of England.

Off with his head

There was no proof, and Olivier de Clisson declared his total innocence, but the King was adamant. On August 2, 1343, he was beheaded for treason; his body was strung up in Paris and his head sent to Nantes to be displayed on a pike at the Porte Sauvetout.

Three hundred years later, historian André Duchesne claimed that evidence for this treason could be found in a letter from Edward III to his son, saying that some Breton nobles had rallied to the English flag, Olivier de Clisson among them. 

Who knows whether he genuinely had changed sides, or whether as a prisoner of war he had simply said whatever he could to save his skin.

In any case, he was dead and his widow was furious, not only because of her husband's death but because of how it was carried out - executed in public and his body desecrated like a common criminal.

Turning point

The story goes that she and her two older sons went to Nantes and collected her husband's head, after which, clutching it to her breast she raged around the ramparts, fomenting revenge. 

She then went on an armed rampage, sacking and pillaging a whole series of castles belonging to nobles loyal to the King.

In reality, she had seen the winds changing direction for several months. Unable to bribe her husband's captors to let him 'escape', she had already begun amassing an armed force of around 400 men. 

She had been summoned to stand trial in Paris for attempting to bribe the guards; when she refused to go, she had been found guilty in absentia. Her property and chattels had been confiscated and she knew she would be banished.

The bad news confirmed all her fears, and she took her furious revenge by attacking the nearby Château de Touffou, a garrison full of soldiers loyal to the French crown. 

The guards at Touffou had not heard the news, so when they saw her approach they lowered the drawbridge to let her in. Her concealed army quickly overran the castle and massacred everyone in it. 

Only one man was deliberately left alive, in order to tell the tale.

Mistress of the high seas?

She then headed for the Atlantic coast, where she had ships awaiting her, along with her sons and her armed men. 

"It was probably more like two ships and 100 men than the reputed 400," says Laure Buisson. "But even so, she waged a personal vendetta against the King of France by attacking all his merchant ships, knowing full well the economic damage she was inflicting on him."

She continued her maritime activities for around six years, starting in the Bay of Biscay, probably using the fortress island of Yeu as a base. She was later reputed to have been active in the Gironde Estuary, and around the islands of Oléron and Ré. 

In a biography by descendent Astrid de Belleville, these acts were described as self-defence against the vengeful King of France who was pursuing her across the waves. 

Other accounts say she attacked French ships out of pure hatred and a desire for revenge, and her biographer agrees that chimes with her personality: "She was a force of nature, a terrifically strong woman in the same mould as Eleanor of Aquitaine." 

It was said that her ships were painted black and rigged with red sails. The public were also thrilled to read that wearing chain mail and brandishing a cutlass, the Lionne Sanglante was the first to leap aboard the ships she attacked. 

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Sinking ship

Legend has it that finally the King sent a warship against her which sank her ship, but she escaped in a smaller vessel with her sons. With no food or water, they drifted for nearly a week during which time her son Guillaume died of cold, thirst and exhaustion. 

The legend has it that they finally washed up in Morlaix. The truth is more likely to have been that one of the French king's warships finally managed to sink Jeanne's flagship, and Guillaume probably drowned.

"There is no record of her having a royal patent or royal letter of protection, but we can imagine that her activities would have been very much to King Edward's advantage."

Eventually however, at the request of the King of France, Pope Clement VI took a hand in the affair and asked Edward to persuade the Tigresse Bretonne to call a halt to her revenge campaign. This was possibly as part of a settlement involving a new husband and some land in Brittany.

Certainly, in c.1349 she married Englishman Walter Bentley, the commander of the troops fighting against Charles de Blois and the King of France. As a wedding gift, King Edward III gave her lands in France, but it was nothing compared to her previous holdings and wealth.

Land grab

Undoubtedly physically exhausted, Jeanne de Belleville settled back into domestic life, concentrating on recuperating her lands using diplomacy rather than violence.

Her new husband was rewarded with lands in Brittany including several that had previously belonged to her, including the island of Noirmoutier. 

The pair also tried to recover Belleville, but although Edward III was happy to hand over the titles, war still raged in Brittany and the gift was very much just a gesture. 

Jeanne de Belleville died in 1359, and her son Olivier V de Clisson eventually managed by dint of repeated requests and protests and armed warfare to recover his father's honours, along with the family's lands and possessions. 

Despite his decade in England, where they trained him to be a mighty warrior, he also eventually served King Charles V of France and subsequently King Charles VI.

Laure Buisson's biography of Jeanne de Belleville, Pour Ce Qu'il me Plaist: la première femme pirate, is available in all bookshops. (In French only.)