Jean Le Maingre
Jean II Le Maingre (in
Old French, Jehan le Meingre), called
Boucicaut (
August 28,
1366-
June 21,
1421) was
marshal of France and a
knight renowned for his military skill.
He was the son of marshal Jean I Le Maingre, also called Boucicaut. He became a page at the court of
Charles VI of France, and at the age of 12 he accompanied
Louis II, Duke of Bourbon in a campaign against
Normandy. At age 16 he was knighted by Louis on the eve of the
Battle of Roosebeke (
November 27,
1382). In
1383 he began the first of his journeys that would take up more than twenty years of his life.
In
1384 he undertook his first journey to
Prussia, in order to assist the
Teutonic Order in their war against the pagan
Lithuanians. After some campaigns against the
Moors in
Spain and against
Toulouse in
France he again accompanied the duke of Bourbon, this time to Spain, which had become a secondary battlefield of the
Hundred Years' War. From there he travelled for two years through the
Balkans, the
Near East, and the
Holy Land, in the company of his friend Renaud of Roye and later with
Philip of Artois, Count of Eu.
In
1390, while the Peace of Leulingen had temporarily interrupted the war with
England, Boucicaut took part in the
tournament of Saint-Inglevert, where he defeated the most famous English soldiers in single combat. The next year he travelled to Prussia for a third time. Because of his great service in the war against the heathens in
Livonia and Prussia, he was named Marshal of France on
December 25,
1391, by Charles VI at the cathedral of St. Martin in
Tours.
In
1396 he was took part in the joint
French-
Hungarian crusade against the
Ottoman Empire, which suffered a heavy defeat on
September 28 at the
Battle of Nicopolis. He was taken hostage by the
Ottoman sultan Bayezid I, but escaped execution and was eventually ransomed. In
1399 he was sent to assist
Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaeologus against the Ottomans.
In
1401, due to his military accomplishments and his knowledge of the east, he was appointed governor of
Genoa, which had fallen to Charles VI in 1396. He successfully repelled an attack from King
Janus of Cyprus, who tried to take back the city of
Famagusta on
Cyprus, which had been captured by Genoa. After some struggles in the
Mediterranean the Genoese freed themselves from French rule by
1409.
Boucicaut returned to France and became involved in the rivalry between
Burgundy and
Orleans. In the
Battle of Agincourt in
1415 he commanded the French
vanguard, but was captured by the English and died six years later in
Yorkshire. He was buried in St. Martin in Tours, in his family's chapel, with the
epitaph "Grand Constable of the Emperor and of the Empire of Constantinople."
-
Geoffrey Boucicaut, brother of the illustrious marshal, and his army occupied
Avignon in 1398 and started a five year blockage and siege of the
Palais des Papes where the
Avignon Pope Benedict XIII, Pedro de Luna, was ensconced, which ended when Pedro managed to escape from Avignon on March 12, 1403 and seek shelter in territory belonging to Louis II of Anjou.
* Anonymous,
Le Livre des faits du bon messire Jehan le Maingre, dit Boucicaut. maréschal de France et gouverneur de Jennes* Lalande, Denis: Jean II le Meingre, dit Boucicaut: (1366 - 1421) - étude d'une biographie héroïque, Genève 1988.
* Châtelet, Albert: L' âge d'or du manuscrit à peintures en France au temps de Charles VI et les heures du Maréchal Boucicaut, Dijon 2000.
