Philip Glass

Arthur III of Richemont , born the August 24th 1393 in Suscinio, close to Valves, dead the December 26th 1458 with Nantes, was duke of Brittany of 1457 with 1458. He was the son of Jean IV, duke of Brittany, and his third wife Jeanne de Navarre. Before reaching the throne of Brittany, being Constable of France, it was called the constable of Richemont .

It accepted from his father the honors of Richmond, in England, the kings of England refusing that the Breton ones carry the title of count.

He was also duke of Touraine, of Dreux, Étampes, Montfort and Ivry and baron of Parthenay (in 1415 but the donation will be effective only in 1427).

Jean V followed a policy sparing the two English and French parties. When it signed the Traité of Troyes which stripped Charles VII, it authorized his Arthur brother to be fought under the French banner.

Also Arthur fights T it the English as of its more young age. Wounded and been captive with the Battle of Azincourt in 1415, the weather remains five years prisoner in England. The March 7th 1425, it was named Connétable France by Charles VII.

An early engagement

Beginning 15th century, Brittany of the duke Jean V oscillates between the French and English influence. The privileged economic links of Brittany with England could direct it towards a Outre-Manche alliance. With France, mistrust persists, consequence, inter alia, of the missed attempt at annexation of the duchy by the kingdom in 1378. Arthur de Richemont is seen nevertheless authorized by Jean V, his brother, to recruit troops in Brittany in order to serve the cause of the Armagnacs against the Bourguignons, in the civil war which tears the kingdom of France.

In April 1414, Charles VI, king de France, retains Arthur with its service. In May, he entrusts to him the command of an imposing troop, initially entrusted to the good care of the dolphin Louis, duke of Guyenne. A big number of Breton captains follow Richemont, consequently attesting perenniality of a francophile party in Brittany. Small and average Breton nobility provide in this occasion of invaluable auxiliaries to the French cause.

Captivity

Maintained in its functions after the seat of Arras, Arthur regains Paris in October 1414. Appreciated dolphin, it receives the grounds of Jean II Larchevêque, culprit with the eyes of the king to have married the cause of Burgundian with the head office of Arras. In order to return in possession of the goods of this lord judged rebel, Richemont must enter to shift in June 1415.

In August, the unloading of the English troops of Henry V, in Normandy, upsets the priorities. Richemont joined the Louis dolphin then with the head of a fort contigent Breton men-at-arms. Engaged in the morning of October 25th, the disaster is consumed in end of the afternoon. The fine flower of the French knighthood is mown in the flower of the age. Richemont is not saved. Wounded, it is taken along captive to England. Start for the young Breton prince one long period of captivity. Imprisoned to the castle of Fotheringay, it is transferred in 1420 to the Tour from London, under the monitoring of Roger Ashton. Although prisoner, Richemont grants procuration to his brother, Jean V, to defend his interests and to negotiate a truce in the personal businesses which oppose it to Larchevêque.

Henry V authorizes soon, under the pressure of the diplomacy, his invaluable prisoner to be gone to France. Richemont thus leaves England in September 1420, accompanied by some Breton riders. In May 1422, always prisoner of the English, it attends impotent the catch of Meaux. A few days later, Richemont is pilot triumphal entry of Henry V, king d' Angleterre, in Paris. The French historiographers of the time did not forgive him this period spent to the sides of the English, suspecting it of being tempted to embrace the cause of the enemy. It is finally only after the death of the English monarch that Arthur recovers a total freedom, estimating more anything to have to the English. This time, they are the British historiographers who hardly any more spare it.

The choice of the French weapons

Removed from any obstacle, Richemont hastens to negotiate the terms of its marriage with the duchess of Guyenne, widow of the Louis dolphin and sister of the duke of Burgundy Philippe the Good. In April 1423, Richemont goes to Dijon to marry there.

The French disaster of Verneuil leaves vacant the load of constable of France: a preliminary interview between Charles VII and Arthur of Brittany takes place in October 1424, in Angers. Richemont accepts the sword of constable whom the king gives to him, in Chinon, on March 7th, 1425. The agreement is however of short duration. The entourage of Charles VII endeavors to serve Richemont near the king. At the beginning of 1426, Richemont joined Jean V in Brittany to again play the recruiters there before besieging, without success, the English with Saint James de Beuvron, close to Avranches. One second defeat of the troops ordered by Richemont in Bas-Courtils, on the strikes of the Mount-Saint-Michel, makes Jean V more careful. It prohibits his brother from again venturing the Breton nobility for also small companies.

The prudence of Jean V and the anglo-Burgundian diplomatic clearing weaken the position of Richemont at Charles VII. It becomes difficult to him to recruit troops in Brittany and cannot play any more the mediators between Charles VII and Burgundy. Deprived of its pension of constable, Richemont must be satisfied to fight battles of second zone close to Parthenay and Fontenay-the-Count.

In February 1427, with Yolande d' Aragon, it stopped and carried out Pierre de Giac, the Favori of the king, who exerted his plunders on the treasure of the crown and encouraged an expensive and disastrous war with the council of the king.

The English achieve worrying progress. After being itself seized Laval and Mans, the troops of the count de Salisbury advance towards Orleans. In October 1428, they undertake to besiege the place. Charles VII refuses, in spite of the urgency of the situation, to point out Richemont. The disgrace of the constable is prolonged…

The sending of help in Orleans decides Richemont to ignore the royal Directives which aim to draw aside it from the businesses. After having finally gathered troops in Brittany, the constable starts his walk. It is during its ride that he learns the lifting from the head office of Orleans and the catch of Jargeau by the French Army. The approach of Richemont sows the disorder in the French Army. After having consulted the captains, Jeanne d' Arc résoud to accept its arrival. The junction is carried out not far from Beaugency. Continued and demolished in Patay, the English lose many their chiefs. The Talbot English is made prisoner. In spite of the victory, Richemont receives the order to be turned over some and the fortified towns close their doors on his passage.

Having from its sides Jeanne d' Arc and Dunois, it orders the French Army in 1429 and beats the English with Beaugency and Patay.

Attached to the French cause, although always in disgrace, Richemont from there will battle itself in Normandy, forcing the English to divide their forces. Finally, the fall of the favorite of Charles VII Trémoille, in 1433, opens in Richemont new prospects politico-soldiers.

Georges of Trémoille, his personal enemy, tries to assassinate it in 1433.

Victorious campaigns

Of 1429 with 1457, it drives out the English Normandy and of part of the Guyenne. It is him which restores the discipline in the army and creates the Compagnies of ordinance (today gendarme S).

From now on the Breton ones of the constable will be illustrated in Ile-de-France and Normandy. At the beginning of 1434, of imposing forces face the English, not far from Sillé-the-Guillaume. In July 1434, Richemont manages to make raise the head offices of Laon and Beauvais. It gains then Champagne and Lorraine. Conscious of turning that the events take, the duke of Burgundy Philippe the Good starts, on his side, a bringing together with France.

In spring 1435, Breton captains, on order of the constable, surprise the English garrison of Saint-Denis and manage to settle there temporarily. However, to drive out the English of Paris, it is necessary to be maintained there durably.

March 8th, 1436, Charles VII names Richemont lieutenant-general in Ile-de-France, Normandy, Champagne and Brie, with the responsibility of take again Paris. Having received the reinforcement of Burgundian troops, the English are pushed back with the doors of the capital. April 13rd, 1436, Richemont is presented under the walls of the city. The city is in full effervescence. Victims of the popular fury of Parisian, the English must take refuge in the Saint-Anthony bastille. April 15th, the garrison capitulates. The catch of Paris still reinforces the position of Richemont at Charles VII, the more so as the Breton ones of the constable are illustrated in Ile-de-France at the sides of the large French captains, Dunois, Hire and Poton de Xaintrailles.

Jealousies are done sometimes day as with the head office of Montereau, in 1437, where a chronicler reports the fear of the French to see the Breton ones seizing the city before them.

In 1437, in.liaison.with the Pierre de Rieux it seized the Pays of Caux.

In July 1439, Richemont and its captains, Pierre de Rostrenen, Tugdual de Kermoysan and Jean Budes, start the head office of Meaux, one of the most solid fortified towns of the kingdom. Meaux falls on August 12th after an irresistible offensive. Olivier de Coëtivy sees himself entrusting the guard of the place by the constable. Richemont, it, are gone back from there to Paris to find the king. In the months which follow, Richemont gets busy to reorganize the army inaugurating long series of ordinances. In 1441, the catch of Pontoise puts a term at the reconquest of the Ile-de-France.

In 1440, the revolt known as of the Praguerie tries to get rid of him.

In 1442, the forwarding of Tartas provides to the constable the occasion of a true show of force in Guyenne and Gascogne. On the personal level, Richemont contracts a second marriage with Jeanne d' Albret before joining Brittany, in December, there to see François Ier, the new duke, his nephew, to make his entry in its good town of Rennes.

The truces of Turns, concluded in 1443, make it possible to the constable to move away the dangerous truck drivers out it kingdom and to continue its military reforms, in the name of Charles VII.

See also: Campaign of Brittany and Normandy in 1448-1449

For this reason, the reconquest of Guyenne, which marks the end of military operations of the One hundred year old war is done without him. In 1453, the Breton ones are used for Castillon, either under the orders of the constable thus put at the variation, but ordered by the young person Francois, count d' Étampes.

The Gilles business of Brittany

The April 24th 1450 Olivier de Méel, former rider of Arthur (1442), assassinates Gilles of Brittany, brother of the duke of Brittany François Ier (representing the party pro-English in the duchy) then flees in France and finds asylum with the Château of Marcoussis.

He was removed there, out of French ground, by two riders of Arthur, in order to be carried out in Vannes the June 8th 1451, which started a conflict with the king of France.

Arthur III, duke of Brittany

September 22nd 1457, Arthur de Richemont sees its second nephew, Pierre II, successor of François Ier, to disappear in his turn. This disappearance makes of him new the duke of Brittany. At the end of a court principat thirteen months, it dies out in its turn, leaving the duchy with François II, father of the Anne duchess of Brittany.

He would have undertaken a project of invasion of the England. Its nephew, François II of Brittany, succeeds to him.

Its biography is known by the account which Guillaume Gruel made, one of its riders: the Chronicle of Arthur III

Marriages

He had married with three recoveries, but did not have a posterity:

# on October 10th 1423 in Dijon, Marguerite of Burgundy, girl of Jean without Fear.
# on August 29th 1442 with Nérac, Jeanne d' Albret (1425-1445), countess of Dreux, girl of Charles II of Albret and Anne of Armagnac
# on July 2nd 1446 Catherine († 1492), girl of Pierre Ier of Luxembourg, Count of Saint-pol. and Brienne, and Marguerite of the Beams.

Known riders

Random links:Mary Boland | Nicolas Gilbert | Arthur Wing-of-Falcon | District of Tübingen | Plymouth (automobile)