A Woman to Know: Jeanne de Clisson
Jeanne has the heart of a man and of a lion. — Jean Froissart
Jeanne has the heart of a man and of a lion. — Jean Froissart
(image via Wikimedia)
Following her husband’s grisly death in the midst of the Hundred Years War, Jeanne liquidated their joint estate. With the money, she purchased three ships and painted them black. The noblewoman-turned-privateer ordered red sails be flown, and she named the (literal) flagship after her intentions for the French kingdom: “My Revenge.”
She vowed to terrorize the French King Philip VI, who had executed her husband, and by 1341, she had gathered a small army around her cause: freeing her native Brittany from French rule.
For the next decade, the “Lioness of Brittany” ransacked the French coast, blazing a trail of destruction. Her “Black Fleet” scored safe harbor with British sympathizers, and French aristocrats lived in fear of her wrath.
But come 1356, with “My Revenge” sunk in battle and the French king himself now dead, Jeanne retired from her privateer life. A regime change in France ended her long campaign. She retreated to her previous palace life, marrying a British nobleman and disappearing from history.
Add to your library list:
Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas (Laura Sook Duncombe)
Sea Queens: Women Pirates Around the World (Jane Yolen)
Read more:
Jeanne de Clisson (Rejected Princesses)
The Story of Jeanne de Clisson (Bust Magazine)
Jeanne de Clisson, the Bloody Lioness of Brittany (Stuff You Missed in History Class)
Six Lady Pirates (Britannica)
Hear more:
The Lioness of Brittany (Good Witches, Bad Bitches)
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