Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier | |||||||
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Part of the Mad War | |||||||
1520 illustration of the battle in 'Histoire universelle' | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Kingdom of France | Duchy of Brittany Holy Roman Empire Kingdom of England Kingdom of Castile and León | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Louis II de la Trémoille Jean de Baudricourt Jean II de Rohan | Maréchal de Rieux, Duke of Orléans, John IV of Chalon-Arlay, Prince of Orange Alain d'Albret, Edward Woodville, Lord Scales † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
15,000 | 11,500 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
1,500 | Around 5,000 – 6,000 |
The Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier took place on 28 July 1488, between the forces of King Charles VIII of France, and those of Francis II, Duke of Brittany, and his allies. The defeat of the latter signalled the end to the "guerre folle" ('Mad war'), a feudal conflict in which French aristocrats revolted against royal power during the regency of Anne de Beaujeu. It also effectively precipitated the end of the independence of Brittany from France.
Brittany, Burgundy, and England had been repeatedly allied to resist the expansion of the French state. In the aftermath of the death of Charles the Bold of Burgundy in 1477, the Burgundian threat to French power was all-but eliminated. Brittany became the main base for the feudal aristocrats in the League of the Public Weal, an alliance founded by Charles the Bold to resist the centralisation of power in the king.
By 1488 the regime of Duke Francis had been severely weakened by conflict between his prime-minister Pierre Landais and a group of aristocrats led by the Prince of Orange John IV of Chalon-Arlay. Landais was keen to strengthen ties with England. His opponents secured French support for an armed incursion to overthrow and execute Landais in 1485, after which Jean de Rieux became de facto chief minister.
Francis was keen to secure the independence of Brittany and to construct a network of alliances to achieve that objective, offering the prospect of marriage to his daughter and heir Anne of Brittany to several possible allies. Rebel lords from the League, notably Louis d'Orleans, had sought sanctuary in Brittany. The French saw this as a violation of royal rights, and demanded the return of the lords, asserting that they had the right to take them by force if Francis refused.
Under the leadership of Louis II de la Trémoille, the French royal army had struck against Vannes and Fougères, controlling access to Brittany. The French attempted to take control of the major strategic strongholds.
The Bretons had sought support from various rebel lords and opponents of expanding French power. Alain d'Albret, a rebel lord, believing he would marry Anne, had reinforced the Breton army with 5,000 troops supplied by the king of Spain. Maximilian I of Austria also sent 1,500 men. Henry VII of England was also approached for support, but refused to send troops and instead attempted to negotiate a deal with the French to stop the invasion. However the English knight Edward Woodville, Lord Scales, defied Henry and brought over a small force of 700 archers he had gathered from his base in the Isle of Wight. [1] The Bretons decided to create the impression that Henry had changed his mind and had sent a large force of longbowmen, dressing 1,300 of their own men in the English cross of St George and adding them to Lord Scales' troops to create a vanguard of 2,000 men.
Despite this concentration of forces the Breton alliance was still significantly outnumbered. It was further weakened because Maximilian I was diverted by a rebellion in Flanders, which was being supported by Marshal de Esquerdes. The Breton forces thus comprised a mix of local troops with Gascons, Germans, English longbowmen, and non-Breton aristocrats who were challenging royal power.
The French army included Swiss and Italian mercenaries, and also some pro-royal Breton noblemen. It had the most powerful artillery of the era.
The Breton commander de Rieux positioned his forces on a ridge around a mile to the south of Mézières-sur-Couesnon. French forces arrived at the field in disparate groups, with no idea that the Bretons were so close. The Bretons initially had the advantage that the French were fragmented and not arrayed in battle order. Lord Scales and de Rieux were in favour of a rapid attack on the French before they could manoeuvre into effective battle order, but d'Albret insisted on redeploying his troops. As a result, de la Trémoille had time to place his army in a defensive formation. The Breton vanguard under Lord Scales then led the attack in an arrow-head formation.
According to Jean Molinet, "the English archers showed great courage, for each of the opposing parties fought for victory." Scales himself was apparently killed at some point in this stage of the battle. Nevertheless, the French were forced to pull back, giving the archers a chance to attack the French lines, causing panic, which was stemmed by the French commanders. [2]
Meanwhile, the Breton centre under d'Albret was moving forward, having been suffering significant casualties from the powerful French artillery in its static position. The redeployment caused a gap to open in the Breton lines. Jacques Galliota, an Italian captain in the French army, immediately asked permission from Trémoille to exploit the opportunity. Trémoille agreed, and Galliota led a cavalry attack on the weakened position. Galliota himself was killed, but the Italians opened a gap through which the cavalry passed. D'Albret and de Rieux failed to deploy their own cavalry in time to stem the gap, and Trémoille quickly sent in more French troops. At the same time there was a massive explosion in one of the magazines behind the Breton lines, probably caused by stray shot. Panic ran through the Breton army, leading to a rout of their forces. [2]
The defeat of Francis II forced him to accept a treaty which deprived him of power by requiring him to expel foreign princes and troops from Brittany. It also restricted his ability to marry his children to suitors of his choosing and required that he cede territory in Saint-Malo, Fougères, Dinan, and Saint-Aubin to the king as a guarantee that in the absence of a male successor the king would determine the succession. Francis died a few months later leaving only a daughter, Anne of Brittany, so the treaty was used to force her, as his successor, to marry King Charles VIII, and then Louis XII.
The battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier also destroyed the power-base of the warring princes. Edward Woodville was killed, along with his entire force. Louis of Orleans (the future Louis XII), and Jean IV, Prince of Orange were captured. Alain d'Albret and the Maréchal de Rieux succeeded in escaping, and played an important part in continuing the conflict. Despite the French victory, the guerre folle dragged on for three more years until December 1491, when Charles married Anne.
Since the emergence of modern Breton nationalism in the 19th century, the battle has been portrayed as the moment when Brittany lost its independence, despite the three years of struggle which followed it and the continued nominal independence of the Duchy into the 16th century. It is thus regarded by nationalists as a tragic episode in the history of Brittany. In the words of Leon Meur, "the battle of Saint-Aubin rang the death-knell of Breton independence". The Breton nationalist Célestin Lainé, who sided with Nazi Germany in World War II, stated that his SS-affiliated Bezen Perrot militia was the first Breton force to have fought against France since the battle. At his death he requested that his ashes be scattered on the spot.
The Breton National Party placed a cross at the site of the battle in 1932. [3] To mark the 500th anniversary of the battle a large monument was erected in 1988, comprising a raised platform with plaques commemorating the forces involved, surmounted by a shield bearing the Breton Ducal coat of arms and a Cross pattée. [3] The Breton nationalist organization Koun Breizh commemorates the battle at the site on the last Sunday of every July, and the far-right nationalist group Adsav also commemorates it in September.
A plan in 2000 to bury domestic waste on the site of the battle caused such protests from the Breton movement that the project was abandoned. [4] A "cairn of liberty" was built at the site of the proposed dump. Breton nationalist groups subsequently acquired part of the land with the intention of creating a sculpture park and visitor centre. [3]
Arthur III, more commonly known as Arthur de Richemont, was briefly Duke of Brittany from 1457 until his death. He is noted primarily, however, for his role as a leading military commander during the Hundred Years' War. Although Richemont briefly sided with the English once, he otherwise remained firmly committed to the House of Valois. He fought alongside Joan of Arc, and was appointed Constable of France. His military and administrative reforms in the French state were an important factor in assuring the final defeat of the English in the Hundred Years' War.
Francis II was Duke of Brittany from 1458 to his death. He was the grandson of John IV, Duke of Brittany. A recurring theme in Francis' life would be his quest to maintain the quasi-independence of Brittany from France. As such, his reign was characterized by conflicts with King Louis XI of France and with his daughter, Anne of France, who served as regent during the minority of her brother, King Charles VIII. The armed and unarmed conflicts from 1465 to 1477 and 1484–1488 have been called the "War of the Public Weal" and the Mad War, respectively.
Anne of Brittany was reigning Duchess of Brittany from 1488 until her death, and Queen of France from 1491 to 1498 and from 1499 to her death. She was the only woman to have been queen consort of France twice. During the Italian Wars, Anne also became Queen of Naples, from 1501 to 1504, and Duchess of Milan, in 1499–1500 and from 1500 to 1512.
The House of Rohan is a Breton family of viscounts, later dukes and princes in the French nobility, coming from the locality of Rohan in Brittany. Their line descends from the viscounts of Porhoët and is said to trace back to the legendary Conan Meriadoc. Through the Porhoët family, the Rohans are related to the Dukes of Brittany, with whom the family intermingled again after its inception. During the Middle Ages, it was one of the most powerful families in the Duchy of Brittany. The Rohans developed ties with the French and English royal houses as well, and they played an important role in French and European history.
Louis II de la Trémoille, also known as La Trimouille, was a French general. He served under three kings: Charles VIII, Louis XII and Francis I. He was killed in combat at the Battle of Pavia.
The House of La Trémoïlle(Maison de La Trémoille in French) was a French noble family from Poitou whose name comes from the village La Trimouille in the department of Vienne. This family has been known since the middle of the 11th century, and since the 14th century its members have been conspicuous in French history as nobles, military leaders and crusaders, and influential as political leaders, diplomats, Huguenots and courtiers. The male line of the family died out in 1933, while female line heirs of the last duke have kept the La Trémoïlle surname alive in Belgium.
Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France.
The Treaty of Sablé was signed on 20 August 1488 in Sablé between Duke Francis II of Brittany and Anne of France. A year after the signing of Sable the treaty was reneged upon in favour of a tripartite alliance at Amiens with Burgundy and England. The town of Sable was therefore chosen for a summit in 1488 when the duchy was forced to do homage to the King of France for the last time. The duchy was later merged into the kingdom. The Duke who under the terms of the treaty, was integrated a member of the French nobility, died on 9 September 1488.
The Mad War was a late medieval conflict between a coalition of feudal lords and the French monarchy. It occurred during the regency of Anne of Beaujeu in the period after the death of Louis XI and before the majority of Charles VIII. The war began in 1485 and ended in 1488.
Alain I of Albret (1440–1522), called "The Great", was a powerful French aristocrat. He was 16th Lord of Albret, Viscount of Tartas, the 2nd Count of Graves and the Count of Castres. He was the son of Catherine de Rohan and Jean I of Albret. He was the grandson and heir of Charles II of Albret and became head of the House of Albret in 1471.
John IV of Chalon-Arlay or John of Chalon was a prince of Orange and lord of Arlay. He played an important role in the Mad War, a series of conflicts in which aristocrats sought to resist the expansion and centralisation of power under the French monarch.
The union of the Duchy of Brittany with the Crown of France was the culmination of a political process begun at the end of the 15th century in the wake of the Mad War. It resulted in the Edict of Union of 13 August 1532 and the incorporation of the duchy into the Crown lands of France, a critical step in the formation of modern-day France.
Anne of Brittany was the object of representations very early on. The royal propaganda of Charles VIII and, later on, of Louis XII idealized her as a symbol of the perfect queen, on the union between the kingdom and the duchy, and of the return to peace. Maximilian's Austria having been evicted from the marriage, had a different perspective on the events. Throughout the centuries, historians and popular imagery forged a very different Anne of Brittany, attributing her physical or psychological characteristics or actions that are not necessarily verifiable through historical data.
Pierre Landais was a Breton politician who became the principal adviser and chief minister to Francis II, Duke of Brittany. Francis left Landais in control of the affairs of the duchy, producing resentment among local barons, who finally secured the overthrow of Landais' régime. The rise and fall of Landais undermined Francis' position and prepared the way for the annexation of Brittany by France.
Jean IV de Rieux, was a Breton noble and Marshal. He was the son of Jean III de Rieux and Béatrice de Rohan-Montauban (1385–1414).
Sir Edward Woodville was a member of the Woodville family during the Wars of the Roses. He survived the reign of Richard III in which several of his relatives were executed in a power struggle after the death of his brother-in-law Edward IV. Exiled with Henry Tudor, he participated in Henry's capture of the throne. Henry subsequently married Woodville's niece, Elizabeth of York. Under Henry VII, Woodville was appointed Lord of the Isle of Wight, the last person to be given that title.
The French–Breton War lasted from 1487 to 1491. The cause of this war was the approaching death of the Breton Duke Francis II of Brittany, who had no clear successor. If not resolved, this meant a resumption of issues from a previous War of the Breton Succession (1341–1364), which had rival claimants allying with England or France, resulting in an ambiguous peace treaty that failed to prevent future succession disputes.
Château de Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier is a medieval castle, built in the 13th century in the commune of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier in the département d'Ille-et-Vilaine in Brittany.
Vikings were active in Brittany during the Middle Ages, even occupying a portion of it for a time. Throughout the 9th century, the Bretons faced threats from various flanks: they resisted full incorporation into the Frankish Carolingian Empire yet they also had to repel an emerging threat of the new duchy of Normandy on their eastern border by these Scandinavian colonists.
The bomb attack of 7 August 1932 in Rennes was aimed at a work by the sculptor Jean Boucher, symbolizing the union of Brittany and France, and placed in a niche in Rennes City Hall. Since its inauguration in 1911, the statue, representing Anne of Brittany, had been considered degrading by the Breton movement, due to its kneeling position before the King of France.