This lovely ship was one sight you’d not want to have been privy to if you were a French person from the 14th century. The black hulls and the red sails were the mark of ships belonging to Jeanne de Clisson, aka “the Lioness of Brittany,” a noblewoman who became a pirate in the name of vengeance.
Jeanne was born in the French town of Belleville-sur Vie in 1300. Typical of a female aristocrat, she was married off only at 12 or 13 years old for alliance purposes. Her first husband died a little over a decade later, and her second husband married her for only two years before seeking an annulment — again for political reasons. Her third marriage, though, took (for a while) and produced five children.
Another way Jeanne’s life typified the age was by getting caught up in the extended 100 Years War between the French and English. In Jeanne’s case, she took hard sides with the English, and that’s because her husband was killed by the French — the trial was shocking for the upper-classes, because he was publicly beheaded, and Jeanne believed the execution a brutal disregard of justice.
And so Jeanne became brutal herself. First, she took two of her sons to see their father’s decapitated corpse, engendering their hatred towards the French side. Then, she sold as many of her considerable assets as she could and started killing. At first she raised a small militia and attacked French castles and garrisons. Later, she took to the seas as a pirate, painting her ships these striking colors you see here. She was known for the violence she wrecked upon French nobles, and for allowing a small number of survivors, so they could report the deeds of “La Lionne Sanglante”/ “the Bloody Lioness” back home.
After a career of successfully attacking French merchant ships, Jeanne retired, moving into a castle on Brittany’s coast, dying peacefully at age 59.
Sources: “Jeanne de Clisson, the Bloody Lioness of Brittany,” Ciaran Conliffe, April 4, 2016, @headstuff.org. Art by Vince L Falcone, Pinterest.
