Guy XIV de Laval, François de Montfort-Laval, (28 January 1406 – 2 September 1486,
Châteaubriant
Châteaubriant (; br, Kastell-Briant; Gallo: ''Châtiaoberiant'') is a town in western France, about southwest of Paris, and one of the three sous-préfectures of the Loire-Atlantique department. Châteaubriant is also situated in the historica ...
),
comte de Laval,
baron de Vitré and of
La Roche-Bernard, seigneur of
Gâvre, of
Acquigny
Acquigny () is a commune in the Eure department in Normandy in northern France. The 16th century Château d'Acquigny is located here.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Eure department
The following is a list of the 585 communes of the Eu ...
, of
Tinténiac
Tinténiac (; br, Tintenieg; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Teintenyac'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine Departments of France, department in Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in northwestern France.
Population
Inhabi ...
, of
Montfort and
Gaël
Gaël (Gallo: ''Gaèu'') is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France.
It lies southwest of Rennes between Saint-Méen-le-Grand and Mauron. In the 18th century, a fair was held twice a year in August and ...
, of
Bécherel, was a French nobleman, known for his account of
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...
. He and his brother
André de Lohéac
André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation ...
were simultaneously vassals of the
duke of Brittany
This is a list of rulers of the Duchy of Brittany. In different epochs the sovereigns of Brittany were kings, princes, and dukes. The Breton ruler was sometimes elected, sometimes attained the position by conquest or intrigue, or by hereditary r ...
and of the
king of France
France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the Kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions.
Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I () as the first ...
.
Life
Origins
Guy was the son of
Guy XIII de Laval
Guy XIII de Laval, born Jean de Montfort, (1385- 14 August 1414, Rhodes) was seigneur of Laval and of Kergorlay. He was the son of Raoul IX de Montfort and Jeanne de Kergorlay.
Guy inherited the Laval title through his marriage on 22 January ...
and
Anne de Laval (1385–1466). Through his mother he was grandson of Guy XII de Laval and of Jeanne de Laval, second wife of constable
Bertrand du Guesclin
Bertrand du Guesclin ( br, Beltram Gwesklin; 1320 – 13 July 1380), nicknamed "The Eagle of Brittany" or "The Black Dog of Brocéliande", was a Breton knight and an important military commander on the French side during the Hundred Years' W ...
.
In 1420, Guy XIV, only just fourteen years old, was the second person to put his signature to the petition sent to the king of England to demand the release of
Arthur III, Duke of Brittany
Arthur III ( br, Arzhur), more commonly known as Arthur de Richemont (24 August 139326 December 1458), 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 future constable, who had been a prisoner since the
Battle of Agincourt
The Battle of Agincourt ( ; french: Azincourt ) was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War. It took place on 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day) near Azincourt, in northern France. The unexpected English victory against the numerica ...
. Arthur was freed in September of that year.
In 1424, he accompanied Arthur to the brilliant reception he had prepared for queen
Yolande of Aragon
Yolande of Aragon (11 August 1384 – 14 November 1442) was Duchess of Anjou and Countess of Provence by marriage, who acted as regent of Provence during the minority of her son. She was a daughter of John I of Aragon and his wife Violant o ...
in his
château d'Angers
The Château d'Angers is a castle in the city of Angers in the Loire Valley, in the ''département'' of Maine-et-Loire, in France. Founded in the 9th century by the Counts of Anjou, it was expanded to its current size in the 13th century. It i ...
. He thus worked to detach the Breton captain from the English and bring about a rapprochement between Brittany and France.
Companion of Joan of Arc
![Treaty of Troyes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Treaty_of_Troyes.svg)
On 8 June 1429, at Selles-en-Berry (
Selles-sur-Cher
Selles-sur-Cher (, ) is a commune in the French department of Loir-et-Cher, administrative region of Centre-Val de Loire, France.
The name of the commune is known internationally for its goat cheese, Selles-sur-Cher, which was first made in t ...
), he rejoined the royal army which reunited
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...
and the
duke of Alençon
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...
to seek the liberation of the
Loire Valley after the raising of the
siege of Orléans
The siege of Orléans (12 October 1428 – 8 May 1429) was the watershed of the Hundred Years' War between France and England. The siege took place at the pinnacle of English power during the later stages of the war. The city held strategic and ...
. He has left, in a letter to his mother, a living portrait of Joan of Arc, of whom he was a fervent admirer. They distinguished themselves at
Jargeau
Jargeau () is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France.
It lies about south of Paris.
Geography
The town is located in the French natural region of the Loire Valley, the former province of Orleans and the urban area of Orlea ...
,
Beaugency
Beaugency () is a commune in the Loiret department, Centre-Val de Loire, north-central France. It is located on the Loire river, upriver (northeast) from Blois and downriver from Orléans.
History
11 March 1152 the council of Beaugency annulled ...
, and above all
Patay, where he fought in the vanguard.
Coronation of Charles VII
With his brother André de Lohéac he followed the sovereign to
Reims
Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne.
Founded by ...
and assisted at the coronation of
Charles VII of France
Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461), called the Victorious (french: le Victorieux) or the Well-Served (), was King of France from 1422 to his death in 1461.
In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII inherited the throne of F ...
on 17 July 1429, replacing
Philip the Good
Philip III (french: Philippe le Bon; nl, Filips de Goede; 31 July 1396 – 15 June 1467) was Duke of Burgundy from 1419 until his death. He was a member of a cadet line of the Valois dynasty, to which all 15th-century kings of France belonge ...
,
count of Flanders
The count of Flanders was the ruler or sub-ruler of the county of Flanders, beginning in the 9th century. Later, the title would be held for a time, by the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain. During the French Revolution, in 1790, the co ...
(who was also the
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy (french: duc de Bourgogne) was a title used by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, from its establishment in 843 to its annexation by France in 1477, and later by Holy Roman Emperors and Kings of Spain from the House of Habsburg ...
). Among the favours distributed by the king on this occasion, the territory of Laval was raised to a
count
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
y, and Guy de Laval was made governor of
Lagny in 1430.
House of Brittany
On 1 October 1430, at
Redon
Redon (; ) is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.
Geography
Redon borders the Morbihan and Loire-Atlantique departments.
It is situated at the junction of t ...
, Guy XIV married
Isabelle of Brittany (died 1444), daughter of
John VI, Duke of Brittany
John V, sometimes numbered as VI, (24 December 1389 – 29 August 1442) bynamed John the Wise ( br, Yann ar Fur; french: Jean le Sage), was Duke of Brittany and Count of Montfort from 1399 to his death. His rule coincided with the height of t ...
.
[Diane E. Booton, ''Manuscripts, Market and the Transition to Print in Late Medieval Brittany'', (Ashgate Publishing, 2010), 147.] He was betrothed, in 1420, to
Marguerite of Dreux, Isabelle's sister, who had herself been betrothed to
Louis III d'Anjou.
Duchy of Brittany
In 1439, he negotiated the tentative Anglo-French treaty at
Gravelines
Gravelines (, ; ; ) is a commune in the Nord department in Northern France. It lies at the mouth of the river Aa southwest of Dunkirk. It was formed in the 12th century around the mouth of a canal built to connect Saint-Omer with the sea. As ...
. Guy XIV assisted at
Tours
Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...
, on 14 January 1446, in a notable combat before Charles VII, between the Englishman
Jean Chalons
Jean may refer to:
People
* Jean (female given name)
* Jean (male given name)
* Jean (surname)
Fictional characters
* Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character
* Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations
* J ...
and
Louis du Bueil, with the latter being killed. As his ancestors had founded the four canonical-prebendaries of Saint-Jean-de-Langeais, it was up to him to provide the residency privileges which they dispensed, as a result of which divine service was no longer assured.
Marriage with Françoise de Dinan
It is known that after he had, for financial reasons, let his son Guy XV's engagement to Françoise of Dinan drop in 1440, in favour of Gilles of Brittany. Guy XIV once again abused the young age of this same son, making him break off another engagement to her, when she became the widow of
Gilles of Brittany, and engaged him at 45 years old in February 1451 at
Vitré,
Françoise of Dinan (died 1500),
baronne of Châteaubriant. Guy XIV had no rights on the barony of Châteaubriant.
The Vatican archives contain two solicitations to the
Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...
on this occasion, by Guy XIV and by his son. The inquiry concerning ''François-Guy de Laval, fils aîné de Guy, comte de Laval, seigneur du Gavre'' dates to 23 July 1450 and is addressed to the
bishop of Nantes
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Nantes ( la, Dioecesis Nannetensis; french: Diocèse de Nantes; br, Eskopti Naoned) is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Nantes, France. The diocese consists of the department of Loire- ...
. He begged, for canonical reasons, for an exemption from parental kinship, and from the ban on marriage between a woman and the father of someone to whom she had previously been engaged. The mandate of dispensation for the marriage of Guy XIV and Françoise of Dinan said to be of Thouars from her mother's name, and for their absolution from certain bans, is dated 17 December 1450 and addressed to the
bishop of Vannes
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Vannes (Latin: ''Dioecesis Venetensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Vannes'') is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France.
Erected in the 5th century, the Episcopal see is Vannes Cathedral in ...
.
The Vatican archives mention once more mention the comte of Laval and Françoise of Dinan his wife, in their founding of a psallette (choir school) at the Madeleine at Vitré, on 19 May 1453.
Relationship with Louis XI
King
Louis XI
Louis XI (3 July 1423 – 30 August 1483), called "Louis the Prudent" (french: le Prudent), was King of France from 1461 to 1483. He succeeded his father, Charles VII.
Louis entered into open rebellion against his father in a short-lived revol ...
established a
cour des comptes
The ''Cour des Comptes'' ("Court of Accounts") is France's supreme audit institution, under French law an administrative court. As such, it is independent from the legislative and executive branches of the French Government. However, the 1946 and ...
at Laval in 1463. The following year the king authorised "his cousin" Guy XIV to add a ''first quarter of France'', then ''those of Evreux''
[In remembrance of ]Jeanne d'Évreux
Jeanne may refer to:
Places
* Jeanne (crater), on Venus
People
* Jeanne (given name)
* Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc, 1412–1431)
* Joanna of Flanders (1295–1374)
* Joan, Duchess of Brittany (1319–1384)
* Ruth Stuber Jeanne (1910–2004), Ameri ...
, grandmother of Isabelle of Brittany, wife of Guy XIV - and those of ''Vitré''.
Brocéliande
At the beginning of the 15th century, the
château de Comper
The Château de Comper is a former castle located in Paimpont forest (formerly known as Brocéliande), three kilometers to the east of the village of Concoret in the department of Morbihan in the region of Brittany, France. It has been rebuilt ...
became the fiefdom of the
Laval
Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of:
People
* House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne
* Laval (surname)
Places Belgium
* Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Luxem ...
family. In order to assert better his precedence on the viscountcy of Rohan to the
States of Brittany
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* The State (newspaper), ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, U ...
, Guy XIV de Laval, seigneur of
Brocéliande
Brocéliande, earlier known as Brécheliant and Brécilien, is a legendary enchanted forest that had a reputation in the medieval European imagination as a place of magic and mystery. Brocéliande is featured in several medieval texts, mostly r ...
, pretended, via his parent, to be descended from the ancient kings of
Armorica
Armorica or Aremorica (Gaulish: ; br, Arvorig, ) is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula, extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic Coast ...
Conan and Ponthus. In 1467, he tried to get inserted into the "Chartre des Usements de Brécilie", with the object of the seigneurial rights over the inhabitants of the forest, mentioning the jousts of Ponthus, making a historical fact of a 14th-century fictional romance in the style of the Arthurian legends called "Le roman de Ponthus et la Belle Sidoine".
He was the lieutenant-général of the
duchy of Brittany
The Duchy of Brittany ( br, Dugelezh Breizh, ; french: Duché de Bretagne) was a medieval feudal state that existed between approximately 939 and 1547. Its territory covered the northwestern peninsula of Europe, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
in 1472.
Comte of Laval
Louis XI, in 1482, gave full powers to the comté of Laval, separating it from the
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
. The comté of Laval was directly responsible to the crown of France.
He was buried at the collegial church of Saint-Thugal at Laval. His daughter
Jeanne de Laval (1433–1498) was the wife of king
René I of Anjou
René ('' born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus.
René is the masculine form of the name (Renée being the feminin ...
. His eldest son, Francis, would be
Grand Master of France
The Grand Master of France (french: Grand Maître de France) was, during the and Bourbon Restoration in France, one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France and head of the "", the king's royal household. The position is similar to that of ...
and comte of Laval (
Guy XV de Laval
Guy or GUY may refer to:
Personal names
* Guy (given name)
* Guy (surname)
* That Guy (...), the New Zealand street performer Leigh Hart
Places
* Guy, Alberta, a Canadian hamlet
* Guy, Arkansas, US, a city
* Guy, Indiana, US, an unincorpo ...
), and one of his
cadets Pierre de Laval was
archbishop of Rheims
The Archdiocese of Reims (traditionally spelt "Rheims" in English) ( la, Archidiœcesis Remensis; French: ''Archidiocèse de Reims'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastic territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. Erected as a diocese ...
.
See also
*
Château de Comper
The Château de Comper is a former castle located in Paimpont forest (formerly known as Brocéliande), three kilometers to the east of the village of Concoret in the department of Morbihan in the region of Brittany, France. It has been rebuilt ...
Notes
References
External links
*http://perso.orange.fr/jean-claude.colrat/2laval.htm
Sources
*
*
*
*Jürgen Klötgen, "Une charte retrouvée de Guy XV de Laval (1491) - Notice historique sur les armoiries de Laval", in Revue Historique et Archéologique du Maine, t.CXLVIII, Le Mans, 1997 p. 209-232. See also : Full text from DVD-RHAM Revue Historique et Archéologique du Maine/1875-2000, Copyright by Société Historique et Archéologique du Maine, Le Mans, 2006.
* "Guy XIV de Laval", in Alphonse-Victor Angot, Ferdinand Gaugain, Dictionnaire historique, topographique et biographique de la Mayenne, Goupil, 1900–1910 (
étail édition, t. IV, p. 528.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guy Xiv De Laval
1406 births
1486 deaths
15th-century Breton people
Counts of France
People of the Hundred Years' War
House of Laval