Renée Bordereau (1776 in

Soulaines-sur-Aubance Soulaines-sur-Aubance () is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department of western France. See also *Communes of the Maine-et-Loire department The following is a list of the 177 communes of the Maine-et-Loire department of France. The comm ...

– 1822 in

Vezins, Maine-et-Loire Vezins () is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France. Geography The Èvre river has its source in the commune, 1.5 km north east from the village itself. Demography See also *Communes of the Maine-et-Loire departme ...

), nicknamed ''The

Angevin Angevin or House of Anjou may refer to: *County of Anjou or Duchy of Anjou, a historical county, and later Duchy, in France **Angevin (language), the traditional langue d'oïl spoken in Anjou **Counts and Dukes of Anjou * House of Ingelger, a Frank ...

'', was a French woman who followed her father, disguised herself as a man, and fought as a

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...

cavalier The term Cavalier () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of King Charles I and his son Charles II of England during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration (1642 – ). It ...

in the troops of

Charles Melchior Artus de Bonchamps Charles-Melchior Artus de Bonchamps, Marquis de Bonchamps (10 May 1760 – 18 October 1793) was a French politician and leader of the Vendéan insurrection of Royalists against the Republic during the French Revolution. Born at Juvardeil, Anj ...

during the Vendéan insurrection against the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

(in 1793) and took part in all battles of the war. She was born to peasant family south of

Angers, France Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the prov ...

. She may have done some smuggling during her youth, carrying illegal salt between

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 ...

and

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...

. Her father was part of the riots of the Revolution and as result, was later executed by revolutionaries in December 1793. She is reputed to have killed some twenty of the opposing revolutionary '' Bleues'' including slitting the neck of her own uncle who was a republican. A unit led by her threw six hundred Republican soldiers from the heights of Roche-de-Mûrs in the commune of

Mûrs-Erigné Mûrs-Erigné () is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France. It has a population of 5,522 (2017). Population See also *Communes of the Maine-et-Loire department The following is a list of the 177 communes of the Maine-et- ...

, south of the town of

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the prov ...

Pays de la Loire Pays de la Loire (; ; br, Broioù al Liger) is one of the 18 regions of France, in the west of the mainland. It was created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful of "balancing metropolises" (). ...

, into the Louet River below. Her effectiveness as a soldier is attested by independent sources, including Madame de La Rochejaquelein, who reported "She was of ordinary height and very ugly. One day at Cholet, they pointed her out to me. 'See that soldier who has sleeves of a color different from his coat. That's a girl who fights like a lion.'... Her unbelievable courage was celebrated throughout the whole army." On one of her own experiences, Bordereau wrote: "Arriving near the Loire, I destroyed five of my enemies, and finishing off the day, I broke my sword on the head of the last one... Seeing only one horseman near me, I doubled back to our army. I alone, killed twenty-one that day. I'm not the one who counted them, but those who followed me, and if they hadn't said so, I wouldn't have spoken about it myself."

Quotes

*"''Renée Bordereau, whose father was butchered before her eyes, and who lost forty-two relatives in the civil war of La Vendee; during the course of six years fought in more than two hundred battles, on foot and on horseback, with the most determined intrepidity. In ''one'' battle she killed twenty-one of the enemy. She liberated fifty priests at ''one'' time and eight hundred at another, all of whom would have been executed. A price of 40,000

francs The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...

was set on her head. She was thrown into prison for a crime for which she could only prove her innocence by a discovery of her sex, where she remained five years, until the accession of Louis Eighteenth to the throne of France.''"From ''Hit'' by Mary E. Walker, M. D., pp. 130, 131, New York:The American News Company: 1871.

References

James Bogle, ''Vendee Catholics During the French Revolution''
* Renée Bordereau, ''Mémoires de Renée Bordereau dite Langewin'', NIORT, 1888. * Charles Gilbert, ''Brave l'Angevin ; ou La véritable histoire de Renée Bordereau, cavalier de l'Armée catholique et royale de 1793'', Éditions le Cercle d'Or. * Leah Marie Brown, ''Silence in the Mist: A Novel of the French Revolution'', Eternal Press, 2011. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bordereau, Renee 1770 births 1824 deaths People from Maine-et-Loire Female wartime cross-dressers Royalist insurgents during the French Revolution Military personnel of the War in the Vendée Women in war in France French counter-revolutionaries 18th-century French memoirists