Hugues Quiéret
Encyclopedia
Hugues Quiéret was a French nobleman, admiral and military commander. He was a knight, lord of Tours-en-Vimeu
and of Hamicourt, in Picardie
. Before becoming an admiral, he had been a conseiller, chambellan
, maître d'hôtel du roi, then the seneschal
of Beaucaire and Nimes
from 1325 to 1332.
He was made an admiral, then captain of Tournay
, then an amiral de France. After several victories, he commanded the French fleet at the Battle of Sluys
in 1340, during the Hundred Years' War
between France and England, and was wounded, captured and beheaded by the English.
, an important port for galleys, and of Nîmes
. He was given orders to escort the comtesse de Blois from Montpellier to the château de Corbeil. He was involved in the Gascony War in 1326 and signed a sentence on 8 May 1332 suppressing the fair at Montagnac.
, the post of Admiral of France
had been reformed, and ceased to be assigned to foreigners, as had previously been the case, and was instead granted to Quiéret as a prominent French noble on 7 December 1335. This did not make him supreme commander of the French fleet, however, but instead the subordinate of Raoul d'Eu connétable de France, capitaine général dessus et devant tous les autres de l'armée de la mer, even if Raoul proved a non-entity. Quiéret sought help from the count of Flanders in 1336 with the galères du Levant. Quiéret was good at organising the fleet, playing a large part in improving the arsenals at Leure (beside Harfleur) and at the Cloes des Galées
. However, he was to prove better at organisation than at actual naval combat.
and Leure - the latter had been established in the high middle ages on the sea-shore of the Seine and on a loop formed by the course of the Lézarde, winding through and joining up the marshlands of the estaury, to the south-west of Harfleur (in 1339 the port at Leure provided 32 ships and 3 galleys for Philip's fleet, more than the output of the ports of Dieppe and Harfleur combined). The preparations are evidenced by a command of 8 November 1338 in which Quiéret commissioned Thomas Fouques, garde du clos aux Galées du roi, then at Rouen, to buy at any price the weapons which the mercenaries gathered at Leure and Harfleur had sold off to merchants and which he proposed they instead took on the expedition. However, the most important document on the preparations is the 'quittance' of 2 July 1338 which proved the fleet used gunpowder, the origin of French naval artillery.
The Collection des chroniques nationales françaises writes:
It continues
Quiéret also burned English ships at Bristol
and Plymouth
.
was a naval battle on 23 September 1338, at the start of the Hundred Years' War
, facing a vast French fleet under admirals Hugues Quiéret and Nicolas Béhuchet
against a small squadron of five great English nef
s transporting an enormous cargo of wool to the count of Flanders
, ally of Edward III of England
. It occurred near Arnemuiden
, the port of the island of Walcheren
in the Netherlands. Overwhelmed by the superior numbers and with some of their crew still on shore, the English ships fought bravely, especially the Christofer with its three cannon and one hand gun (the battle was the first instance of European naval artillery) under the command of John Kingston, commander of the squadron. Kingston only surrendered after a day's fighting and exhausting every means of defence. The French captured the rich cargo and took the five nefs into their fleet, but massacred the English prisoners. The chronicles write:
Hugues Quieret was then made captain of Tournay
in 1339.
The chronicles write:
On 24 June 1340, the Battle of Sluys
in the Zwin
estaury (an arm of the sea, now silted up, which led to Bruges
), pitched the numerically dominant French fleet against 250 English ships commanded by Edward III
. This was the first major battle of the Hundred Years' War. Besides forty Mediterranean galleys with experienced Genoese crews led by the mercenary Barbavera, the French also had twenty 'coques' crewed by 200 men at arms and around 130 merchant and fishing ships each with fifty soldiers on board - this made a total of around 30,000 men. The English fleet had 250 ships, 15,000 soldiers and an unknown number of crewmen. The French fleet was commanded by Quiéret and Béhuchet, but they were administrators ordered in principal merely to guarantee an army's safe passage, not frontline fighting sailors. They were ordered to stop Edward's army landing and chained out their fleet in three lines from one river bank to the other, except for four nefs and the Genoese ships.
On the morning of 24 June the English appeared. At midday, born down by the tide and wind, they attacked. The French crossbowmen had the initiative but were quickly outmatched by the Welsh longbowmen's speed of fire. After the fleets met there was fierce hand to hand fighting. Quieret and Béhuchet tried to surround Edward's ship, the Thomas, and Béhuchet was wounded in the chest. Some sources have Quiéret drowning during the battle, but others state he was captured and immediately beheaded despite his wounds by the English, in vengeance for the massacre he had allowed at Arnemuiden two years earlier (Béhuchet was also captured and hung), with his body being thrown into the sea. In the afternoon, thanks to a change in the wind direction, the Flemish fleet was able to leave the river bank and join the battle. Panic gripped the French fleet - having no way to escape other than to swim for it, 17 to 20 thousand French soldiers were killed and only Barbavera and half the Genoese managed to escape. The battle marked the French fleet's destruction and decisive defeat.
Tours-en-Vimeu
Tours-en-Vimeu is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Geography:The commune is situated southwest of Abbeville, on the D22 road-Population:-External links:*...
and of Hamicourt, in Picardie
Picardie
Picardy is one of the 27 regions of France. It is located in the northern part of France.-History:The historical province of Picardy stretched from north of Noyon to Calais, via the whole of the Somme department and the north of the Aisne department...
. Before becoming an admiral, he had been a conseiller, chambellan
Chambellan
Chambellan is a municipality in the Jérémie Arrondissement, in the Grand'Anse Department of Haiti.It has 16,883 inhabitants....
, maître d'hôtel du roi, then the seneschal
Seneschal
A seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. In the French administrative system of the Middle Ages, the sénéchal was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration in southern provinces, equivalent to the northern French bailli...
of Beaucaire and Nimes
Nîmes
Nîmes is the capital of the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and is a popular tourist destination.-History:...
from 1325 to 1332.
He was made an admiral, then captain of Tournay
Tournai
Tournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....
, then an amiral de France. After several victories, he commanded the French fleet at the Battle of Sluys
Battle of Sluys
The decisive naval Battle of Sluys , also called Battle of l'Ecluse was fought on 24 June 1340 as one of the opening conflicts of the Hundred Years' War...
in 1340, during the Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...
between France and England, and was wounded, captured and beheaded by the English.
Family
Hugues's father was also called Hugues, a knight and 'seigneur de Douriez et de Fransu'. The Quiéret family was descended from lords in Picardie, though no genealogy can be produced. They bore the arms of D'hermines, à trois fleurs de lys au pied nourri de gueules support: 2 lions, originating in Hugues Quiéret's marriage in 1312 to Blanche d'Harcourt. Blanche's grandfather, Jean II d'Harcourt, known as le Preux († 1302), was a maréchal de France from 1283 and one of the first admirals of France from 1295. They had several children.Sénéchal de Beaucaire et de Nîmes (1324)
Hugues Quieret was made sénéchal of BeaucaireBeaucaire
Beaucaire is a commune in the Gard department in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France.-Geography:Beaucaire is located on the Rhône River, opposite the town of Tarascon, which is in Bouches-du-Rhône department of Provence.Neighboring communes:...
, an important port for galleys, and of Nîmes
Nîmes
Nîmes is the capital of the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and is a popular tourist destination.-History:...
. He was given orders to escort the comtesse de Blois from Montpellier to the château de Corbeil. He was involved in the Gascony War in 1326 and signed a sentence on 8 May 1332 suppressing the fair at Montagnac.
Admiral (1335)
Under the reign of Philip VI of FrancePhilip VI of France
Philip VI , known as the Fortunate and of Valois, was the King of France from 1328 to his death. He was also Count of Anjou, Maine, and Valois from 1325 to 1328...
, the post of Admiral of France
Admiral of France
The title Admiral of France is one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France, the naval equivalent of Marshal of France.The title was created in 1270 by Louis IX of France, during the Eighth Crusade. At the time it was equivalent to the office of Constable of France. The Admiral was responsible...
had been reformed, and ceased to be assigned to foreigners, as had previously been the case, and was instead granted to Quiéret as a prominent French noble on 7 December 1335. This did not make him supreme commander of the French fleet, however, but instead the subordinate of Raoul d'Eu connétable de France, capitaine général dessus et devant tous les autres de l'armée de la mer, even if Raoul proved a non-entity. Quiéret sought help from the count of Flanders in 1336 with the galères du Levant. Quiéret was good at organising the fleet, playing a large part in improving the arsenals at Leure (beside Harfleur) and at the Cloes des Galées
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
. However, he was to prove better at organisation than at actual naval combat.
Invasion of England (1338)
The provinces promised to provide ships to invade England. These ships' aim was to join up with the French king's ships and transport 4,000 men at arms to England, the whole force being known as la grande armée de la mer. Preparations were put underway for this expedition in HarfleurHarfleur
-Population:-Places of interest:* The church of St-Martin, dating from the fourteenth century.* The seventeenth century Hôtel de Ville .* Medieval ramparts * The fifteenth century museums of fishing and of archaeology and history....
and Leure - the latter had been established in the high middle ages on the sea-shore of the Seine and on a loop formed by the course of the Lézarde, winding through and joining up the marshlands of the estaury, to the south-west of Harfleur (in 1339 the port at Leure provided 32 ships and 3 galleys for Philip's fleet, more than the output of the ports of Dieppe and Harfleur combined). The preparations are evidenced by a command of 8 November 1338 in which Quiéret commissioned Thomas Fouques, garde du clos aux Galées du roi, then at Rouen, to buy at any price the weapons which the mercenaries gathered at Leure and Harfleur had sold off to merchants and which he proposed they instead took on the expedition. However, the most important document on the preparations is the 'quittance' of 2 July 1338 which proved the fleet used gunpowder, the origin of French naval artillery.
The Collection des chroniques nationales françaises writes:
It continues
Quiéret also burned English ships at Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
and Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
.
Battle of Arnemuiden (September 1338)
The battle of ArnemuidenBattle of Arnemuiden
The Battle of Arnemuiden is a naval battle fought on 23 September 1338 at the start of the Hundred Years' War between England and France. It was the first naval battle of the Hundred Years' war and the first naval battle using artillery, as the English ship Christofer had three cannon and one hand...
was a naval battle on 23 September 1338, at the start of the Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...
, facing a vast French fleet under admirals Hugues Quiéret and Nicolas Béhuchet
Nicolas Béhuchet
Nicolas or Béhuchet was a French admiral and financier....
against a small squadron of five great English nef
Nef
-Historical:* Nef an extravagant table-ornament in the shape of a ship, from* a French name for a type of ship called a carrack in English* the French word for nave of a church-People:* Alain Nef , Swiss footballer...
s transporting an enormous cargo of wool to the count of Flanders
Count of Flanders
The Count of Flanders was the ruler or sub-ruler of the county of Flanders from the 9th century until the abolition of the position by the French revolutionaries in 1790....
, ally of Edward III of England
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...
. It occurred near Arnemuiden
Arnemuiden
Arnemuiden is a small city of around 5000 people in the municipality of Middelburg in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands. It is located on the former island of Walcheren, about 3 km east of the city of Middelburg.It received city rights in 1574....
, the port of the island of Walcheren
Walcheren
thumb|right|250px|Campveer Tower in Veere, built in 1500Walcheren is a former island in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands at the mouth of the Scheldt estuary. It lies between the Oosterschelde in the north and the Westerschelde in the south and is roughly the shape of a rhombus...
in the Netherlands. Overwhelmed by the superior numbers and with some of their crew still on shore, the English ships fought bravely, especially the Christofer with its three cannon and one hand gun (the battle was the first instance of European naval artillery) under the command of John Kingston, commander of the squadron. Kingston only surrendered after a day's fighting and exhausting every means of defence. The French captured the rich cargo and took the five nefs into their fleet, but massacred the English prisoners. The chronicles write:
Hugues Quieret was then made captain of Tournay
Tournai
Tournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....
in 1339.
Battle of Sluys
On 24 June 1340, the Battle of Sluys
Battle of Sluys
The decisive naval Battle of Sluys , also called Battle of l'Ecluse was fought on 24 June 1340 as one of the opening conflicts of the Hundred Years' War...
in the Zwin
Zwin
The Zwin is a nature reserve at the North Sea coast, on the Belgian-Dutch border. It consists of the entrace area of a former tidal inlet which during the Middle Ages connected the North Sea with the ports of Sluis and Bruges inland....
estaury (an arm of the sea, now silted up, which led to Bruges
Bruges
Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....
), pitched the numerically dominant French fleet against 250 English ships commanded by Edward III
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...
. This was the first major battle of the Hundred Years' War. Besides forty Mediterranean galleys with experienced Genoese crews led by the mercenary Barbavera, the French also had twenty 'coques' crewed by 200 men at arms and around 130 merchant and fishing ships each with fifty soldiers on board - this made a total of around 30,000 men. The English fleet had 250 ships, 15,000 soldiers and an unknown number of crewmen. The French fleet was commanded by Quiéret and Béhuchet, but they were administrators ordered in principal merely to guarantee an army's safe passage, not frontline fighting sailors. They were ordered to stop Edward's army landing and chained out their fleet in three lines from one river bank to the other, except for four nefs and the Genoese ships.
On the morning of 24 June the English appeared. At midday, born down by the tide and wind, they attacked. The French crossbowmen had the initiative but were quickly outmatched by the Welsh longbowmen's speed of fire. After the fleets met there was fierce hand to hand fighting. Quieret and Béhuchet tried to surround Edward's ship, the Thomas, and Béhuchet was wounded in the chest. Some sources have Quiéret drowning during the battle, but others state he was captured and immediately beheaded despite his wounds by the English, in vengeance for the massacre he had allowed at Arnemuiden two years earlier (Béhuchet was also captured and hung), with his body being thrown into the sea. In the afternoon, thanks to a change in the wind direction, the Flemish fleet was able to leave the river bank and join the battle. Panic gripped the French fleet - having no way to escape other than to swim for it, 17 to 20 thousand French soldiers were killed and only Barbavera and half the Genoese managed to escape. The battle marked the French fleet's destruction and decisive defeat.