Mad War
Encyclopedia
The Mad War also known as the War of the Public Weal, 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 the young king Charles VIII
. The war began in 1485 and ended in 1488.
The principal lords involved were Louis II of Orléans
, the cousin of the king (and future Louis XII of France); Francis II of Brittany; René II, Duke of Lorraine
; Alain d'Albret; Jean de Châlon, Prince of Orange
; Count Charles of Angoulême. Other leading lords supported the revolt, among them Jean de Lescun, "the Bastard of Armagnac", Philippe de Commines
and governor of Guyenne and Commines.
As a revolt against French royal authority it was supported by the foreign enemies of the King of France: England, Spain and Austria. Its principal outcome was the absorption of Brittany into the French kingdom.
There is some dispute about the extent to which the events can be defined as a single war. It followed a long succession of conflicts between royalty and the great lords of the kingdom in second half of the 15th century, following the foundation of the League of the Public Weal
. As part of these power struggles, in 1484-1485, Louis II of Orléans, supported by Francis II of Brittany and a certain number of lords, attempted to depose the regent, Anne de Beaujeu. Mostly by a mixture of diplomacy and shows of force, Anne succeeded in breaking the revolt without a major battle. On November 2, 1485, the peace of Bourges suspended the hostilities.
According to some historians, this ended the first phase of the "Mad War". The second phase of the conflict, from June 1486 to November 1488, is sometimes called the War of Brittany. Other commentators, mainly Breton nationalists
, distinguish this second phase from the first, making it into a Franco-Breton war, or even a Breton war of independence, sometimes by connecting it to the earlier Breton War of Succession
.
(January 15 to March 11, 1484). In April, Louis of Orléans left for Brittany to join its Duke, Francis. He also sent a request to the pope to annul his marriage, so that he would be free to marry Anne of Brittany
, Francis's heir. On November 23 he signed a treaty which envisaged his marriage with Anne. Returning to the royal court, Louis of Orléans tried to take the king into his custody, but Anne de Beaujeu prevented him by force. She stopped some lords of the royal guard, and placed the Duke of Orléans under house arrest at Gien.
Having escaped from Gien, on January 17, 1485, Louis tried to invest Paris, but failed. He managed to escape on February 3 to Alençon, and made amende honorable
on March 12. Royal troops placed around Évreux prevented him from joining Brittany, and he was locked up in Orléans. At the same time, the roused Breton nobility was brought back to order by the royal troops.
On August 30, Louis of Orléans launched a proclamation against the regency. The royal army went to Orléans, but Louis escaped to Beaugency, from where he was dislodged by the young Louis II de La Trémoille
in September. On August 9, Francis II of Brittany also agreed to a truce. The truce was agreed for one year, and is known as the Peace of Bourges, signed on November 2, 1485.
With the end of the truce, the rebellion again erupted. Already in June 1486, Maximilian I of Austria
had invaded the north of France, but then retreated; in November, the rebel François de Dunois seized the castle of Parthenay
. On January 11, 1487, Louis of Orléans escaped from the castle of Blois and, pursued by royal archers, took refuge again in Brittany. The royal army left from Tour at the beginning of February and began its offensive in the south-west. At Bordeaux on March 7 Odet d’Aydie, the pro-rebel governor of Guyenne, was deposed and replaced by Pierre de Beaujeu. The royal army set out from Bordeaux on the 15th, to take Parthenay on the 30th, Dunois managing to join Louis of Orléans in Nantes
. The royal army then proceeded towards Brittany. With the Treaty of Chateaubriant, most of the Breton nobility came to an accommodation with the king. Royal forces agreed that the Duke would not be threatened by the army, which would leave Brittany as soon as the two rebels (Orléans and Dunois) were captured.
Meanwhile in the north, the Marshal de Esquerdes successfully pushed back Maximilian I of Austria, who had shortly before been elected Holy Roman Emperor
. In the south, the Lord de Candale beat Alain d'Albret, a leading rebel, at the Battle of Nontron
. d'Albret had intended to join the rebels in the North, but was forced to give up hostages. In Brittany, the allies of the royal party directed by the Viscount de Rohan held the north of the duchy, and took Ploërmel
.
In April, Duke Francis II's attempt to mobilize Breton military forces (nobility and urban militia) failed due to widespread resentment of the corruption of his government. At the same time, the royal army advanced into Brittany. It was accommodated favorably in Châteaubriant, Vitré, Ancenis and Clisson. It besieged Nantes, but Cornish allies of Brittany helped by foreign mercenaries, broke the siege. At the same time, Norman corsair
s blockaded the Breton coast to stop further pro-Breton forces arriving from Britain and elsewhere.
On January 20, 1488, the Dukes of Orléans and Brittany were both declared rebels at the Parlement of Paris. They and their associates were no more regarded as vassals, but as subjects, guilty of lèse-majesté. In spring, the Duke of Orléans renewed the struggle for his ally, taking Vannes, Auray and Ploërmel, forcing the Viscount of Rohan to capitulate.
On April 24, a judgment of confiscation was declared against all the goods of Louis of Orléans. Meanwhile, Alain d'Albret had obtained a subsidy from the court of Spain, and joined Brittany with 5000 men. Maximilian I of Austria also sent 1500 men to him. The English leader Lord Scales also successfully landed with reinforcements. Despite this concentration of forces the Breton alliance was still outnumbered. It was further weakened because Maximilian I was diverted by a rebellion in Flanders, which was being supported by Marshal de Esquerdes. The various lords supporting the Duke of Brittany were also in dispute with each other for the hand of Anne of Brittany: Louis of Orléans, Alain d'Albret and Maximilian I all being candidates.
The French royal general Louis II de la Trémoille gathered his forces on the border of the duchy, preparing to attack. On July 12, royal forces captured Fougères
, then Dinan
. Soon, the main Breton and French armies met at the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier
on July 28, 1488. The Breton forces, led by Marshal de Rieux, were decisively beaten by the French. The defeat put an end to the war. The Duke of Orléans was captured and Duke Francis II was forced to accept a treaty which greatly diminished his power.
Francis II died on September 9. Anne of Brittany became duchess in January of the following year. An amnesty was granted to Lescun, Dunois, and the majority of the combatants. Louis of Orléans was locked up in a fortress, but eventually pardoned by Charles VIII when he reached his majority three years later. Louis later succeeded Charles as king and married Anne.
Charles VIII of France
Charles VIII, called the Affable, , was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. Charles was a member of the House of Valois...
. The war began in 1485 and ended in 1488.
The principal lords involved were Louis II of Orléans
Louis XII of France
Louis proved to be a popular king. At the end of his reign the crown deficit was no greater than it had been when he succeeded Charles VIII in 1498, despite several expensive military campaigns in Italy. His fiscal reforms of 1504 and 1508 tightened and improved procedures for the collection of taxes...
, the cousin of the king (and future Louis XII of France); Francis II of Brittany; René II, Duke of Lorraine
René II, Duke of Lorraine
René II was Count of Vaudémont from 1470, Duke of Lorraine from 1473, and Duke of Bar from 1483 to 1508. He claimed the crown of the Kingdom of Naples and the County of Provence as the Duke of Calabria 1480–1493 and as King of Naples and Jerusalem 1493–1508...
; Alain d'Albret; Jean de Châlon, Prince of Orange
John IV of Chalon-Arlay
John IV of Chalon-Arlay or John of Chalon was a prince of Orange and lord of Chalon-Arlay. He was the son of William VII of Chalon and the father of Philibert of Châlon and Claudia of Châlon....
; Count Charles of Angoulême. Other leading lords supported the revolt, among them Jean de Lescun, "the Bastard of Armagnac", Philippe de Commines
Philippe de Commines
Philippe de Commines was a writer and diplomat in the courts of Burgundy and France. He has been called "the first truly modern writer" and "the first critical and philosophical historian since classical times"...
and governor of Guyenne and Commines.
As a revolt against French royal authority it was supported by the foreign enemies of the King of France: England, Spain and Austria. Its principal outcome was the absorption of Brittany into the French kingdom.
Name and extent
The derogatory expression "mad war" to designate this struggle of major feudal lords against royal power was coined by Paul Emile, in his Histoire des faicts, gestes et conquestes des roys de France published in 1581.There is some dispute about the extent to which the events can be defined as a single war. It followed a long succession of conflicts between royalty and the great lords of the kingdom in second half of the 15th century, following the foundation of the League of the Public Weal
League of the Public Weal
The League of the Public Weal was an alliance of feudal nobles organized in 1465 in defiance of the centralized authority of King Louis XI of France...
. As part of these power struggles, in 1484-1485, Louis II of Orléans, supported by Francis II of Brittany and a certain number of lords, attempted to depose the regent, Anne de Beaujeu. Mostly by a mixture of diplomacy and shows of force, Anne succeeded in breaking the revolt without a major battle. On November 2, 1485, the peace of Bourges suspended the hostilities.
According to some historians, this ended the first phase of the "Mad War". The second phase of the conflict, from June 1486 to November 1488, is sometimes called the War of Brittany. Other commentators, mainly Breton nationalists
Breton nationalism
Breton nationalism is the nationalism of the traditional province of Brittany in France. Brittany is considered to be one of the six Celtic nations...
, distinguish this second phase from the first, making it into a Franco-Breton war, or even a Breton war of independence, sometimes by connecting it to the earlier Breton War of Succession
Breton War of Succession
The Breton War of Succession was a conflict between the Houses of Blois and Montfort for control of the Duchy of Brittany. It was fought between 1341 and 1364. It formed an integral part of the early Hundred Years War due to the involvement of the French and English governments in the conflict; the...
.
Development
At the beginning of the reign of Charles VIII, Louis II of Orléans tried to seize the regency, but was rejected by the States General of ToursTours
Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
(January 15 to March 11, 1484). In April, Louis of Orléans left for Brittany to join its Duke, Francis. He also sent a request to the pope to annul his marriage, so that he would be free to marry Anne of Brittany
Anne of Brittany
Anne, Duchess of Brittany , also known as Anna of Brittany , was a Breton ruler, who was to become queen to two successive French kings. She was born in Nantes, Brittany, and was the daughter of Francis II, Duke of Brittany and Margaret of Foix. Her maternal grandparents were Queen Eleanor of...
, Francis's heir. On November 23 he signed a treaty which envisaged his marriage with Anne. Returning to the royal court, Louis of Orléans tried to take the king into his custody, but Anne de Beaujeu prevented him by force. She stopped some lords of the royal guard, and placed the Duke of Orléans under house arrest at Gien.
Having escaped from Gien, on January 17, 1485, Louis tried to invest Paris, but failed. He managed to escape on February 3 to Alençon, and made amende honorable
Amende honorable
Amende honorable was originally a mode of punishment in France which required the offender, barefoot and stripped to his shirt, and led into a church or auditory with a torch in his hand and a rope round his neck held by the public executioner, to beg pardon on his knees of his God, his king, and...
on March 12. Royal troops placed around Évreux prevented him from joining Brittany, and he was locked up in Orléans. At the same time, the roused Breton nobility was brought back to order by the royal troops.
On August 30, Louis of Orléans launched a proclamation against the regency. The royal army went to Orléans, but Louis escaped to Beaugency, from where he was dislodged by the young Louis II de La Trémoille
Louis II de la Trémoille
thumb|Portrait of Louis II de la Trémoille by [[Domenico Ghirlandaio]] or one of his assistants.Louis II de la Trémoille was a French general. He served under three kings: Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I...
in September. On August 9, Francis II of Brittany also agreed to a truce. The truce was agreed for one year, and is known as the Peace of Bourges, signed on November 2, 1485.
Renewed hostilities
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I , the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleanor of Portugal, was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never in fact crowned by the Pope, the journey to Rome always being too risky...
had invaded the north of France, but then retreated; in November, the rebel François de Dunois seized the castle of Parthenay
Parthenay
Parthenay is an ancient fortified town and commune in the Poitou-Charentes region in western France, sited on a rocky spur that is surrounded on two sides by the River Thouet...
. On January 11, 1487, Louis of Orléans escaped from the castle of Blois and, pursued by royal archers, took refuge again in Brittany. The royal army left from Tour at the beginning of February and began its offensive in the south-west. At Bordeaux on March 7 Odet d’Aydie, the pro-rebel governor of Guyenne, was deposed and replaced by Pierre de Beaujeu. The royal army set out from Bordeaux on the 15th, to take Parthenay on the 30th, Dunois managing to join Louis of Orléans in Nantes
Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
. The royal army then proceeded towards Brittany. With the Treaty of Chateaubriant, most of the Breton nobility came to an accommodation with the king. Royal forces agreed that the Duke would not be threatened by the army, which would leave Brittany as soon as the two rebels (Orléans and Dunois) were captured.
Meanwhile in the north, the Marshal de Esquerdes successfully pushed back Maximilian I of Austria, who had shortly before been elected Holy Roman Emperor
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...
. In the south, the Lord de Candale beat Alain d'Albret, a leading rebel, at the Battle of Nontron
Nontron
Nontron is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.-History:According to the historian Ribault de Laugardière, the name Nontron derives from the Tyrian language, from Nata and Dun...
. d'Albret had intended to join the rebels in the North, but was forced to give up hostages. In Brittany, the allies of the royal party directed by the Viscount de Rohan held the north of the duchy, and took Ploërmel
Ploërmel
Ploërmel is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.-Character of the town:It is a growing and developing community with a thriving economy and a lively atmosphere. The town is modern rather than romantically mediaeval, but it is clean and attractive and offers a...
.
In April, Duke Francis II's attempt to mobilize Breton military forces (nobility and urban militia) failed due to widespread resentment of the corruption of his government. At the same time, the royal army advanced into Brittany. It was accommodated favorably in Châteaubriant, Vitré, Ancenis and Clisson. It besieged Nantes, but Cornish allies of Brittany helped by foreign mercenaries, broke the siege. At the same time, Norman corsair
Corsair
Corsairs were privateers, authorized to conduct raids on shipping of a nation at war with France, on behalf of the French Crown. Seized vessels and cargo were sold at auction, with the corsair captain entitled to a portion of the proceeds...
s blockaded the Breton coast to stop further pro-Breton forces arriving from Britain and elsewhere.
On January 20, 1488, the Dukes of Orléans and Brittany were both declared rebels at the Parlement of Paris. They and their associates were no more regarded as vassals, but as subjects, guilty of lèse-majesté. In spring, the Duke of Orléans renewed the struggle for his ally, taking Vannes, Auray and Ploërmel, forcing the Viscount of Rohan to capitulate.
On April 24, a judgment of confiscation was declared against all the goods of Louis of Orléans. Meanwhile, Alain d'Albret had obtained a subsidy from the court of Spain, and joined Brittany with 5000 men. Maximilian I of Austria also sent 1500 men to him. The English leader Lord Scales also successfully landed with reinforcements. Despite this concentration of forces the Breton alliance was still outnumbered. It was further weakened because Maximilian I was diverted by a rebellion in Flanders, which was being supported by Marshal de Esquerdes. The various lords supporting the Duke of Brittany were also in dispute with each other for the hand of Anne of Brittany: Louis of Orléans, Alain d'Albret and Maximilian I all being candidates.
The French royal general Louis II de la Trémoille gathered his forces on the border of the duchy, preparing to attack. On July 12, royal forces captured Fougères
Fougères
Fougères is a commune and a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany, in north-western France.-Sights:Fougères' major monument is a medieval stronghold built atop a granite ledge, which was part of the ultimately unsuccessful defence system of the Duchy of Brittany against...
, then Dinan
Dinan
Dinan is a walled Breton town and a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in northwestern France.-Geography:Its geographical setting is exceptional. Instead of nestling on the valley floor like Morlaix, most urban development has been on the hillside, overlooking the river Rance...
. Soon, the main Breton and French armies met at the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier
Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier (1488)
The Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier took place on July 28, 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" , a feudal conflict in which French aristocrats revolted...
on July 28, 1488. The Breton forces, led by Marshal de Rieux, were decisively beaten by the French. The defeat put an end to the war. The Duke of Orléans was captured and Duke Francis II was forced to accept a treaty which greatly diminished his power.
Francis II died on September 9. Anne of Brittany became duchess in January of the following year. An amnesty was granted to Lescun, Dunois, and the majority of the combatants. Louis of Orléans was locked up in a fortress, but eventually pardoned by Charles VIII when he reached his majority three years later. Louis later succeeded Charles as king and married Anne.