Raoul de Gaucourt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Raoul (VI.) De Gaucourt (* around 1371 ; † between 1461 and June 21, 1462 ) was a French nobleman, military, diplomat and court official; he is one of Joan of Arc's companions in arms , was Governor of the Dauphiné and Grand Master of France .

Life

Raoul (VI.) De Gaucourt was the second son of Raoul (V.) de Gaucourt, Seigneur de Gaucourt et d ' Hargicourt († 1417), and Marguerite de Beaumont (-en-Gâtinais), Dame de Luzarches . With the death of his older brother Guillaume de Gaucourt, who is last attested in 1402, he became the presumptive heir to the family fortune, which he received in 1417. From the age of 13 he was in the service of Charles VI. who made him his valet tranchant . In October 1388 he accompanied the king on a trip to Germany in the service of Louis II. De Bourbon , Duke of Bourbon .

In 1396 he took part in the Hungarian crusade Johann Ohnefurchts , Count of Nevers , and was knighted on the occasion of the Battle of Nicopolis (September 25-28, 1396). On his return to France he joined the party of Louis de Valois, duc d'Orléans and the Dauphins Charles de Valois.

He fought on September 23, 1408 in the Battle of Othée against the citizens of Liège under Johann Ohnefurcht, now Duke of Burgundy . In the civil war of the Armagnacs and Bourguignons , which broke out in 1410 between the Armagnaks (the supporters of the respective Dauphin under the leadership of Charles de Valois, duc d'Orléans ) and the Burgundians (under John Fearless), Raoul de Gaucourt stood on the royal side. In 1411 he became chamberlain to the Duke of Orléans.

On October 14, 1411 he captured the bridge of Saint-Cloud from the Burgundians by a surprise attack ; On October 23, 1411, the Burgundians invaded Paris with an army of 60,000 men, and on the night of November 8th to 9th, Johann without fear left the city with a contingent and marched on Saint-Cloud, where he succeeded Provide Armagnac troops and defeat them completely. Also in 1411, Raoul de Gaucourt distinguished himself in the Battle of Le Puiset , in which he captured Jacques II. De Bourbon, comte de La Marche , titular king of Sicily, and freed Arnault Guilhem de Barbazan from the hands of the enemy. The following year he fought a few skirmishes with Valéran III. de Luxembourg , Count of Saint-Pol , whose sieges of Dreux (10-15 July 1412) and Tonnerre (1414) could be lifted. On May 10, 1412 he defeated the Comte de Saint-Pol and Robert de La Heuze, dit Le Borgne (who was Prévôt de Paris for a short time the following year ).

Raoul de Gaucourt he attended the wedding of Jean de Valois, duc de Touraine , who married Jakobäa of Bavaria , heiress of Hainaut , Zealand and Holland on August 6, 1415 , and who in December 1415 through the death of his brother Louis de Valois, duc de Guyenne heir to the throne. On his return he hurried to Harfleur after King Henry V of England and his army had landed nearby on August 13, 1415 on a campaign against France. Its siege of Harfleur began on August 18th, and the assault was to take place a month later after the city walls had been badly damaged; Jean d'Estouteville and Raoul de Gaucourt, as military commanders of the city, previously agreed with Henry V on a surrender if French relief did not arrive by 23 September. When there was no support, the city finally surrendered to the English on the evening of September 22nd. Contrary to the agreement, Raoul de Gaucourt and Jean d'Estouteville were captured by the English and brought to England, where he (Jean) was detained for ten years until he could raise the ransom.

After his release and return, Raoul de Gaucourt fought against the English in Montargis in September 1427 . In the same year he became councilor and chamberlain to King Charles VII. In 1428 he gathered troops to help the city of Orléans , which was pressured by the English and besieged from October 7, 1428 to May 8, 1429. He was then appointed Bailli and Captain of Orléans. He fought in the Battle of Patay on June 18, 1429 , took part in the conquest of Chartres and in the coronation of Charles VII in Reims on July 17, 1429 in the same year. On October 27, 1429 he was appointed captain of the town and castle of Chinon , and on February 4, 1430 governor of the Dauphiné . In this office he defeated Louis de Charlon-Arlay , Prince of Orange , who belonged to the Burgundian party and raised claims to the Dauphiné, at the Battle of Anthon on June 11, 1430 .

1433 then gathered troops in the Dauphiné, with whom he moved to Poitou , Anjou , Touraine and Blésois and finally crossed the Loire to lead his army against the English in Maine . On October 26th 1433 he was released from his military offices by King Charles VII and appointed to his area and his council in November of the same year. On February 21, 1434 he was sent as ambassador to Emperor Sigismund . In the Dauphiné he was represented by Jean Girard, Archbishop of Embrun , and from August 26, 1434 by Guillaume Juvénal des Ursins , who later became Chancellor of France .

After the entry into Paris on April 13, 1436 by Jean de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam and the Connétable de Richmond , he secured the Île-de-France militarily a. a. by stationing a garrison in Saint-Denis on September 10, 1436. From August to October 1437 he fought in the siege of Montereau. In the same year he was appointed Prime Minister Chambellan by King Charles VII. 1438 he was with Thibaut Lemoine, bishop of Chartres , as an envoy to the Pope, then in Naples, on behalf of the French king a peace between Alfonso V of Aragon as king of Sicily, the captive of the Milanese duke Filippo Maria Visconti fall was to negotiate and his opponents. He stayed in southern Italy from June 20 to October 6, 1439.

He also stood at the king's side in the Praguerie in 1440. In the same year he was reappointed captain of the town and castle of Chinon , which he held until 1459. At the end of 1441 he was captured by the English (again) at Harfleur , but released after he had taken his sons hostage. On August 15, 1443 he helped with the Dauphin, who later became King Louis XI. of Castle Dieppe that of the English under John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury was besieged. On behalf of the Dauphin, he traveled to the German King Friedrich III the following year .

In 1448 he was sent to Milan as a diplomat (there Filippo Maria Visconti died and the Ambrosian Republic was proclaimed), then, in the same year, to King Henry VI. of England to negotiate and reassert attacks on the attacks that followed the 1444 armistice. When the king entered the recaptured Rouen on November 10, 1449, he took part as Prime Minister Chambellan and was then appointed captain of Rouen and Gisors . In February 1451 he traveled with Jean Juvénal des Ursins , the Archbishop of Reims , as ambassador to Philip III, Duke of Burgundy , to clarify open details about the Treaty of Arras of 1435 .

In 1453 he was appointed Grand Maître de France et de l'Hôtel du Roi as the successor to the late Jacques I. de Chabannes , and in 1461 he lost the office in connection with the accession of Louis XI. - at the age of around 90. Raoul de Gaucourt's death is not documented, what is certain is that he died on June 21, 1462.

marriage and family

Raoul de Gaucourt married Jeanne de Preuilly, Dame de Naillac, Châteaubrun et Cluys-Dessus († 1455), daughter of Gilles de Preuilly, Baron de Preuilly, and Marguerite de Naillac. Your children are:

  • Charles de Gaucourt († 1482), Seigneur de Gaucourt, Hargicourt, Châteaubrun, Robais, Manicamp, Naillac, Florac et Audivier, Vicomte d'Acy; ∞ 1454 Agnès (called Colette) de Vaux († before 1471), daughter of Jean de Vaux, Seigneur de Saintines (or Saint-Yves), and Anne (or Jeanne) Le Bouteiller
  • Jean de Gaucourt († June 10, 1468), canon in Noyon, then Bishop of Laon, Pair de France
  • Raoul de Gaucourt, Seigneur de Luzarches et Hargicourt, 1493 attested; ∞ Marguerite de Poissy, daughter of Gasce de Poissy and Agnèsde Montmorency
  • Marie de Gaucourt (* around 1431, † before 1489; ∞ (1) June 5, 1456 Charles de Tournon, Seigneur de Serrières, La Roche, Mahut et Belcastel, Baron de Tournon († 1463/64), son of Guillaume de Tournon , Seigneur de Tournon; ∞ (2) René (de) Cossa, Seigneur de Marignane, † before 1469, son of Jean Cossa

literature

Web link

  • Ètienne Pattou, Seigneurs de Gaucourt , pp. 4–6 ( accessed online on May 18, 2020)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dauphin and heir to the throne were successively the brothers Charles de Valois († 1401), Louis de Valois († 1415), Jean de Valois († 1417) and (another) Charles de Valois, who succeeded the throne as Charles VIII in 1422.
  2. ↑ Père Anselme et al. a. give the duration of the siege as eight months, which is obviously far too high
  3. ↑ It can be assumed that his governorship in the Dauphiné ended in 1440, especially since his deputy Juvenal des Ursins was no longer active there from that year.
personal data
SURNAME Gaucourt, Raoul de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gaucourt, Raoul VI. de; Seigneur de Gaucourt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French nobleman, military man and diplomat, Governor of the Dauphiné, Grand Master of France
DATE OF BIRTH around 1371
DATE OF DEATH between 1461 and June 21, 1462