#captal de buch

[duxvonzazer]

Captal de Buch

[wonder-worker]

In order to prevent Blanca (II of Navarre) from opposing the terms of the treaty and her disinheritance, it was decided to send her north on the pretext of marrying Charles, Duke of Berri and brother of Magdalena and Louis XI. When Blanca rejected the idea of the match and refused to leave Navarre, she was taken by force. By April 23, she had reached the monastery of Roncesvalles, where she wrote a lengthy missive, protesting about her abduction, claiming “my father took me by force and contrary to my will.” In this document, Blanca repeatedly refers to herself as “the firstborn [eldest] and queen regnant and Lady and heiress of the said kingdom,” which she noted came to her through “the maternal line.” The princess castigated her father for his treatment of the Principe de Viana, claiming Juan had “forgotten the love and paternal duty” that he owed his eldest son. Blanca also blamed her sister and brother-in-law’s ambition to rule Navarre for her plight; “The said Count of Foix and his wife, my sister, are taking me to exile me and to disinherit me of my kingdom of Navarre.”

Blanca became increasingly desperate as she was taken further north, drafting appeals for help to her former husband, the King of Castile, her cousin the Count of Armagnac and the head of her Beaumont supporters. By April 30, she gave up her brave defense of her position as the rightful queen and attempted to donate her right to the crown to her ex-husband, Enrique of Castile, rather than see the kingdom go to her younger sister. Once Blanca reached the northern frontier of Navarre, she was transferred to the custody of the Captal de Buch and imprisoned in the castle of Orthez, a stronghold that belonged to her brother-in-law, Gaston of Foix.

Blanca’s removal did not quiet her supporters or end the struggle over the succession of the realm. Civil war still raged between the Beaumonts, who championed Blanca, and their rivals, the Agramonts, and matters had been made worse by Enrique of Castile’s decision to invade Navarre to press the claim to the throne that his ex-wife had bestowed on him. The Bishop of Pamplona attempted to resolve the situation with the Accord of Tafalla in late November 1464, which called for Blanca’s return to Navarre in order to settle the matter of the succession. Unfortunately, Blanca was unable to respond to the summons as she died, rather suspiciously, shortly afterward on December 2, 1464. Her sister Leonor has been repeatedly accused by chroniclers, historians, novelists, and other writers of being involved in Blanca’s death, although there is little definitive evidence to support this allegation. There is no doubt that Leonor had a motive for her sister’s murder, but Courteault has argued that given that only ten days lapsed between the ratification of the agreement and the death of the princess, it is difficult to claim that Blanca was killed specifically in response to the drafting of the accord. The eighteenth-century historian Enrique Flórez accurately summed up Blanca’s difficult position: “because [she] did not have the strength to maintain the right to the crown, she lost not only the kingdom, but her freedom and her life.

-Elena Woodacre, "The Queens Regnant of Navarre: Succession, Politics and Partnership, 1274-1512"

[histoireettralala]

Cocherel

From top to bottom, left to right:

Jean de Grailly surrenders to Bertrand du Guesclin, by Charles-Philippe Larivière, 1839

Illumination representing the Battle of Cocherel decorating the Chronicles of Jean Froissart, XVth century manuscript

Bertrand du Guesclin being given the Sword of the Constable, miniature attributed to Jean Fouquet, circa 1455-1460, in the Grandes Chroniques de France

Coat of arms of Bertand du Guesclin

Memorial of Cocherel

The Battle of Cocherel, illumination in the Toison d’Or of Guillaume Fillastre, XVth century manuscript

Bertrand du Guesclin, engraving by Alphonse de Neuville, XIXth century

Joan de Buch, miniature, Bruges Garter Book, 1430-1440

On Thursday 16 May 1364, in Cocherel, there is a battle between the troops of Charles V, King of France, and those of Charles le Mauvais, King of Navarre, allied to the English, and himself pretending to the Crown of France.

The French troops are led by Bertrand du Guesclin, and the Anglo-Navarrese by the Captal de Buch, Johan (or Jean) de Grailly, reinforced by english archers under Blancbourg and Jean Jouel. There are also on both sides some "Compagnies de routiers" (mercenaries).

The new King Charles V has inherited a catastrophic situation. His father, Jean II le Bon, has been made prisoner after the battle of Poitiers and forced to pay a huge ransom and to sign the treaty of Brétigny. Jean II just recently died, on April 8, 1364.

The Grandes Compagnies, mainly made up of English and Gascons, have spread between the rivers Seine and Loire and are perpetrating unbearable abuse.

Charles II de Navarre, warring against France for the Burgundian Succession, has hired those Companies and gone to Normandy with the aim of stopping Charles V's coronation.

Charles V has to fight on several fronts.

The anglo-navarrese comprise 5000 to 6000 men, and among them 300 archers and 500 mercernaries from Normandy, Gascony, and England. The French are about 3000, Burgundian knights, Bretons, Picards, people from Ile de France, and also some Gascons.

From his Norman holdings, Charles le Mauvais initiates a blocus of Paris. Charles V asks du Guesclin to clear the Seine. May 14, the Captal de Buch gathers his garrisons to march against the Breton. Arrived in Cocherel on May 15, he installs his troops on a nearby hill, which he fortifies. Meanwhile, du Guesclin's troops arrive in Cocherel and settle, knowing the Navarrese would rather hold on their fort than try a surprise attack.

May 16 is a hot, sunny day.

The morning is spent negotiating. The Captal tells the French some more 1500 men are going to reinforce him, to try to have the French attack them now. The French don't fall for it.

At noon, the two armies still hold their positions. The weather is uncomfortably hot and something has to give.

Du Guesclin, around 15h, decides for a trick, and, with trumpets blowing, the French army begins to retreat.

The Captal suspects a trick but Jean Jouel, believing it's a retreat, has his men charge. While the English rush down the hill, Du Guesclin signals his men to turn round and soon Jouel's troops are overwhelmed. His archers, too close to the enemy, can't intervene. It's a hand to hand fight. Thirty Gascon knights from the rearguard circumvent the anglo-navaresse and captures the Captal and his standard. Baudouin de Lens, commanding the French infantry, is killed; but so are on the english side the Bastard of Mareuil and Jean Jouel (died from his wounds several days after the battle). With the Captal captured, the anglo-navarrese troops have lost their leaders and they retreat.

Charles V is anointed and crowned in the Cathedral of Reims on May 19. Charles le Mauvais signs in 1365 the Treaty of Pampelune with Charles V, renouncing the Crown of France. In March 1365 the two kings agree for an exchange, the King of Navarre giving up his Norman possessions of Mantes, Meulan and Longueville, while Charles V gives up the city and lordship of Montpellier.

The Hundred Years War can be divided in four different stages. If the first one, under Edward III, up to the Treaty of Brétigny, is undeniably victorious for the English, the advent of Charles V (the Wise) reverses the trend. His reconquest is patient and thorough, thanks to his sense of strategy and his diplomacy. When he dies in 1380, the English have lost all their possessions on the continent except Calais, Cherbourg, Brest, Bordeaux, Bayonne and some fortresses in the Massif Central.

Cocherel is the dawn of a great reign.

[isadomna]

Doña Blanca de Navarra entregada al captal de Buch  por mosén Pierres de Peralta

1869. Óleo sobre lienzo, 58 x 106 cm.

Eduardo Rosales Gallinas

Blanche II of Navarre (1424-1464). Queen of Navarre. Blanche of Navarre is delivered to the Captal of Buch, who orders imprison her into a castle.

Esta obra tuvo su origen en un encargo realizado por José Olea, coleccionista de obras de Rosales. El pintor la comenzó en Roma en 1868 y la terminó en Madrid al año siguiente. Junto con la Presentación de Don Juan de Austria al emperador Carlos V en Yuste es un buen ejemplo de la adecuación del cuadro de historia a un formato de menores dimensiones, más apropiado para residencias burguesas, y en el que el artista podía dejar ver de cerca la calidad de su pintura. La composición, como en aquella obra, es muy clara, en forma de friso que presenta en el centro a los principales personajes. Lo mismo que en aquella obra, para la que el artista había recurrido a un interior del palacio Chigi en Ariccia como punto de partida para representar una hipotética sala del monasterio de Yuste, Rosales ambientó la escena en un palacio italiano, en este caso el cortile del palacio del Podestá de Florencia. Esto le permitió ordenar la escena con su triple arcada y la escalera por la que descienden las damas de compañía de Doña Blanca, a quien Mosén Pierres de Peralta va a entregar, por orden de Juan II, padre de Doña Blanca, al captal del Buch para su traslado a prisión en castigo a su negativa a contraer matrimonio con Carlos, duque de Berry, hijo de Luis XI de Francia. (x)

[swiftsnowmane]

So lovely was their duet that the Captal de Buch who had paused, panting from the stairs, outside the door of the Hall, turned with startled emotion to Nirac who had followed him. “Nom de Vierge! Can that be the Duke? They sing like angels in there together. Are they then so happy?” 

Nirac shrugged and answered with harshness, “No doubt they are, captal. I’ve not seen them in three days. The tiring-woman waits on them.” 

The captal raised his bushy eyebrows and laughed. “Oh la belle chose, hein?” he said winking at Nirac. “One forgets all else!” He thumped with his fist on the door, but they were finishing their song and did not hear him, so he opened the door. Earthy libertine though he was, the captal’s roguish greeting died in his throat when he saw them.

The two on the cushions seemed to be bathed in light. The girl was but half clothed yet so pure was the beauty of her arms and breasts gleaming like alabaster between strands of long auburn hair, and so adoring the expression on the Duke’s face, that the captal saw no lewdness, but felt instead a bitter stab of nostalgia. Thirty years ago there had been a moment almost like this for him too, but it had lasted only a little while, when the woman had died.

“Your pardon, my lord—lady—” he stammered, backing off. He saw the measure of the entrancement which held the Duke, in that he did not flash with fury at this interruption. Instead he put his arm around the girl and held her against him in a gesture so tender and protective that the captal swallowed hard.

“What is it, my good de Grailly?” John said. “Have you come to be thanked for your wondrous hospitality?” He smiled and bending his head laid his cheek for a moment against Katherine’s hair. “We will not need paradise, I think, my Katrine, after Château la Teste.”

The girl raised her brilliant eyes and moved in her lover’s arm, as though she nestled closer.

The captal cleared his throat. “I came, my lord, because you told me to. It—it is now Thursday night. There are— are many urgent matters awaiting you at Bordeaux.” He saw the wincing that passed over the girl’s face and added uncomfortably, “May I have a few words with you, my lord?”

The Duke started to refuse, but Katherine, clutching her white robe around her, slipped from his arm, and giving the captal a proud tremulous smile, walked back into the bedchamber.

“She’s of a great beauty, your little Swynford, mon duc,” said the captal, recovering his aplomb now that Katherine was gone. “I congratulate you on a delicious interlude. I deeply regret to wrest you out of it.”

The Duke looked at him strangely, and said, “She is my heart’s blood. My life. I want nothing but her.”

— Katherine, Anya Seton

[carloskaplan]

?Dona Blanca de Navarra entregada ao Captal de Buch', de Eduardo Rosales

[nanshe-of-nina]

Hundred Years’ War (Caroline phase) + The Onion headlines

[foroelgrancapitan]

Juan III de Grailly (Captal de Buch) y sus gascones saquean la ciudadela de Vierzon (batalla de Poitiers). Año 1.356. Graham Turner. Azarosa vida la de este personaje, con el título de Captal. Del lado inglés en la Guerra delos 100 años, fue fundador y cuarto miembro de la Orden de la Jarretera en 1.348. Ayudó a capturar al Rey de Francia en Poiters en 1.356. Capturado en Normandía por Bertrand Du Guesclin, se pasa al lado francés y es nombrado Señor de Nemours. Después vuelve al inglés en 1.367, combatiendo en Nájera donde capturaron a Du Guesclin. Capturado a su vez por un caballero galés al servicio francés cuando trataba de romper el asedio a La Rochelle en 1.372. Murió en cautividad en 1.376, pues consideraron muy peligroso liberarlo a cambio de un rescate... http://ift.tt/2vVWaN3 http://ift.tt/2eXo5pd

[foroelgrancapitan]

Guerra de los Cien Años, batalla de Poitiers, Juan III de Grailly (Captal de Buch) inicia un movimiento de flanqueo con 60 hombres de armas y cien arqueros montados que termina con la resistencia francesa y la captura de su Rey Juan II el Bueno (¿?) y la mayor parte de la nobleza francesa. Cortesía de Peter Dennis. http://ift.tt/2uKy9bq http://ift.tt/2w9G6KE