On
the 25th of October 1415, during the battle of Azincourt, the Provost
of the Marshals, Gallois de Fougières, was killed in the line of duty.
If Gallois de Fougières isn't the first known Provost of the Marshals,
his is however considered the first « Gendarme » to have died in the line of duty.
These
days, even though the provost of the marshals is, in some ways, an icon
of the Gendarmerie Nationale (a graduating company from the officers'
school and a barracks carry his name), because of a lack of historical
sources, his origins aren't well-known and, to this day, only the
ressearch done by Captain BENOIT-GUYOT from 1934 to 1936 concerned this
illustrious ancestor of today's gendarme.
This essay is part of a larger ressearch project devoted to the origins of the Gendarmerie Nationale called « Des gens d'armes aux gendarmes, aux origines de de la Gendarmerie » (from
armsmen to gendarmes, the origins of the Gendarmerie) which is
currently being worked on by the director of the museum of Azincourt,
Mister Christophe GILLIOT.
The current essay will concern the man, Gallois de Fougières. Who was he ? Where did he come from ? What were his arms ?
The virtues of spelling
A
medieval historian is aware of the difficulties in ressearching
medieval history. Following difficulties in paleography usually come
terminology problems. Conventional spelling only being established quite
late (at the end of the 16th century), we had to sweep so as to, after
much historical ressearch, proceed to sift through the possibilities and
eliminate the wrong ones. The name « de Fougières » being easily subjected to misspellings, we widened our ressearch parameters to the following surnames and toponyms :
- Fougères
- Fougère
- Fougières
- Fougière
- Fouchières
- Fouchière
We were able to quickly eliminate the following surnames :
- Fouchières
- Fouchière
The
first was quickly eliminated because it was an inscription error,
notable in the Chifflet manuscript, fol. 64 from the municipal library
of Besançon :
« At
the end, by the great door, lie all in one grave the Lord of the
Liergue d'Auvergne, Lord Jehan des Quesnes, the Galet de Fouchières,
provost of the marshals, and the young Hollandes, son of the baillif of
Rouen. »
It's
the genealogist Charles d'Hozier who, in 1966 as he was creating his
armoiries of Bourbon, reestablished the name to Fougières in accordance
with medieval chroniclers like Enguerrand de Monstrelet.
The
name Fouchère (currently Fouchère dans l'Yonne) belongs to neither
lordship, nor medieval family (it was a place, one that belonged to the
abbey of Saint-Jean de Sens), so was also put aside.
So it was decided to concentrate on the surnames Fougères and Fougières with their varios spellings.
The trail of Brittany :
What
is lovelier than imagining Gallois de Fougières, once lord of the city
of Fougères (Ile-et-Vilaine) currently known as the strongest fortress
in Western Europe ?
The
Fogères or Fougières family, in some texts, is a family from Britanny
and bears some importance as it was one of the nine baronnies that made
up the dukedom of Brittany.
This was its coat of arms : « d'or à une plante de fougère de sinople »
The
lords of Fougères began building the eponymous fortress as from 1050
(under Aldred de Fougères). The fortress was regularly built upon,
steadily growing, by his successors throughout the 12th century. This
family had a well-documented history and can thus be followed until its
disappearence around 1254, time at which Mabille de Fougières, wife of
Alain IV of Rohan, baron of Rohan and Gueménée who died during the third
crusade. As from the second half of the 13th century, the name « de Fougères » was no longer carried in Brittany. So Gallois de Fougières couldn't have been a Breton.
The trail of Auvergne :
The
trail of Brittany put aside, our ressearch focused on a trail from
Auvergne. In Allier, in the community of Saint-Caprais there is still a
place called Fougières where there are still some ruins of a medieval
castle that was destroyed during a rebellion of the nobles known as La
Fronde and the rebuilt. In 1698, the genealogist Charles d'Hozier
established the armoiries of Bourbon which belong to that eponymous
family but without backtracking over the history of his family. The
first fragments of the family's genealogy only appeared in 1773. In his Dictionnaire de la Noblesse (dictionary of nobility), François Alexandre Aubert of Chenaye Desbois claimed that the house of Fougières is a « noble
an ancient family that can trace its line as far back as Etienne, lord
of Fougières, husband to Alix, lady of Yoing en Maconnois ».
His knowledge of the Fougières family is sketchy and seems to only go
as far back as the beginning of the 16th century. The author actually
admits this at the end of the notice destinated to the de Fougières by
saying « it is all we know about the de Fougières family, because of lacking recollections ».
Indeed, there is no trace of the house of de Fougières in this province
before the end of the Middle Ages. Neither in the texts nor in the
armoiries of Bourbon is it mentionned. The first known owner of the land
of Fougières is Thierry Billard, squire, husband to Péronnelle de
Culant, who declared his ownership of it in 1498. He lived until 1506.
In 1498, he purchased the lordship of de Fougières from which he was
able to collect taxes and tithes.
De Fougières, 16th century : « d'azur à une fasce d'argent accompagnée de quatre étoiles d'or, une en chef et trois en pointe ordonnées. »
His
descendants wore the coat of arms shown above. Knowing that Thierry
Billard is the lord of one tract of land, that of Fougières, we can
claim that after the purchase of its lordship, he wore its coat of arms
and so possibly those of Gallois de Fougières. The hypothesis is
interesting. However, Thierry Billard being a squire, it is possible
that the arms shown above are in fact his own and not those of the
lordship of Fougières. Custom had his descendants wear the title of lord
of Fougières and the coat of arms of the Billard family, hence
d'Hozier's mistake. The absence of arms of the Fougières family in the
Bourbon armoiries of the 15th century show that it was a "recent" noble
family that had no relation to Gallois de Fougières aside from a
variation of his surname.
Gallois de Fougières, from Berry ?
It's in the neighbouring province, Berry, that we find the oldest traces of a « de Fougères » family. We find records of members of the « de Fougères » family before 1480, date at which it was recorded that a certain Philippe de Fougères, a squire, claimed to wear as his arms « d'or au chef emmenché de gueule de trois pièces ».
De Fougères (of Berry) : « d'or au chef emmenché de gueules de trois pièces. »
Unfortunately,
it is impossible to deliver a complete genealogy of the de Fougères
family (in Berry) after 1460. However, the family's history was rather
well recorded throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. During the Middle
Ages, the family's heraldry being strictly fixed, it seems plausible to
claim, harbouring caution, that the arms shown above may belong to the
oldest known branch of the Fougières family. So Gallois de Fougières was
surely from Berry. The armoiries of Berry give us a visual image of
what may have been the arms that Gallois de Fougières wore in battle at
Azincourt on the 25th of October 1415.
To conclude :
The
lack of historical sources might have been an unsurmountable obstacle
on this study dedicated to the illustrious provost of the marshals.
However, our methodology allowed us to gradually eliminate the possible
mix-ups between different families of various geographic origins but
very close surnames. Even though we can't be completely sure it is still
highly probably that Gallois de Fougières originated from the province
of Berry and wore the coat of arms shown above.
To delve deeper :
Even
though we can't be completely sure that these are indeed the arms of
Gallois de Fougières, the geographic origins explained above (from
Berry) seem to explain his presence at the battle of Azincourt. A vassal
to the duke Jean de Bourbon, who married Marie de Berry in June 1400,
he is pledged directly or by marriage to both these people. He owed
armed service to his lord, so it is logical, in the feodal system, that
he be in the battle as a vassal to the duke of Bourbon (as well as by
his position of Provost of the Marshals).
His
title of provost of the marshals make him a representative of the
maréchaussée and, by extension, a direct ancestor of today's gendarmes.
His role was usually limited to military police duties. This royal
officer, second to the Marshal of France, might have also been a friend
to the duke of Bourbon. Either way he was pledged to him.
When
we know of the closeness between Jehan le Meingre, called Boucicaut,
Marshal of France, and the court of the duke of Bourbon, the appointing
of Gallois de Fougières as Provost of the Marshals seems more than a
coincidence. Jean d'Orronville, in his Chronique du bon duc Louis de
Bourbon (Chronicles of the good duke Louis de Bourbon) mentions
Boucicaut's presence at the court of Bourbon several times, but also his
closeness with the duke himself and his son, Jean. As from 1391,
Boucicaut was no longer, properly speaking, part of the court of
Bourbon. His adventures in the Orient and his title as the governor of
Gênes, took him away from France. However he remained very bound to the
duke Jean who succeeded Louis in 1410. So it's not impossible that duke
Jean de Bourbon used his influence and his friendship with Marshal
Boucicaut to get him to appoint one of his vassals to the position of Provost of the Marshals.
When
you know that in 1412 the duke of Bourbon led a military campaign to
ride Île-de-France of pillaging soldiers, this hypothesis makes sense.
On
the 25th of October 1415, the body of Gallois de Fougières was found
alongside that of the constable of France, Charles d'Albret, but also
those of Jacques de Châtillon, the dukes of Brabant, of Alençon, and of
Bar, attesting to the fact that he fought in the front lines. This, and
the fact that he was separated from his unfortunate companions-in-arms
and buried in the abbey of Auchy-lès-Hesdin attest to the importance of
his office and so, to his status as the first gendarme to be killed in
battle
Article protected by the rights of intellectual property.
Christophe Gilliot, Azincourt.
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