Jean III de Grailly

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Jean III de Grailly, Captal de Buch, KG, illustration from the Bruges Garter Book, c.1430
The castle of Benauges was hereditary in the Grailly family after having been granted to Jean I de Grailly in the early 1260s.
signet ring belonging to Jean III de Grailly in the British Museum, late 14th century.[1]

Jean III de Grailly (aka. John De Grailly, died 7 September 1376),

KG, was a Gascon nobleman and a military leader in the Hundred Years' War, who was praised by the chronicler Jean Froissart
as an ideal of chivalry.

Biography

He was the son of Jean II de Grailly, Captal de Buch, Vicomte de Benauges, and of Blanch de Foix, a cousin of the

counts of Foix
.

Attached to the English side in the conflict, he was made

Count of Bigorre by Edward III of England, and was also a founder and the fourth Knight of the Garter in 1348.[2] He played a decisive role as a cavalry leader under Edward, the Black Prince in the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, with de Buch leading a flanking move against the French that resulted in the capture of the king of France, (John II), as well as many of his nobles. John was taken to London by the Black Prince and held to ransom.[3][4]

In 1364, he commanded the forces of Charles II of Navarre in Normandy, where he was defeated and captured by Bertrand du Guesclin at Cocherel.[3] After his release the following year, he defected to the French side and was made lord of Nemours by Charles V of France. However, he soon re-established his loyalty to the English, and in 1367 he went to Spain with the Black Prince, fighting at the Battle of Nájera.[5] Here he again faced Bertrand du Guesclin, but this time it was du Guesclin who was captured, and the Captal was put in charge of the prisoner. He was rewarded for his service by being made the Constable of Aquitaine in 1371.

Again fighting for the English, he commanded an English relief force when the French attacked

Temple in Paris
, because Charles V believed him too dangerous to ransom back to the English.

Froissart gives an account of the Captal de Buch's chivalry and courage at the time of the peasant uprising in 1358 called the Jacquerie (see link).

Jean de Grailly was a prisoner of the French from 1372 onwards. He had refused his freedom as it would have meant taking up arms against the king of England, which he swore never to do. His personal allegiance to the Black Prince was so strong that, upon hearing of the prince's death, he lost all resolve, refused food and died a few days later in Paris.[6]

Since he left no heirs from his marriage to Rose d' Albret,

Archambaud, Count of Foix
and of Bigorre took the title Captal de Buch, which passed to his descendants the Counts of Foix.

KG
Coat of arms of Jean III de Grailly
Notes
The arms of Jean III de Grailly[8] and his heirs consist of:
Crest
A man's head in profile with asses' ears Argent.
Escutcheon
Or, on a cross Sable five escallops Argent.

Notes

  1. ^ British Museum Collection
  2. OCLC 247620448
    .
  3. ^ a b Nicolle & Turner 2004, p. 17.
  4. ^ Le Patourel 1984, p. 20-21.
  5. ^ Wagner 2006, p. 139.
  6. ^ Harvey 1976, p. 121.
  7. ^ Gribit 2016, p. 288.
  8. ^ Macauly 2010, p. 9-11.

References

External links

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