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Jeanne de Clisson (1300–1359), also known as Jeanne de Belleville and the Lioness of Brittany, was a French–Breton noblewoman who became a privateer to avenge her husband after he was executed for treason by King Philip VI of France.

She crossed the English Channel, targeted French ships, and regularly slaughtered almost their entire crew.

Jeanne Louise de Belleville, de Clisson, Dame de Montaigu, was born in 1300 in Belleville-sur-Vie (Bellville on the river Vie) in the Vendée in the Gâtine Vendéenne on the French side of the border with the Duchy of Brittany. In 1320(?), on the death of her half-brother Maurice V, Jeanne inherited the seigneury of Montaigu and that of Belleville, as he had no heirs.

In 1312, Jeanne, aged about 12 years old, married her first husband, 19-year-old Geoffrey de Châteaubriant VIII (died 1326), a Breton nobleman, who himself was already a widower to Alix de Thouars.

In 1328, Jeanne married Guy de Penthièvre of the House of Penthièvre, widower of Joan of Avaugour and second son of the Duke of Brittany.

In 1330, Jeanne married Olivier IV de Clisson, a wealthy Breton who held a castle at Clisson, a manor house in Nantes, and lands at Blain. Jeanne, a recent widow herself of the Lord of Châteaubriant, controlled areas in Poitou just south of the Breton border from Beauvoir-sur-Mer in the west to Châteaumur in the southeast of Clisson.

The extended de Clisson family was not in full agreement in this matter, and Olivier IV's brother, Amaury de Clisson, embraced the de Montfort party whilst his other brother, Garnier de Clisson, had defended Brest against the de Montforts. In January 1342, the de Clisson castle of Blain was chosen as headquarters by Robert Bertrand, the French King's Lieutenant sent to aid Charles de Blois.

Jeanne managed to evade arrest as she was being protected by Jean de Clisson (Olivier's eldest son from his first marriage, at the time the Lord of Milly, a castle about 55 km east of Paris) and accompanied by Guilaume Bérard, Jeanne's squire and valet, Guionnet de Fay, and Guillaume Denart.

Jeanne took her two young sons, Olivier and Guillaume, from Clisson to Nantes, to show them the head of their father displayed at the Sauvetout gate.

After Olivier's execution, Jeanne sold the de Clisson estates, raised a force of about 400 loyal men, and started attacking French forces in Brittany.

A French judgement from 1343 convicting Jeanne as a traitor and confirming the confiscation of the de Clisson lands. Records from the English court from 1343, indicating King Edward granting Jeanne an income from lands controlled in Brittany by the English. Amaury de Clisson, the brother of Olivier, is used as an emissary from Joanna of Flanders (Jehanne de Montfort) to ask King Edward III for aid to relieve Hennebont.

On 24 September 1999, the City Council of Nantes named a street Rue Jeanne la corsaire in honour of Jeanne: "A route beginning in the Embellie street is to be named: Rue Jeanne la Corsaire, wife of Olivier de Clisson, 1300–1359." Another street also bears her name: Rue Jeanne de Belleville, in La Bernerie-en-Retz, in the Rogère district. The 1969 Russian children's novel "My Grandfather is a Monument" by Vasily Aksyonov features a villain, Madame Nakamura-Branchevska, who claims to be a descendant of Jeanne de Clisson and keeps a portrait of her on the wall of her study. Henneman, John Bell (June 1996), Olivier de Clisson and political society in France under Charles V and Charles VI, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press Gicquel, Yvonig (1981), Olivier de Clisson, connétable de France ou chef de parti breton?, París: Jean Picollec, pp. Pirate, Traitor, Wife: Jeanne of Belleville and the categories of Fourteenth–Century French Noblewomen, pp. de Belleville, Astrid (2022), Jeanne de Belleville La veritable histoire (in French), La Roche-sur-Yon: Research center & publishing house in Vendée, pp.

Quick Facts

• In 1330, Jeanne married Olivier IV de Clisson, a wealthy Breton who held a castle at Clisson, a manor house in Nantes, and lands at Blain.
• "A route beginning in the Embellie street is to be named: Rue Jeanne la Corsaire, wife of Olivier de Clisson, 1300–1359." Another street also bears her name: Rue Jeanne de Belleville, in La Bernerie-en-Retz, in the Rogère district.
• Jeanne Louise de Belleville, de Clisson, Dame de Montaigu, was born in 1300 in Belleville-sur-Vie (Bellville on the river Vie) in the Vendée in the Gâtine Vendéenne on the French side of the border with the Duchy of Brittany.
• The extended de Clisson family was not in full agreement in this matter, and Olivier IV's brother, Amaury de Clisson, embraced the de Montfort party whilst his other brother, Garnier de Clisson, had defended Brest against the de Montforts.
• On 24 September 1999, the City Council of Nantes named a street Rue Jeanne la corsaire in honour of Jeanne:

Source material: Wikipedia - "Jeanne de Clisson". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.