Combat of the Thirty, A Tale of Chivalry from 1351

this episode of the history guy brought to you by magellan tv chivalry the terms it's used today is generally used in reference to the appropriate behavior of a gentleman especially in reference to how they're supposed to treat a lady but in the middle ages the term meant something more something more it was an informal code that represented the best attributes of nightly conduct and virtue it wasn't always formally compiled it certainly wasn't strictly adhered to but people of the era recognize chivalry when they saw it in 1341 john iii the duke of the sovereign duchy of brittany died and left behind somewhat contradictory instructions as to who was supposed to take his place the little remembered war that followed mirrored some of the early stages of the hundred years war but it led to one of the middle ages best displays of chivalry the combat of the thirty which still today impacts our romantic vision of the night in shining armor it is history that deserves to be remembered but i'd like to take a moment to talk about the sponsor of today's episode you know you've heard me talk about magellan tv several times but that's legitimately because i love my subscription to magellan tv it is a new kind of streaming documentary service the films are made by documentary filmmakers there's more than 2 000 videos on magellan tv everyone is worth watching just recently i watched a documentary called moby dick heart of a whale it's a fascinating look at 19th century whaling through the lens of herman melville's epic novel it gave a great background about the industry that was so important to american history and a great novel that was written about it i'm a big fan of history documentaries but you might enjoy science space or nature all of which magellan tv offers magellan tv has the richest and most varied history content available anywhere ancient modern current early modern war biography and even non-historical genres like science and crime are historical in nature you can watch moby dick heart of a whale anywhere on your television laptop or mobile device magellan is compatible with roku amazon fire tv apple tv google play and ios you can even cast from your phone to your tv and the best part is that magellan is offering a free extended month long trial just for our viewers and to get that all you have to do is click on the link in the description again a free extended month long trial just for our viewers click on that link you'll be glad you did chivalry has a long and complex history as part of a european conception of the christian warrior uncodified the tradition of a social code that belongs to knights and warriors reaches far back into history in rome there was the equities class originally wealthy patrician soldiers and similar codes existed as tradition from the islamic moors the term itself comes from old french word for horsemanship reflecting the medieval european and carolinian idea that knights were wealthy men who could afford armor and a horse the term came to exemplify a broader ideal of christian piety noble warriorship and courtly love like that exemplified in european romantic literature especially in the matters of france legendary stories of charlemagne and his knights in the matters of britain which told supposedly historic tales of england and brittany like the story of king arthur the cheval rick code had multiple and sometimes contradictory meanings and definitions but focused on a handful of chivalric virtues such as loyalty gratitude self-control martial ability and honor knights had a duty to their countrymen fellow christians a duty to god and nightly piety and a duty to service and gentleness to women the code formed in the period between 1170 and 1220 becoming the ideal ethos of the european knight those living in the middle ages very much believed that the stories of arthur and charlemagne were both historically accurate and represented a former age of illustrious well-behaved knights this was juxtaposed with the reality of middle-aged europe replete with frequent warfare poor nutrition and hygiene and the squalid struggles of day-to-day life historical study has shown that the idea was a myth 19th century historian john charles simone said chivalry is the ideal world such as it existed in the imaginations of the romance writers the chivalrous age is always represented as distant from us both in time and space but when examined the periods it's specifically attributed to failed to live up to the chivalric ideals the myth of an age of chivalry doesn't mean that the code itself was fake however the concept of a noble code of conduct far predates the middle ages and developed especially in the court and army of charlemagne it's changing concepts of warfare the feudal system came into place implicit in the code was loyalty to one's feudal lord as well as observance of the rules of warfare to some extent it was reflective of the church trying to control endemic violence related to the common castes of medieval society those who pray those who work and those who fight but chivalry was never a strict code that could not be broken in fact the intrinsic conflict between the morals of christianity and the violent pragmatism of actual warfare were often studiously ignored in the face of political realities like the war of britain's secession the dukes of brittany held the duchy as a five for the king of france but were also earls in england the duke arthur ii was the grandson of henry iii of england and duke of brittany from 1305. he married twice first to marie the countess of limoge with whom he had three sons including his heir john the third and later to yolanda countess of montfort with yolande he had one more son called john of monfort john iii became duke on the death of his father in 1312 and spent a lot of time trying to annul his father's second marriage to disinherit his half-siblings specifically john of montford but apparently because he disliked his stepmother john iii married three times but failed to produce an heir and chose his niece joan as heiress and she married charles counterbois nephew of the french king later in his reign however john the third reconciled with monfort and left a will that named him heir the duke died in 1341 and his last words on who should follow him were uttered on his deathbed for god's sake leave me alone and do not trouble my spirit with such things fighting broke out immediately as montford moved to secure important cities including the dukel seat and treasury charles also claimed the duchy with the support of much of the britain nobility what could have remained a local affair was complicated by war between france and england when in 1337 the first fighting of the hundred years war broke out the truth said it held in 1341 seemed tenuous at best philip vi supported his nephew leaving mumford to seek aid from the english king edward iii the truce prevented edward from sending troops to france but unfortunately it didn't stop france from dealing with internal affairs montfort was forced to surrender by the citizens of nantes and his wife jonah flanders was left to lead in the name of their three-year-old son montford was released two years later but the monfredis cause struggled in brittany against blah and the french crown montford fought again in brittany with english support but died suddenly in 1345. joanna again led for her five-year-old son also john as the leader of the monforts blah was captured by the montfortus in 1347 leaving his own wife joan as the nominal leader of the bluff action an uneasy truce was forced upon all of them by the pressure of the pope as the male claimants were indisposed but the truce offered a unique opportunity for a display of chivalry because ostensibly knights on both sides were serving ladies as the male leaders were gone and that was an opportune time to defend their cause's honor according to the chronicler jean de francaise in 1351 jean de bominoir who commanded the pro blah garrison at joseline issued a challenge to robert bimboro the english commander at the nearby garrison at plomorrell the challenge was for the two men to battle it out in a duel but bimboro suggested that it would be better if they did a full tournament saying we will choose 20 or 30 of our companions in the garrison and we'll go to an open field and there will be a fight as long as we can endure it and let god give the victory to the better of us but manoir enthusiastically agreed gender forza and another contemporary chronicle suggest that the motivation for the combat was a purely shivaric exercise it wasn't uncommon while the reality of war was often brutal tournaments were an excellent opportunity to earn renown and sometimes knights fighting on rival sides would compete in tourneys against each other in the middle of other conflicts knights could also earn renown in duels both for their military prowess and their generosity in either victory or defeat later french chronicles in ballots say it wasn't chivalry at stake instead pinning bimboro and the english as villains bad christians who are pressing the peasants and of course the english likely were supplying their stores on the backs of those who work the battle was to take place midway between the two castles on the halfway oak and would like any good tournament be watched by a good-sized crowd the identities of the 60 fighters are recorded on the front side were nine nobles and 21 squires all bretons the english soldiers are more difficult to trace warsaw calls bimboro also recorded as brambroa or brander borsch a german while other sources in research claim he was english six of the soldiers definitely were german mercenaries and several the english were mercenaries too two would later become somewhat famous including huel cavalli a lower class soldier would eventually marry an argonese princess the two parties gathered at the halfway oak on the 26th of march 1351 with red news ladies priests and even refreshments the parties had agreed to a number of rules and agreed to fight without reinforcement at an out trance that is until one side's warriors were all either dead disabled or captured most importantly they all agreed not to run away after hearing mass confessing and receiving absolution the 60 men lined up 30 apiece across from each other and charged the first clash of arms was loud and violent and after the initial meeting the fighting broke up man to man the knights chose all their own weapons one carried a 25-pound hammer while others carried swords daggers spears and axes frisar's chronicle says they fought fiercely all in a pile rescuing one another handsomely when they saw their companions in trouble sources disagreed somewhat but in the first melee the english came out on top losing two to the french's four or five dead and wounded they fought to exhaustion and then they agreed to a brief truce the truce was a chance to rest take refreshment bind wounds and repair damaged armor and weapons the rest was short and soon they joined the battle again which went on as fiercely as before during the second combat bimboro was struck by one of the french squires and wounded perhaps by a land strike to the face as he attempted to regain his feet another frenchman allegedly the night sir dubois charged and killed him with a battle axe shocked a dutch mercenary called crokar took charge of the english and decided upon a new strategy the english gathered together tightly to fight the franco britons and again gave them a beating wounding and killing several but menorah himself was injured and called for water dubois said to have shouted drink thy blood bum noir your thirst will pass soon the battle seemed sure to go to the english until one of the french soldiers mounted a horse and charged the tight-knit english exhausted they could not stand and the formation collapsed the french attacked with newfound ferocity and the english were forced to surrender there are significant disagreements on the number killed and injured but the english were certainly worse off with 9 or 10 killed while the french suffered maybe half as many killed while nearly everyone suffered wounds the remaining english warriors were imprisoned that joseline although they were all released shortly after with the payment of a ransom the display had no impact on the war bonnie would continue for another 14 years but finally charles aboard was killed in combat at the battle of r.a john of montpart became john iv duke of brittany and gave his futile oath to the king of france along with a few other concessions a few who heard of the combat thought of it as foolish foresaw recorded that they felt it was the product of presumption and rashness but most contemporary observers celebrated the combat as an incredible display of chivalry all involved and followed a set of rules had fought with bravery into exhaustion and had comported themselves with the general traits of decent knights the earliest chronicle of the events was by the french historian jean de la belle later chronicles seemed to borrow liberally from this account lobel who was relatively unique for the period and that he sought to narrate battles only if he witnessed the event or interviewed someone who did said that the battle was a most marvelous deed of arms that should never be forgotten was happy to add that all the warriors fought as valiantly on both sides if they've been rolands or oliver's referring to the league characters of the french epic poem the song of roland frassar said he personally met a scarred survivor eve cherelle 100 years later at the french court purely because his reputation is one of the thirty the event was continually referenced as an example of chivalry as well though in the reality of history its reputation may be owed to how grubby and vicious much of the rest of the fighting was many of the participants were at best on the edges of respectability easily labeled mercenaries and opportunists but the chronicles focused on how the deed was done and not who won and it overshadowed any individual reputation of course as with many things interpretation of the event was not static roughly contemporaneous was a widely published poem written by an unnamed britain who portrayed the english as villains intent on avenging the death of the english general sir dagworth the poet also betrays bimboro as a poor christian who put his faith in the prophecies of merlin it was this version that became ascendant in later france as histories of the war became more nationalistic napoleon sought to erect a monument to the fallen britons though it wasn't actually erected until 1819 under louis the 18th with the inscription that 30 britons whose names are given as follows fought to defend the poor laborers and craftsmen and they vanquish foreigners attracted on the soil of the country by fateful descents the english took a somewhat different stand sir arthur conan doyle wrote a fictional version of the battle in his novel sir nigel which contends that the charge on horseback was cheating on the part of the french the combat of the 30 was a minor battle in a relatively minor theater of the hundred years war but it took on an outsized importance in the minds of medieval chroniclers who saw any example of chivalry as a shining ideal that should be imitated bright spot in otherwise dark times the combat was more important for what it represented than anything accomplished it was never intended to decide the outcome of a war for its participants had allowed them the opportunity to show chivalry and honor that was at odds with the reality of the times in the war and their role in it which largely consisted of robbing peasants for their daily bread but the combat inspired people both at the time and for generations to come and it still impacts our vision of knights and chivalry today and that's perhaps because then as now people have a desire to see the world not through the grim reality of what is but through the shining example of what can be i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets of forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy it please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section i will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on facebook instagram twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes on forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe you

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 108,035

Keywords: history, the history guy, history guy, medieval history, chivalry, france, brittany, hundred years war, knight

Id: k_BM7TQNQgA

Length: 15min 43sec (943 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 21 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/DimesOnHisEyes]

Saw this video this morning. Pretty cool story.

[u/Someguy102888]

It’s history that deserves to be remembered