Geoffroi de Charny*

Geoffroi de Charny (c.1306 - 19 September 1356) was an extremely accomplished and well-known French knight. He was a third son, which meant he was not going to inherit the title Lord of Charny from his father, so he set out to distinguish himself in jousts and tournaments. In fact, he was so lacking of property that, on the records of involvement in the Hundred Years War, he is listed as from Pierre-Perthuis, the fief of the family of his first wife, Jeanne de Toucy.

In 1342, during the Battle of Morlaix in Brittany against the English, he fell for an ambush and was captured and taken to Goodrich Castle in England. Because he had no property to speak of for ransom, and because of the "gentlemanly nature" of war-time noble captives, he was released to go back to the continent and raise money for his ransom.

He turned to the Dauphin Humbert II de Viennois, who owed him the revenues of the town of Saint-Marcellin for service rendered earlier, but the Dauphin was always short of money, so the request for payment was futile. Unable to get anything substantial from Humbert, in the summer of 1344 Geoffroi set sail for the East to find fortune. From his adventures he wrote Livre de chevalerie (The Book of Chivalry), which begins:

Because I am minded to examine the various conditions of men-at-arms, both of the past and of the present, I want to give some brief account of them. And it is right to do so for all such matters are honorable, although some are honorable enough, others more honorable on an ascending scale up to the most honorable of all. And always the noblest way rises above all others, and those who have the greatest heart for it go constantly forward to reach and achieve the highest honor, and for this reason we must start by speaking of these...

Although the book deals with the high-minded ideals of chivalry, we still get a very down-to-earth look at the realities of the life of an active knight. Geoffroi describes the dangers of tournaments and the consequences of losing, the homesickness one feels when on a months-long Crusade, and his own injuries like getting a concussion while scaling a tower.

In October of 1344 he was Crusading against the Turk-held fortress of Smyrna, as part of a group of knights who were given a special commendation for bravery by Pope Clement VI. By the spring of 1346, Geoffroi was back in France. With war against the English ongoing, he prevented an invading Flemish army from capturing the town of Béthune around the same time that King Philip VI lost the battle of Crécy and lost the port of Calais.

Philip was so pleased with Geoffroi that he made him the bearer of the oriflamme, the standard of the French army. This was a great honor with a downside: the enemy would try for a symbolic achievement by striking down the oriflamme, so its bearer became an automatic target.

He was given the task of retaking Calais, and was on the verge of succeeding, when he fell for another ambush. But I will get to that tomorrow.

*This is not Geoffroi de Charney, a Templar who died c.1314.