A Medieval Criminal Rampage
Jeanne de Clisson sold her estates, and used the proceeds to raise a force of armed followers. She switched her loyalties to the English, and began to attack the French. She was not taken seriously at first. Then she attacked and captured a French castle, and massacred its entire garrison, except for one man she let live to tell the tale. She was taken seriously from then on. Jeanne realized her forces were too small to withstand a determined French counterattack. So she retreated across the Channel to England. There, she bought and outfitted three warships. To signal her intent, she painted them black and dyed their sails red. Then she led her black fleet into the English Channel, to fall upon French ships. She and her pirate fleet soon gained a reputation for savagery, as they massacred nearly all who fell into their hands.
Clisson exempted a few survivors, spared so they could spread the tale. French nobles in particular were in serious trouble if they were discovered aboard any ship captured by her. There was serious money to be made ransoming them, as the was custom of the day. Clisson wanted none of that. Instead, she tormented the nobles, then personally chopped off their heads with an ax, before she tossed their corpses overboard. Her criminal rampage against the French lasted for thirteen years, before her blood lust was finally sated. Eventually, in 1356, Clisson gave up the life of piracy, and retired to her estates in Brittany. She remarried for a fourth time, settled into a castle, and died peacefully in 1359.
