Impenetrable in their dissimulation, cruel in their vengeance, tenacious in their purposes, unscrupulous as to their methods, animated by profound and hidden hatred for the tyranny of man… – Denis Diderot, “On Women”
As I have written on numerous occasions, the fallacious notion of the prostitute as a specific type of woman, with characteristics that set her apart from all other women, is a relatively recent one. Prior to the mid-19th century it was widely understood that transactional sex was a normal female behavior, one that any woman might engage in under the proper circumstances. This is not to say that it was accepted and condoned; far from it. But nobody imagined that a woman was entirely defined by the act, either, nor embraced the foolish fantasy that only women of a certain background or experience made the choice. I have also often pointed out that women are far more pragmatic than men like to believe; many if not most of us, even those from relatively sheltered lives, are perfectly capable of trading sex for money or other advantages should the need arise.
Case in point Jeanne-Louise de Belleville, Dame de Montaigu, born in 1300 to the powerful Breton nobleman Maurice IV of Belleville-Montaigu and his wife Létice de Parthenay. She was married off at the age of 12 to a 19-year-old nobleman named Geoffrey de Châteaubriant and bore him two children. Geoffrey died young in 1326, and four years later she married Olivier III de Clisson, bearing him five children. But while her first marriage seems to have been a typical one, the second one was unusually passionate for a 14th-century noble couple. The two were extremely close, and Jeanne was very devoted to him…so devoted, in fact, that what would have been the easy and unremarkable life of a wealthy French noblewoman became remarkable indeed after her husband was executed for treason in 1343.
It happened like this: in the early part of the Hundred Years War, there were two rival claimants for the title of Duke of Brittany; Charles de Blois was favored by the French and John de Montfort by the English. Olivier was on the French side, but after he lost Vannes to the English in 1342, de Blois complained that Olivier had not fought enthusiastically enough, and accused him of having defected to the English. Olivier responded, predictably enough, by defecting to the English, but was captured by French forces and beheaded by order of King Philip VI on August 2nd, 1343; in a particularly barbaric touch, his severed head was then displayed on a pole at Nantes. Jeanne was devastated by his death and furious at the King and de Blois, and swore revenge on both. But while a lesser woman might’ve been content with cursing them from afar, spreading rumors or bribing someone to poison the royal wine, Jeanne was no ordinary woman. She promptly sold off all of the Clisson lands the King had not seized, purchased the three best warships she could find, and had them painted black and rigged with sails dyed blood-red. To raise money for a crew and to win allies from amongst the other Breton noblemen (who were none too fond of the French to start with), she sold her favors to them and charmed them into swearing to support her. Keep in mind she was 43 years old at the time, had borne seven children and presumably had only been to bed with two men before this; she must have had a powerful charisma.
But that charisma, however great, paled beside her hatred. From 1343-1356 the “Lioness of Brittany” mercilessly hunted and pillaged every French ship she could find, slaughtering the crews except for one or two who would be released on shore to tell the King who it was that had done the deed. At the Battle of Crécy (1346), she helped to secure an English victory by bringing in supplies on her ships. And after King Philip died in 1350, Jeanne only got worse; apparently enraged at his having escaped her wrath by fleeing into Hades, she began specifically hunting down ships owned by French nobles, and whenever she caught one she would personally behead him with an axe and have his body thrown into the sea, despite the fact that she could’ve made tremendous profit by ransoming them. Were this a Hollywood movie, she would have eventually caught up with Charles de Blois and given him his comeuppance, but real life is rarely so neat; de Blois not only outlived the Lioness by five years, but was also made a saint (though the canonization was annulled by the next pope on request from the English-supported Duke John V of Brittany, whose side had eventually won). By the time she was 56 Jeanne’s thirst for vengeance was apparently slaked at last; she retired from piracy, married Sir Walter Bentley (who had personally fought de Blois) and settled in Hennebont, France, where she died in 1359. Her son, Olivier Jr, earned the sobriquet “The Butcher” for his fierceness in war; he obviously inherited that from his mother, whose ghost is supposed to haunt the ruins of the old Château de Clisson (which was destroyed during the French Revolution).
Jeanne de Clisson was neither poor nor disadvantaged; neither sexually abused as a child nor mistreated by a husband; and neither homeless nor addicted to any drug. Perhaps it could be said that she was emotionally disturbed by the loss of her beloved husband, but if so it was a very lucid kind of madness: Jeanne knew exactly what she was doing, and chose to sell sex as a means toward that end. And though most whores have far more mundane goals than the death of a king and the downfall of an entire country, our choices are every bit as pragmatic – and often as temporary – as hers.
What a fascinating story. Thank you, Maggie.
And that is why you don’t want to get on a woman’s bad side.
An extremely interesting and well presented bit of history. I am curious as to how you researched the details of this woman’s life.
Great story.
The funny thing is that it is so often other women who most vehemently deny that “normal” women would ever “sell their bodies” except under the most extreme compulsion (slavery). Whenever I try to argue this point accusations of misogyny immediately pop up. And since I am a “woman hater”, obviously I don’t know anything about what women do or why they do it.
Most of my erotica novels involve women who choose to exchange sexual services for something (not necessarily money) that they want, because I find it much more reasonable than all the “love at first sight” or “irresistible Alpha males” stuff.
It’s probably the most hypocritical thing about women who condemn prostitution – the fact that so many of them have sex for reasons other than “love”. I think that actually, all of them have sex occasionally for reasons other than love. And I think EVERY woman has a price … if the guy is nice and not distasteful looking to her personally. I also think their “price” is very often a lot less than a professional.
Last year I was “with” a college girl (her name was “Kristie”) – who wasn’t a hooker but needed some cash to help her get through school – she was also a single mom, recently divorced and her husband left her destitute – she was thinking about quitting school. She actually volunteered herself to me after a discussion on the topic of prostitution came up. I shared some specific examples from my experience and I gave her details and she could see I didn’t look down on women who had sex in return for compensation.
A few days later she approached me – really nervous. She says … “Hey you know that discussion we had the other day? Uhm … I’ve been thinking … would you … uhm”
She couldn’t say it.
But I knew what she was trying to say and said … “Oh yes, I would really be interested … but only if you’ve thought it through and you’re good with doing it and won’t hate yourself after.” Well, she had thought about it and was good with it. She didn’t give me a rate … she didn’t even know how to ask. So I told her … “Okay Kristie, here’s the deal … three hours – it’s mostly gonna be talking because I can’t do “you-know-what” for three hours. We can do it at your place – you’ll need to find a babysitter or I can pay for one – and I’ll pay you (I quoted the EXACT same rate I give to most of the professional ECCIE ladies I’ve seen)”. When I told her the rate – her eyes bugged out and her mouth hit the floor. “You think I’m worth THAT much?” I told her … “Kristie, you’re not supposed to talk me down on the rate – you just accept it if it’s enough for you – and yes, if you weren’t “worth it” I wouldn’t offer it.”
Later on at the date – she told me that she thought I would have offered her about $300 for three hours.
I paid her four times that.
She had given it away free so many times she had no idea how much her services were worth.
And yes – it was a VERY good time and when I see her now she is always smiling and happy. I think it boosted her ego – it certainly gave her HOPE after feeling worthless after her divorce. She’s seen a couple of other guys since then. But, at the date – she and I talked about the whole deal. She’s not the kind of girl that can just show up at a hotel room and meet a strange guy. Kristie has to “case” the guy – she’s got to see him / talk to him – figure out if he’s attractive enough for her and if he’s nice and not a jerk.
I don’t expect she’ll stay in this – and I don’t think she’ll have a problem living with it. In fact, I know she won’t.
After our date I was on my way out the door and she started laughing and I said … “What’s funny?” She told me … “This was too good to be true … you have no idea how many complete losers I’ve fucked for free.”
Any woman’ll do it – they may not be able to go full scale hooker – but if a nice enough guy comes along with some cash they will jump.
Oh, the female of the species is more deadly than the male….
That’s some woman! I wouldn’t want to cross swords (or anything else) with her!
The history of England and ‘France’ is very complex in the early middle ages. France certainly wasn’t anything like the France we think of today. The Plantaganets, the ruling English dynasty in Jeanne’s time, came from Anjou in France. Much of ‘France’ was in English hands, with the extent of the possession coming and going. One English king was also crowned king of France. The last English possession in France was Calais, lost in bloody Mary Tudor’s reign 200 years later. The English monarchy didn’t formally renounce their claim to the French throne until around 1801.
Very cool article, my daughter loved. 🙂
😉
“Impenetrable in their dissimulation, cruel in their vengeance, tenacious in their purposes, unscrupulous as to their methods, animated by profound and hidden hatred for the tyranny of man…” – Denis Diderot, “On Women”
“hidden hatred for the tyranny of man”. Men are tyrants?
And hatred for tyranny should be hidden?