The Story of Arnaud de Cervole "The Archpriest"

A warrior from the darkest days of the Hundred Years' War. A man who began as an archpriest, became a mercenary knight, and ended as a bandit.

I would like to talk about a certain French knight Arnaud de Cervole known as “the Archpriest”.

A violent and ambitious man who rose to prominence during the darkest days of the Hundred Years' War!

A younger son of a minor Gascon noble family, Arnaud de Cervole was born in 1320 in Lot-et-Garonne in the Périgord. Early in his life he entered the church and became an archpriest, which in the medieval context meant that he was the priest of the principal parish among several local parishes. In his possession was the ecclesiastical fief of Velines in Dordogne.

But he was not good for the Church. He was soon deprived of his benefice by the archbishop of Bordeaux because he was associating with brigands and men of bad reputation.

It seems that from early on Arnaud was more interested in war and obtaining wealth than religion!

The only thing that remained from his religious life was his nickname “the Archpriest” which stuck with him ever since.

The Hundred Years' War had just broke out between England and France in 1337 and this war would provide plenty opportunities for men like Arnaud. For he proved himself to be a capable warrior who was willing to serve anyone who was interested in his services. In the 1350s he was recommended to King of France John II and found himself in charge of a company of 80 men. He was most praised for his skills in taking towns and castles by escalade.

But he would soon get in trouble. While on campaigns for the French king he started using his men for his private raiding purposes and was investigated by the king for his dubious activities during the Siege of Breteuil in Normandy in 1356. His actions were considered criminal but he was pardoned. Not only was he given a royal pardon but the king also granted him the lordship of the large fortress of Chateuneuf-sur-Charente on the frontier of Angoumois.

The King of France needed men like Arnaud as the big battle against the English at Poitiers would soon follow that same year. In this battle “the Archpriest” fought in the battalion of the illustrious Count of Alençon. But the battle ended in disaster. The French were badly beaten by the English and Arnaud himself was wounded and captured.

However Arnaud was soon ransomed and recovered from injuries. Despite the setback at Poitiers, things would soon get even better for him as he married Jeanne de Graçay, a rich widow in Berry who had in her possession several lordships in central France!

But the situation in France was chaotic. King John II, who had also been captured at Poitiers, was still not released from captivity. This brought the war to a halt as negotiations began. This caused a great anxiety among the free companies of mercenaries, which had served the king, as they did not know how they were going to get paid. In such situation, they decided to turn to banditry. Terrible violence erupted as bands of unemployed mercenaries began to terrorize and ravage the land!

Those were some of the darkest days in the long and brutal conflict of the Hundred Years' War.

Arnaud was lured by promises of riches and plunder he could obtain by joining these companies of mercenaries who turned to banditry. In 1357 he joined the largest of such bands, the Great Company, which had in its ranks around 2,700 men from all races of Europe, hardened mercenaries who were now plundering and extorting the countryside. Arnaud had such reputation that these mercenaries elected him as the leader of the Great Company!

A decision was soon made by Arnaud to lead his company into wealthy and hitherto untouched Provence, which was at the time ruled by Queen of Naples Jeanne d’Anjou. Arnaud and his men felt that they could capture the most loot in this land which had so far been spared from war. In Provence “they seized castles and well-fortified towns and plundered far and wide right down to Avignon and beyond.”

At the time, Avignon was the home of the popes who had moved there from Rome. They were understandably very worried about the marauding mercenaries at their gates. They were terrified of the man they called the Archpriest!

In the words of chronicler Jean Froissart, “Pope Innocent VI and his cardinals who were at Avignon at that date were in such fear of them that they hardly knew where to turn and they kept their household servants armed day and night.”

In such situation, the Pope had no choice but to enter negotiations and had to basically bribe Arnaud and his marauders to leave.

“After the Archpriest and his men had pillaged the whole region, the Pope and his College opened negotiations with him. He entered Avignon with most of his followers by friendly agreement, was received with as much respect as if he had been the King of France’s son, and dined several times at the palace with the Pope and the cardinals. All his sins were remitted him and when he left he was given forty thousand crowns to distribute among his companions.”

The main target of the Archpriest in Provence was not Avignon but Marseille. However the Great Company soon realized that this target was too ambitious and that they did not have the men and logistics to take such a large city.

Arnaud eventually had no choice but to cease with marauding activities and returned to French royal service in 1360 as he was employed by John II’s son Charles.

However the problem of marauding mercenary bands did not end as many other such bands existed in France and kept pillaging the country. In 1362 Arnaud was employed by the king to deal with the largest one of such bands, the Tard-Venus (french for "latecomers"), which already numbered up to 15,000 men. The Archpriest was part of the French royal army sent to deal with the marauders. But the royal forces were crushed by the Tard-Venus bands at the Battle of Brignais and Arnaud was captured again.

What happened next was a classic case of “if you can't beat them, join them.” Arnaud decided to return to life of banditry and began pillaging and extorting the land with mercenaries again as the large Tard-Venus marauding band split into several companies due to lack of food. The experienced veteran Arnaud was once again in a leading role as he took his company to Burgundy to loot there.

The problem of marauding companies of unemployed mercenaries became worse and worse and eventually in 1365 Pope Urban V tried to organize a crusade against Turks. He wanted the mercenaries from the problematic companies to join this planned crusade so that they would stop plundering France and go elsewhere. Arnaud was convinced by the Pope to begin recruiting for the crusade. He raised mercenary companies which would join his own company on a crusade to Byzantium. But this crusading army only got as far as Lyon as the mercenaries became discontent and the idea to travel to the east was no longer appealing to them.

In 1366 another attempt was made to organize a crusade. Arnaud was once again the organizer. At this point, he was already an extremely wealthy man and in charge of a powerful mercenary company. He was at the height of his power...

However his luck finally ran out!

As his army camped near Macon his own men murdered him following a dispute. Such was the end of “the Archpriest”. He had gained a lot of wealth and power, but ultimately died as violently as he lived.