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Chevalier Bayard Biography

Chevalier Bayard Image

BAYARD, PIERRE DU TERRAIL (1476-1524). A French knight, the chevalier sans pear et sans reproche, without a rival the model of chivalric virtue, and one of the few mediaeval knights whose virtues can stand the tests of modern culture. Though his activity was chiefly military, he cultivated all the gentler virtues, yet was equaled by none in courage and intrepidity. Three French kings profited by his loyal devotion--Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I. Italians, Spaniards, and Englishmen on innumerable occasions suffered by his remarkable exploits, but they honored as much as they feared him. At the Garigliano (1503) Bayard defended the bridge alone, against a whole detachment of the victorious army of Gonsalvo de Cordova. At Guinegate, in the "Battle of the Spurs" (1513) he performed an equal feat of valor. At Marignano (1515) Bayard gained a brilliant victory over the Swiss auxiliaries of the Duke of Milan. Upon the battlefield, his elated King (Francis I) bowed to receive knighthood from the hero of this "battle of the Giants." In 1521 Bayard defended Mézières against Charles V, prevented an invasion which France could hardly have resisted, and on his return to Paris was hailed as the savior of his country. He was given command, in his own naive, of a company of 100 knights--an honor usually accorded only to princes of the royal blood. He fell in the battle of the Scsia, April 30, 1524. While dying he fell into the hands of the Spaniards, among whom was the Constable of Bourbon, his last utterance to whom has become famous: "my lord, I thank you; but pity is not for me, who die a true man, serving my King; pity is for you, who bear arms against your prince, your country, and your oath." The Spanish vied with the French in the honors paid to his remains and his memory. His life was written soon after by Symphorien Champier, his "loyal servant." Consult St. Alban, Berville, and others, Le Chevalier Bayard, trans. and ed. by E. Walford (London, 1867).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. II (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 789.