B
BADEFOL, SEGUIN DE
(ca. 1331–1366). A soldier of fortune who became notorious as a captain of freelance
troops (routiers) in the 1360s, Seguin de Badefol was the second of four sons of a
middling noble from Périgord. Born in the ancestral castle at Badefol-sur-Dordogne,
Seguin fought on the French side at Poitiers in 1356, but the king’s capture there led to a
truce and an end to the payment of troops. Badefol was soon at the head of a route, or
company, numbering about 2,000 men and nicknamed the Margot. This company joined
with other bands in 1360 to form a large force, called the Tard-Venus, that pillaged
eastern France. They captured Pont-Saint-Esprit on the Rhône in December and
demanded a large payment before leaving. For most of 1361, Badefol’s troops ravaged
the Velay and lower Languedoc before local resistance induced the Margot to withdraw
toward Auvergne and the Lyonnais.
A number of bands combined early in 1362 to form the “Great Company,” which
decisively defeated a royal army at Brignais on April 6. This engagement left south-
eastern France exposed to brigandage. In September 1363, Badefol took Brioude, which
served as his base for eight months until he agreed to evacuate the town for a payment of
40,000 gold florins. He soon found another lucrative base, Anse, on the Saône north of
Lyon, which his troops captured in November 1364. Badefol styled himself “captain of
Anse for the king of Navarre,” seeking a veneer of legality based on an earlier offer of
employment by Charles the Bad, king of Navarre. In his name, the Margot terrorized a
large region before finally evacuating Anse for another 40,000 florins in September 1365.
To rid the country of routiers, the French crown offered them large sums to join an
expedition to Spain. Using this plan as a pretext, Badefol went to Navarre to seek rewards
from the king. Charles the Bad, however, was offended by his demands and had him
poisoned in January 1366.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: BRIGAND/BRIGANDAGE; BRIGNAIS]
Descroix, Bernard. Seguin de Badefol: “ce fils d’iniquité”—qui fit trembler Anse et la France
entière. Lyon: Société d’Archéologie du Beaujolais, 1986.
Guigue, Georges. Les Tard-Venus en Lyonnais, Forez, et Beaujolais. Lyon: Vitte et Perrussel,
1886.
Henneman, John Bell. Royal Taxation in Fourteenth Century France: The Captivity and Ransom of
John II 1356—1370. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1976, Chap. 5.
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