1440), and the Angevin-Provençal Order of the Crescent (1448). The only monarchical
orders certainly established in France before 1578 were the Company of Our Lady of the
Noble House of Saint-Ouen (known from its badge as the Company of the Star), founded
by King John II as a rival to the English Order of the Garter in 1352, dissolved as a true
order on his death in 1364, and completely defunct by 1380; the Order of the Golden
Shield, founded by Duke Louis of Bourbon in 1365 and dissolved on or by his death in
1410; the Order of the Ermine, founded by Duke Jean IV of Brittany in 1381 and
dissolved as a true order on his death in 1399; the Order of the Golden Fleece, founded
by Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy in 1430; and the Order of Messire St. Michael the
Archangel, founded by Louis XI in 1469, long maintained in disregard of most of its
statutes (which were almost identical with those of the Golden Fleece), and suppressed in
- Among the handful of fraternal orders now known are those of the Tiercelet or
Young Male Falcon (1377/85), of the Golden Apple (1394), and of the Hound (1416); the
votive orders now known include those of the White Lady with the Green Shield of
Marshal Boucicaut (1399), of the Prisoner’s Iron of Duke Jehan de Bourbon (1415), and
of the Dragon of the Count of Foix (ca. 1415).
In addition to the true orders, a number of French princes created what are best termed
“pseudo-orders,” which were essentially elite bodies of retainers lacking in any corporate
statutes or activities. Most prominent among these were the Order of the Belt of
Esperance, established by Duke Louis of Bourbon in 1365 and maintained into the 16th
century; the royal Order of the Broom-Pod (Cosse de Geneste), created by Charles VI ca.
1386 and maintained until his death in 1422; and the Order of the Camail or Porcupine,
created by Duke Louis of Orléans ca. 1394 and maintained until 1498.
D’A.Jonathan D.Boulton
[See also: GOLDEN FLEECE; MÉZIÈRES, PHILIPPE DE]
Boulton, D’A.J.D. The Knights of the Crown: The Monarchical Orders of Knighthood in Later
Medieval Europe, 1325–1520. Woodbridge: Boydell, 1987.
LE FÈVRE (DE RESSONS), JEAN
(ca. 1320–ca. 1390). Translator of the Disticha Catonis, De vetula, the Lamentationes
Matheoli, and a selection of liturgical hymns (B.N. fr. 964) into French. Le Fèvre’s Livre
de leesce (1380–87) is a point-by-point refutation of the Lamentationes. He also wrote
the Respit de la mort (1376), in which his knowledge of the Paris courts is seen, and the
Épistre sur les misères de la vie (unedited) as well as a now lost Danse macabré. A
translation of the Ecloga Theoduli may also be his. Born in Ressons-sur-le-Matz, near
Compiègne, Le Fèvre spent his adult life in Paris, where he was royal procureur before
the Parlement de Paris.
Wendy E.Pfeffer
[See also: ANTIFEMINISM]
Fournival, Richard de. La vieille, ou les dernières amours d’Ovide: poème français du XIVe siècle,
ed. Hippolyte Cocheris. Paris: Aubry, 1861.
Le Fèvre, Jean. Le respit de la mort, ed. Geneviève Hasenohr-Esnos. Paris: Picard, 1969.
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