Olivier V de Clisson (23 April 1336 – 23 April 1407), nicknamed "The Butcher", was a Breton soldier, the Constable of France, and the son of Olivier IV de Clisson. His father had been put to death by the French in 1343 on the suspicion of having willingly given up the city of Vannes to the English.
Olivier de Clisson was born on 23 April 1336 at the Château de Clisson in Brittany.
Olivier's father chose the camp of Charles de Blois and the King of France in the Breton War of Succession and was the military commander defending the city of Vannes when the English besieged it in 1342. His father was captured by the English and imprisoned, but was released after a relatively low ransom was paid. Because of the amount, the King of France, Philip VI and his advisers suspected Clisson of conspiring with King Edward III.
After a peace treaty was signed, his father was invited to Paris for a tournament, but was arrested, tried and executed by beheading on 2 August 1343. This expeditious execution shocked the nobility as the evidence of guilt was never made public. Moreover, the notion of betrayal does not refer in the same way for nobles of that time: they claimed the right to choose whom to honor. Olivier IV's body received additional posthumous humiliation: his body was hanged by the armpits at the gallows at Montfaucon in Paris, and his head was piked at the Sauvetout gate of Nantes.
Formative years on the seas and in England
Olivier's mother, Jeanne de Clisson née de Belleville, swore Olivier and his brother Guillaume to avenge their father. She raised funds for an army to attack troops loyal to France, stationed in Brittany. Eventually she armed ships and started a piratical war against French ships. These ships were eventually lost and Jeanne with her two sons set adrift for five days. Guillaume died of thirst, cold and exhaustion. Olivier and his mother were finally rescued and taken to Morlaix by Montfort supporters.
It was after these events that Olivier was taken by his mother to England in his youth. Hereafter, he was raised in the court of King Edward III alongside John IV de Montfort, a future claimant of the Ducal throne of Brittany. Olivier's mother Jeanne, eventually married her fourth husband, an English military commander of King Edward III.
After ten years in England, Olivier, then twenty-three, accompanied King Edward III and John IV de Montfort at the head of a Breton-English force to Brittany in 1359 as part of a guerrilla campaign near Poitou.
Under the reign of the new King, John II "The Good" of France, Olivier was reconciled to the French Crown in 1360 as part of the Treaty of Brétigny, drafted on 8 May. Officially ratified on 24 October of that year, this treaty, which had been renamed the Treaty of Calais, sought to defuse sources of conflict between France and England, opening a nine-year truce between the two Kingdoms. As a part of its pursuit to eliminate the reasons for the two countries' animosity, such as the grievances Olivier's family had against the French Monarchy, this treaty, in an attempt to rectify these wrongs, posthumously reinstated the honour of Olivier's father, allowing his relatives to regain the rights and privileges their family's nobility had once provided them.
In the same year, Olivier also married Catherine of Laval and Châteaubriant, heiress of the family Laval, and granddaughter of the Duke Arthur II. He therefore became first cousin of both Ducal claimants:
Joan, Duchess of Brittany, wife of Charles de Blois,
This also made Olivier a relative of the King of France. This alliance opened up new political possibilities.
The marriage produced two daughters:
Beatrice of Laval, lady Villemomble
In 1363 Olivier was still on the side of the Breton-English Montfortists and one of the commanders of the Montfort troops who failed to take Nantes, but managed to hold Bécherel.
In 1364 several months after the accession of another French king, Charles V, John IV took advantage of the troubled situation in France since the capture of King John II the Good and was assisted by the English under John Chandos, the commander who had decided the battle of Poitiers.
In 1365 John IV besieged the city of Auray. The two opposing Breton armies clashed under the walls of the city on 29 September. Monfortistes were entrenched there and John IV attempted to overcome the numerical inferiority of his army by attacking the Breton-French camp by surprise. The Breton-English commander, however, adopted a proposal from Olivier and waited for the Breton-French army to climb a slope leading to Auray. They managed to divide the troops of Charles de Blois and were fought separately. Isolated from the bulk of his army, Charles de Blois was surrounded and killed in the melee, while Bertrand du Guesclin, the French Commander, was captured but released later with a ransom in 1365. The Breton War of Succession ended with this battle and Olivier had played an important role. Olivier was however injured and lost the use of one eye, earning him the nickname "the one-eyed man of Auray".
The widow of Charles de Blois, Joan, Duchess of Brittany, acceded to these events, and peace talks between the houses of Blois and Montfort started. John IV was nicknamed the Conqueror and was recognized as the only Duke of Brittany. Olivier, while nursing his injury learnt that John IV had given the English commander, John Chandos, the Gâvre castle and forest, a reward Olivier coveted for his loyal service. Olivier expressed his displeasure at the new Duke, but this did not change the matter. Olivier evidently raged "I would rather give myself to the devil than have an English neighbor" A fortnight later, the Gâvre castle was surprisingly burnt down. In response to this, Duke John IV confiscated the lordship of Châteauceaux from Olivier.