Chevalier Pierre du Terrail de Bayard
Arms:
Azure on a chief Argent a demi lion rampant issuant Gules overall a riband in bend Or.
SOURCE, NOTES & CREDITS: Blazon for arms: page 895, column 1, “Armorial General”, Rietstap, Volume 2 B&W background illustration from Plate CXLIV, left hand column, 5th down from the top, “Illustrations to Rietstap’s Armorial General”, Vols. I & II, A-F, V. & H.V. Rolland. Text from internet articles in French and English from Wikipedia adapted by D.Q. Wedvick.
Pierre du Terrail de Bayard was born in 1473 at Château Bayard, Dauphiné of a noble family where in every generation whose head of the family had fallen in battle for nearly two centuries he became a living legend as “the knight without fear and without reproach”
( le chevalier sans peur sans reproche).
He was knighted at age 22 after the battle of Fornovo in 1495. and served as a knight and leader almost continuously in battle until his death in 1524. Admirer of Lucrezia Borgia wife of Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara in 1510. Friend of Gaston de Foix, duc de Nemours, whom he helped in 1512 carry the day at the battle of Ravenna where the duc was killed in the final hour. In 1515 the battle of Marignano won by the French largely due to the valour of Bayard, after which he knighted his sovereign, Francis I of France. Bayard was killed in battle covering the rear guard in a retreat from Italy in 1524. He was considered the epitome of chivalry and one of the most skilful commanders of the age.
The artwork is a rendering of John Hamilton Gaylor.
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