Bayard

Pierre du Terrail, seigneur de Bayard (1476-1524)

Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie, RESERVEFOL-QB-201(3)

Known as the “knight without fear and beyond reproach,” Bayard was a French noble who served in the early Italian Wars. He was 20-years-old at Fornovo (1495), his first fight, and was prominent in the battles of Cerignola (1503), Agnadello (1509), Ravenna (1512), and Marignano (1515). His chivalrous exploits were recounted by his “Loyal Serviteur,” whose account remains an important source for these wars. Bayard was renowned in his own time for his fighting prowess and knightly virtues, and it is one of history's ironies that he was finally brought down by a lowly arquebusier’s bullet, which broke his spine at the “Rout of the Sesia.”

Bayard's death in battle was described by his Loyal Serviteur [from Loredan de Larchey (ed.), History of Bayard (London, 1883)]. He was killed in a skirmish with Spanish arquebusiers (pp. 415-416): “...[W]ho cast bullets large enough for a hackbut with a rest, whereof they discharged many....[T]he bullet struck him across the loins, and broke the great bone of his spine.” Seven successive generations of the Terrails were killed or severely wounded in battle (ibid., Appx. II, 432).