Pierre de Craon’s failed assassination of Olivier de Clisson

Pierre de Craon’s failed assassination of Olivier de Clisson transformed a nighttime attack in Paris into a confrontation between the crown and the Duke of Brittany. Clisson survived to identify his assailant; the duke’s refusal to surrender Craon then prompted Charles VI to raise an army and march against him. The crisis also placed the newly honored Jean de Carrouges in the king’s retinue on the campaign of 1392.

Background and Motive

Craon was a disgraced noble who had been banished from the royal court the year before the attack. He blamed Clisson, France’s constable, for his exile. In 1392, Craon acted on that grievance, surprising Clisson at night in the streets of Paris with a troop of mounted men-at-arms. The attack was therefore not an isolated street assault: its target was a leading royal officer whom Craon held responsible for his exclusion from court.

The Attack and Its Failure

Craon’s men knocked Clisson from his horse with a powerful sword blow to the head and left him for dead. Clisson nevertheless survived and named Craon as his attacker. That survival reversed the apparent outcome of the ambush: the victim’s identification made the assault a matter the crown could pursue, while Craon’s flight placed the next decision in the hands of a neighboring ruler.

Royal Response and Consequences

Craon fled to the protection of the Duke of Brittany, who refused to hand him over. Charles VI responded by raising an army to subdue the duke and bring Craon to justice. The failed assassination thus widened into a royal campaign, with the refusal to surrender the accused assailant creating the immediate confrontation between the king and the duke.

The campaign also marks a change in Carrouges’s standing. Newly appointed a chevalier d’honneur, he rode toward Brittany in the summer of 1392 in Charles VI’s retinue, accompanied by ten squires of his own. Charles, then twenty-three, had recently cast off the rule of his uncles and declared himself sole ruler of France. The king’s expedition, prompted by Craon’s attack and the duke’s refusal, became the setting for a surprising turn in the campaign’s story.