Jean, or Jehan de Beaumanoir, marshal

Marshal

Marshal , is a word used in several official titles of various branches of society. The word is an ancient loan word from Old French, cf...

 of Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

 for Charles of Blois, and captain of Josselin

Josselin

Josselin is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.-History:St Meriadek is said to have founded a chapel there during the 4th century...

, is remembered for his share in the famous Combat of the Thirty

Combat of the Thirty

The Combat of the Thirty [known as Combat des Trente in French] was an episode in the struggle for the succession to the Duchy of Brittany...

 during the War of Breton Succession (1341–1364) between the partisans of competing claimants for the Dukedom.

Robert Bramborough, the English captain of Ploërmel

Ploërmel

Ploërmel is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.-Character of the town:It is a growing and developing community with a thriving economy and a lively atmosphere. The town is modern rather than romantically mediaeval, but it is clean and attractive and offers a...

, who supported the rival claimant John de Montfort

John V, Duke of Brittany

John V the Conqueror KG was Duke of Brittany and Count of Montfort, from 1345 until his death.-Numbering:...

, had been ignoring a truce in the district commanded by Jean de Beaumanoir. In 1351, Beaumanoir sent him a challenge, which resulted in an "emprise" — an arranged chivalric combat

Chivalric order

Chivalric orders are societies and fellowships of knights that have been created by European monarchs in imitation of the military orders of the Crusades...

 — which took place near Ploërmel, between picked combatants.

Beaumanoir commanded thirty Bretons, Bramborough a mixed force of twenty Englishmen (including Sir Robert Knolles

Robert Knolles

Sir Robert Knolles was an important English soldier of the Hundred Years' War, who, operating with the tacit support of the Crown, succeeded in taking the only two major French cities, other than Calais and Poitiers, to fall to Edward III...

 and Sir Hugh Calveley

Hugh Calveley

Sir Hugh Calveley was an English soldier and commander, who took part in the Hundred Years' War, gaining fame during the War of the Breton Succession and the Castilian Civil War...

), six German mercenaries and four Breton partisans of Montfort. The battle, fought with swords, daggers, spears, and axes, mounted or on foot, was extremely vicious. When de Beaumanoir was badly wounded and asked for water, his fellow combatant Geoffroy du Bois is supposed to have said to him "Drink your blood, Beaumanoir; your thirst will pass" (Bois ton sang, Beaumanoir, la soif te passera). De Beaumanoir's men emerged victorious, and he became an icon of medieval chivalry

Chivalry

Chivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood which has an aristocratic military origin of individual training and service to others. Chivalry was also the term used to refer to a group of mounted men-at-arms as well as to martial valour...

.

When his faction was eventually defeated at the Battle of Auray

Battle of Auray

The Battle of Auray took place on 29 September 1364 at the French town of Auray. This battle was the decisive confrontation of the Breton War of Succession, a part of the Hundred Years' War....

in 1365, de Beaumanoir helped to negotiate the Treaty of Guérande, which ended the war, receiving in return the title of Marshal of Brittany.

He married Marguerite de Rohan, daughter of Alain VII of Rohan and widow of Constable of Clisson. Their daughter Jeanne was the wife of Charles de Dinan, Lord of Montafilant and Châteaubriant.