A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Hachette, Jeanne

4120538A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography — Hachette, Jeanne

HACHETTE, JEANNE,

Or Jeanne Foucquet, a heroine of Beauvais, in Picardy, France, who successfully headed a body of women in an assault upon the Burgundians, who besieged her native place in 1470. When the Burgundians ascended their ladders to plant their standards on the walls, Jeanne, with a battle-axe, drove some of them back, and seized their flag, which she deposited in a church, after the battle. Louis the Eleventh of France recompensed her for her bravery; she afterwards married Collin Pillon, and she and her descendants were exempted from taxation. In commemoration of her intrepid conduct, there is an annual procession at Beauvais, on the 10th. of July, in which the women march at the head of the men.