Arnaud de Cervole

Arnaud de Cervole, also de Cervolles, de Cervolle, Arnaut de Cervole or Arnold of Cervoles (c. 1300 - 25 May 1366), known as l'Archiprêtre (The Archpriest), was a French mercenary soldier and Brigand of the Hundred Years War in the 14th century.

He was born into the minor nobility at Lot-et-Garonne in the Périgord somewhere around the year 1300. Even though a layman, he possessed the ecclesiastical fief of Velines in Dordogne; because of it he was called the Archpriest of Vélines (Archiprêtre de Velines). He was deprived of his benefice by the archbishop of Bordeux because he was mixing "with brigands and men of base extraction".

The Archpriest quickly made a name in the world of mercenaries specializing in scaling castle walls. His meteoric rise, despite his noble status, astonished his contemporaries.

In the early 1350s, Arnaud commanded a band of 80 men in South-West France, and was known for his skill at taking walled cities and castles by escalade (ladders). He was equally known for repeatedly crossing line between military service and banditry. In 1356, he was wounded and captured after fighting in the forces of the Count of Alençon at the Battle of Poitiers. After his release he married a rich widow.

In 1357 Arnaud was elected commander of the "Great Company", a loose collection of companies of freebooters of various nationalities. While most ordinary companies numbered no more than a few hundred men, the shifting membership brought at its height made up an army of about 2700 men.

In 1357, Arnaud de Cervole married Jeanne de Graçay, widow of André de Chauvigny, killed at the Battle of Poitiers and after Arnaud she married Enguerran of Eudin In 1358, Arnaud and his troops travelled to Avignon where Pope Innocent VI gave him 20,000 gold florins to distribute among his companions in exchange for giving up all the castles his men had occupied in the papal territories.

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