Robert Birkhead (Briquet) was a

mercenary A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather t ...

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

during the

Hundred Years War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a conflict between the kingdoms of England and France and a civil war in France during the Late Middle Ages. It emerged from feudal disputes over the Duchy of Aquitaine and was triggered by a c ...

. Robert Birkhead was an English captain of a Great Company in the fourteenth century. His name was frequently corrupted by French chroniclers to Briquet, but his real name is made evident by a treaty signed by a number of captains of the Great Companies sometime before December 30th, 1368, where it is rendered as Birkhed and Bircked, as well as Briqued. After the

Treaty of Brétigny A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, conventio ...

Birkhead and his men found themselves unemployed and so become one of the 30 so-called Tard-Venus

bandit Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, kidnapping, and murder, e ...

s, that ranged the French country side pillaging town. Subsequently, Pope Innocent VI preached a crusade against the robbers, but it amounted to nothing. His story is mentioned in the Chronicles of Froissart In mid-Lent 1362 Birkhead's group, composed of 2000 other Tard-Venus mercenaries, was attacking the

counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

of Macon,

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

and

Forez Forez (; ) is a Provinces of France, former province of France, corresponding approximately to the central part of the modern Loire (department), Loire ''département in France, département'' and a part of the Haute-Loire and Puy-de-Dôme ''dépa ...

. Then mid, year Birkhead with Naudon de Bageran, Francois Hennequin, Espiote, John Creswey, and Camus bour, separated from the main group of

brigand Brigandage is the life and practice of highway robbery and plunder. It is practiced by a brigand, a person who is typically part of a gang and lives by pillage and robbery.Oxford English Dictionary second edition, 1989. "Brigand.2" first record ...

s and marched on the wealthy and largely undefended

papal The pope is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the pope was the sovereign or head of sta ...

city of

Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the Communes of France, commune had a ...

to make

ransom Ransom refers to the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release. It also refers to the sum of money paid by the other party to secure a captive's freedom. When ransom means "payment", the word ...

of the

Pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

and cardinals. But on 3 June 1362, this army was cut to pieces by 400

Spaniard Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking Ethnicity, ethnic group native to the Iberian Peninsula, primarily associated with the modern Nation state, nation-state of Spain. Genetics, Genetically and Ethnolinguisti ...

and

Castilians Castilians () are the inhabitants of the historical region of Castile in central Spain. However, the boundaries of the region are disputed. Not all people in the regions of the medieval Kingdom of Castile or Crown of Castile think of themsel ...

soldiers under the orders of Henry of Trastamara (

King of Castile and León The Crown of Castile was a medieval polity in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and, some decades later, the parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accessio ...

) at Montpensier. Birkhead was present at the Battle of Najera, before which he was knighted. He died sometime in late 1368.Fowler, Kenneth. 2001. ''Medieval Mercenaries, The Great Companies''. Wiley-Blackwell, page 9.

References

{{reflist People of the Hundred Years' War Year of birth unknown Hundred Years' War Medieval mercenaries 14th century in France