The House of Vaudrey

Here are two Burgundian nobles from the Franche-Comté region - Guillaume and Claude de Vaudrey. They were prominent leaders of the Comtois rebellion that fought the French from 1477 to 1479 under the figurehead of the Prince of Orange, and seem to have been effective leaders with many dramatic victories to their names. Their exact familial connection has been tricky to pin down, but I am fairly confident they were uncle and nephew.

The War in the Franche-Comté

To briefly summarise the situation in the Franche-Comté after the death of Charles the Bold, a French army under Georges de la Trémoille had occupied the region, but it wasn't long before an uprising had begun. The city of Dole evicted its French garrison, and many others followed its example. La Trémoille besieged the town of Vesoul, where Guillaume de Vaudrey commanded. On the night of 17 March Vaudrey led a night-time sortie, supposedly having trumpets sounded from multiple directions which panicked the French camp, making them think they were being attacked by a much larger force. As they retreated Vaudrey attacked and routed them. Claude de Vaudrey meanwhile had defended Auxonne against the French.

By the end of March the French had been driven out of most of the county by the Vaudreys and the Prince of Orange, who now had under their command several thousand Swiss mercenaries. La Trémoille re-gathered his strength and counter-attacked - either one or both Vaudreys were at the Battle of Émagny, which was a costly French victory. Whilst La Trémoille besieged Dole they rode the countryside freely, harassing the French wherever they found them. They then re-captured the town of Gray in remarkable style - again moving at night, they scaled the walls and were able to open the gates to allow their forces in. The French defenders were driven back to the castle as parts of the town were set alight, and Claude de Vaudrey led the assault over the ramparts. The French garrison were mostly all killed, their captain Jean de Salazar only just able to escape, wounded and badly burned. 

When La Trémoille was defeated outside the walls of Dole, the Vaudreys attacked his rearguard as he retreated. The French were driven out of the Franche-Comté and into the duchy of Burgundy. Claude de Vaudrey and the Prince of Orange led an incursion into the duchy which reached the walls of Dijon, before they were turned back by a force led by the recently-wounded Jean de Salazar.

After the successes of 1477 things turned against the Comtois rebels as they lost the support of the Swiss, and the French moved again under the new leadership of Charles d'Amboise. Guillaume de Vaudrey may have been among the Burgundian leaders who were captured leading an expedition in the French-held duchy - if he was he was clearly released at some point. In 1479 d'Amboise led a second invasion of the Franche-Comté, focusing on the capital of Dole. Claude de Vaudrey defended the castle of Rochefort which was forced to surrender, and he was presumably captured. After the fall and sack of Dole most of the region submitted to the French, though a small group of the Comtois nobility continued their fight, retreating to the mountains - among these was Guillaume de Vaudrey. He was eventually captured in the winter of 1479/80 and was among the few nobles to be summarily executed as a lesson to other would-be rebels.

Claude de Vaudrey survived and was presumably released at some point - in 1481 he was serving Maximilian, campaigning against rebels in Holland. He lived for several more decades, becoming well-known as a tournament fighter, and died in 1518.

The extended House of Vaudrey

Trying to work out some sort of family tree for the Vaudreys has been very difficult, with contradictions cropping up at every turn. As I said I am confident that Guillaume and Claude were uncle and nephew, but various sources have also referred to them as brothers and even father and son. The source that seems to have the answer is Le Grand Dictionnaire Historique by Louis Moreri. Published in the 18^th century, this has an extensive list of Vaudrey family members. However it lists Guillaume as the youngest of three sons with apparently no lordship of his own and no children, whereas all other references to him I can find refer to him as the Lord of Courlaou. If we assume that the Grand Dictionnaire Historique has a mistake... then he could be the elder of two brothers, Lord of Courlaou, and father of Lancelot de Vaudrey. I've put together the following family tree to show all the members of the Vaudrey family around during the late 15th century and how they are connected. This is all using the information from the Grand Dictionnaire Historique, the one change being moving Guillaume's position. 

[It seems the French author Jean-Marie Thiebaud, who has apparently published many books on the nobility of the region, also lists Guillaume as lord of Courlaou and father of Lancelot, as you can see on his website here. I'd love to have a look at some of his books, but haven't managed to find any of them at an affordable price, and not speaking French translating them will be trickier when on the page rather than the laptop. There are also some recently updated French wikipedia pages on both Guillaume and Claude which seem to mostly agree with my interpretations, with the exception of a few minor details.]

As we can see there were multiple branches of the family, and I've found several references to other Vaudreys who we can locate on the family tree.

• Herman de Vaudrey defended the castle of Marteroy in the Franche-Comté.
• Louis de Vaudrey was captain of guards for Maximilian and of the 'archers du corps' of Philip of Castile. He was one of the Burgundian leaders who recaptured Arras in November 1492.
• Philibert de Vaudrey had been master of the artillery for Philip the Good.
• Philippe de Vaudrey led a force of 9-10,000 Germans into the Franche-Comté in 1489, and was driven back by Jean de Baudricourt. As seen on the family tree there are two Philippes, and I don't know if this was the father or the son. 
• The Grand Dictionnaire Historique lists the elder Philippe as also being "maître de l'artillerie du duc de Bourgogne, dans la guerre de Luxembourg, & gruyer de Franche-Comté." So another 'master of artillery', though it doesn't say for which duke. References to the Luxembourg war suggest it might actually mean Mary & Maximilian? Or did either Philip the Good or Charles the Bold fight a war in Luxembourg I don't know about? And what does "gruyer de Franche-Comté" mean? A quick google suggests gruyer might have been some sort of medieval tax-collector.
• The younger Philippe was advisor and chamberlain to Emperor Maximilian.
• Histoire generale et particuliere de Bourgogne (1781) mentions an unspecified Vaudrey leading the re-conquest of the Franche-Comté in 1493, though this doesn’t quite match up with other sources and omits to mention the Battle of Dournon. It also suggests this was the same Vaudrey who had just recaptured Arras.
• It also interestingly mentions an unspecified Vaudrey negotiating with the Swiss Cantons on behalf of France – could this perhaps have been Claude de Vaudrey during his time as a French prisoner?

Heraldry

The Vaudrey arms were easy enough to find, but as for the myriad different family members, there is no hope of finding their personal heraldry. Unfortunately none of them were made Knights of the Golden Fleece, which would have made things easier! I was able however to find what I believe to be the coat of arms of Claude de Vaudrey - the Vaudrey arms differenced with a label. For Guillaume I've decided to use the undifferenced arms - if he was indeed Lord of Courlaou then he was of the senior line, and presumably the head of the family.

Heraldry of Claude de Vaudrey?

As Guillaume's heraldry is quite simple, I took the opportunity to use a figure with a heraldic tabard for him and have a go at painting it freehand. No way was I going to attempt this with any of the much more complex heraldry I've come across, not only on the front and the back but in miniature on both sleeves..... all respect to those who manage to do this effectively! I'm very pleased with the results, but don't expect to see much more freehand heraldry from me any time soon.

The miniatures themselves are a mix of Perry and Steel Fist parts.