Les Grandes Heures de l’Histoire de France

On November 8, 2021, La Poste will issue a block of two stamps from the series Les Grandes Heures de l'Histoire de France featuring Jeanne Hachette and Louis XI.

Although Jeanne Hachette is undoubtedly the heroine of Beauvais, we know little about her life apart from her exploit during the siege of the city in 1472. Most of the sources are oral and posterior to the event, like her name of "hatchet" which appears much later by referring to the small axe which she would have used to push back the Burgundians.In 1472, the duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold, in fight against his cousin the king of France Louis XI, ravages Picardy. He marched on Beauvais, a rich city that he knew had no garrison. On June 27, a 24-day siege began. The assault was violent. According to tradition, it was a young girl named Jeanne Laisné who encouraged the Beauvaisians to defend their city themselves. While a procession of women brought the relics of Saint Angadrême, patron saint of the city, to the ramparts, Jeanne and her companions, joined by the men, organized the defense. To a soldier who had just climbed onto the surrounding wall, she tore off his standard and repulsed the assailant. The resistance of Beauvais stopped the Burgundian invasion of the northern part of the Île-de-France and Louis XI was generous to its inhabitants. He exempted them from taxes for ten years and exempted Jeanne Laisné and her husband for life. In memory of the siege of 1472, he instituted the solemn procession of the Assault. Today, the Jeanne-Hachette festival organized every year, on the last weekend of June, replaces the religious procession and celebrates this historical event for 549 years.