Jean de Grouchy

Who was Jean de Grouchy?

Jean de Grouchy, was a Norman knight, the Sieur de Montérolier. Known as "the bravest of the brave" and "Father of the Cauchois", Jean de Grouchy shed his blood several times fighting against the English in Normandy during the Hundred Years War.

Harfleur had been in occupied by the English since 1415, but by 1435 it was the last place they still held in Normandy. Having learned that a number of Harfleur residents were ready to support any attempt against the enemy, de Grouchy, along with the Cauchois leaders, Floquet, Carnier and Lahire, developed a plan together with 104 of the inhabitants of Harfleur. On the night of 3/4 November 1435, while John de Rieux diverted the enemy’s attention with 4,000 mounted troops, he approached the town with the Cauchois troops under his banner to enter at the appropriate time and take the city. A fire lit in the suburbs near the Porte d’Eure by the 104 faithful French residents would be the signal to attack.

At daybreak, the English sentries, seeing the high walls of the suburb in flames, gave warning and garrison troops rushed out to extinguish the fire. This was the moment de Grouchy and his men had waited for. They raced up the slope to the breach in the walls where the English had penetrated in 1415 and seized the town, ruthlessly killing their English enemies and anyone else who opposed them. Unfortunately, climbing up a slope at the age of 81 years, Grouchy was one of the 40 attackers that were killed in action. Ten years later, the English returned in Normandy and confiscated the property of the de Grouchy family.