The Lioness

by Gigi Griffis

First published 2024

Amazon

4.0(130)

Brittany and France, 1343. Jeanne de Clisson’s life is destroyed when her husband, Olivier IV de Clisson, is arrested for treason and executed on the orders of Philip VI. His death and the confiscation of the family’s property draw Jeanne into the Breton War of Succession, where French, Breton and English loyalties overlap. Refusing submission, she seeks support, takes her campaign to the coast and turns private grief into war against the French crown.

The novel reconstructs Jeanne’s transformation from noblewoman to the figure remembered as the Lioness of Brittany, combining family survival, maritime warfare and political revenge. Olivier’s execution and the wider succession conflict are documented, while the scale of Jeanne’s privateering career, the Black Fleet traditions and many individual attacks survive through later and sometimes contradictory accounts. The story therefore treats a historical life through imaginative biographical fiction rather than settled biography.