Come stroll with me …

… through the town of Lapalisse.  It might be small, but it has a great history.

 

Lapalisse sits on the banks of the river Besbre in the département of Allier in the Auvergne.  At 106 kilometres in length (66 miles), Palisse sits at the middle point, with the river meandering some 50 or so kilometres north to join the Loire just above Dompierre-sur-Besbre.  With just over 3,000 inhabitants, Lapalisse is not an especially large town by English standards.  Still, it is important, as was the man who lived in the château that dominates the area and is clearly visible from the road as you cross the bridge into the centre of town.

Born in 1470, Jacques de la Palice (or de la Palisse) was a nobleman and military officer who became the Grand Maître de France (Grand Master of France), that’s the equivalent of The Lord Steward of England.  At that time, this was one of the most politically important roles in each respective Kingdom.  Beginning his career at age 15 in service to Charles 8 and then his successors, Jacques was soon fighting battles and wars in support of the expansionist ideas of whichever King of France happened to be his master.  Between 1494 and his death, his military career was constantly furthered during the Italian Wars waged between the Habsburgs and the house of Valois.

Involved in campaigns in Abruzzi, Puglia, Genoa, the Republic of Venice, Treviglio and Padua – to name but a few – that eventually caused the death of Charles d’Amboise in 1511, Jacques was made commander of the French Army in Italy.  He was given the title of Grand Maître de France.  But the fighting didn’t stop, and it would appear he was afforded no leave as he went on to squash the Spanish siege in Bologna and participate in the battle of Ravenna.

He eventually returned home to France when he retired to his lands in 1514, aged 34.  Having discovered this little fact, I can’t help but wonder how the current protesters in France might feel about this apparent precedent!  Whilst at home, he married Marie de Melun and eventually had four children.

However, Jacques’ peaceful home life was not on the cards for long.  In 1515 he was named Maréchal de France and was sent to fight in battles in Piedmont, Calais, Marseille and Avignon. In October 1524, Jacques and the King of France began the siege of Pavia.  The fight for Pavia started in February of the following year when the Imperial Spanish army arrived to free the city.  During this battle, La Palice was captured and subsequently executed.

But that’s not quite the end of his story.  Such an honourable man had to be honoured in death, too, and his epitaph reads as follows-

 

‘Ci-gît le Seigneur de la Palice: s’il n’était pas mort, il ferait encore envie’.

 

This translates as ‘here lies the Lord of la Palice: if he were not dead, he would still be envied.’  However, at some point in the 16th century, the second phrase was misread – deliberately or accidentally, I can’t say – as ‘il serait encore en vie’ which means ‘he would still be alive’.  If you now reach for your English/French dictionary and look up the word lapalissade, you will see it means ‘truism’.  So, here we are some 498 years later, and Jacques de la Palice is still with us!

There is a fabulous portrait of Jacques de la Palice in the main gallery of the Château Beauregard which sits just south of Blois in the Loire valley.

If you enjoyed this post you might also be interested in my exploratory meanders through Chenonceaux  Blois  Ancy-le-Franc or Tanlay