BOUCICAUT, JEAN (JEAN LE MEINGRE, called BovCI CAUT) (c. 1366-1421), marshal of France, was the son of another Jean le Meingre (d. 1368) also known as Boucicaut, marshal of France. Boucicaut spent his life in fighting. He had served in several campaigns before he joined the expedition to Hungary (1396), and was taken prisoner by the Turks at Nicopolis. He was ransomed, and in 1399 appeared at Constantinople with 1,400 men and a good fleet to aid the Emperor against the Turks who were threatening the city. He defeated a Turkish fleet at Gallipoli, and arrived in the Golden Horn in time to prevent the capture of Galata by the Turks. He held the Turks in check for a year, and then returned to France to seek volunteers. But he was des patched not to Constantinople, but to establish on firmer founda tions French dominion in Genoa. This involved him in a brief war with Venice. Genoa threw off the French yoke in 1409 dur ing an absence of Boucicaut. He fought at Agincourt, where he was taken prisoner, and died in England. Boucicaut, who was very skilful in the tournament, founded the order of the Dame blanche a l'ecu vert, a society the object of which was to defend the wives and daughters of absent knights.
An anonymous account of Boucicaut's life and adventures is entitled Livre des faits du bon messire Jean le Meingre dit Boucicaut, pub lished in Paris by T. Godefroy in 562o. See J. Delaville le Roulx, La France en Orient: expeditions du marechal Boucicaut (1886) .