BAYARD, PIERRE TERRAIL, SEIGNEUR DE (1473 1524), French soldier, the descendant of a noble family, nearly every head of which for two centuries past had fallen in battle, was born at the château Bayard, Dauphine (near Pontcharra, Isere), about 1473. In 1494 he accompanied Charles VIII. into Italy, and was knighted after the battle of Fornova (1495), where he had captured a standard. Shortly afterwards, entering Milan alone in ardent pursuit of the enemy, he was taken prisoner, but was set free without a ransom by Lodovico Sforza. In 1502 he was wounded at the assault of Canossa. Bayard was the hero of a celebrated combat of 13 French knights against an equal number of Germans, and his restless energy and valour were conspicuous throughout the Italian wars of this period. On one occasion it is said that, single-handed, he made good the defence of the bridge of the Garigliano against about 200 Spaniards, an exploit that brought him such renown that Pope Julius II. sought to entice him into the papal service, but unsuccessfully. In he distin guished himself again, at the siege of Genoa by Louis XII., and early in 1509 the king made him captain of a company of horse and foot. At the siege of Padua he won further distinction, not only by his valour, but by his consummate skill. At Brescia in 1512 his valour in first mounting the rampart cost him a severe wound. Before his wound was completely healed, he hurried to join Gaston de Foix, under whom he served in the terrible battle of Ravenna (1512). In 1513, when Henry VIII. of Eng land routed the French at the battle of the Spurs (Guinegate, where Bayard's father had received a lifelong injury in a battle of 1479), Bayard in trying to rally his countrymen found his escape cut off. Unwilling to surrender, he rode suddenly up to an English officer who was resting unarmed, and summoned him to yield; the knight complying, Bayard in turn gave himself up to his prisoner. The king released him without ransom, merely exacting his parole not to serve for six weeks. On the accession of Francis I. in 1515, Bayard was made lieutenant-general of Dauphine; and after the victory of Marignan, to which his valour largely contributed, he had the honour of conferring knighthood on his youthful sovereign. When war again broke out between Francis I. and Charles V., Bayard, with i,000 men, held Mezieres, which had been declared untenable, against an army of 35,00o and after six weeks compelled the imperial generals to raise the siege. This stubborn resistance saved central France from inva sion. All France rang with the achievement, and Francis gained time to collect the royal army which drove out the invaders (1521). After allaying a revolt at Genoa, and striving with the greatest assiduity to check a pestilence in Dauphine, Bayard was sent, in 1523, into Italy with Admiral Bonnivet, who, being de feated at Robecco and wounded in a combat during his retreat, implored Bayard to assume the command and save the army. He repulsed the foremost pursuers, but in guarding the rear at the passage of the Sesia was mortally wounded by an arquebus ball (April 3o, 1524). He died in the midst of the enemy. His body was restored to his friends and interred at Grenoble.
Chivalry, free of fantastic extravagance, is perfectly mirrored in the character of Bayard. As a soldier he was one of the most skilful commanders of the age. He obtained exact and complete information of the enemy's movements by careful reconnaissance and by a well-arranged system of espionage. In the midst of mercenary armies Bayard remained absolutely disinterested, and to his contemporaries and his successors he was, with his romantic heroism, piety and magnanimity, the fearless and faultless knight, le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche. His gaiety and kindness won him, even more frequently, another name bestowed by his contemporaries, le bon chevalier.