BAYARD, Nicholas, American colonial official: b. Alphen, Holland, about 1644; d. New York, 1707. (See BAYARD FAMILY). He was double nephew of Peter Stuyvesant, by blood and marriage; became his private secretary and surveyor of the province, secretary of it after the English conquest, and mayor in 1685. He was commander-in-chief of the militia of the province, and one of the three resident coun cillors; and had to flee to Albany for his life on Leisler's usurpation after Andros' overthrow, but was made councillor anew on Leisler's downfall. On Kidd's arrest for piracy in 1699, Bayard, like all Governor Bellomont's officials, was accused of complicity, and visited London to clear himself ; but the old hates of the Leis ler time pursued him, and on charge of attempt ing to introduce popery, piracy and slavery into New York he was condemned to death for high treason. King William's death intervening, however, he was released and restored to his possessions by an order in council.
BAYARD, Pierre Terrail (CHEV ALIER DE), French soldier: b. Chateau Bayard, near Grenoble, about 1475; d. 30 April 1524. He was descended from one of the most noble families in Dauphiny, and at the age of 13 be came page to the Dulce of Savoy, at that time an ally of France. Charles VIII, struck by his skill and grace in riding, asked that he be trans ferred to his service, and accordingly, as a preparation to being attached to the royal suite, young Bayard was placed in the household of Paul of Luxembourg, Comte de Ligny, where he was taught all the feats of arms and niceties of chivalry which were then held necessary to constitute a gentleman and a soldier.
His first experience in war was in the wild and daring march of Charles VIII, with a small unsupported army, through the whole length of Italy, to invade the kingdom of Naples, which was won and lost in a few days with equal ease; and in that campaign, he greatly guished himself, taking with his own hand a stand of colors in the battle of Verona. After this, while serving in an invading army in Italy, after a battle fought near Milan, in the heat of pursuit he entered that city pell-mell with the fugitives, and was made prisoner, but, in con sideration of his astonishing valor, was sent back without ransom by Ludovico Sforza, to gether with his horse and arms. In Apulia he defeated a Spanish corps commanded by Alonzo de Soto-Mayor, who broke his parole and slandered Bayard, in return for which the latter challenged and slew him in single combat, and afterward, according to some authorities, cov ered the retreat of the whole French army and defended the bridge over the Liris, now the Garigliano, single-handed against half an army. For this feat he received an augmentation of his armorial bearings, a porcupine bristling with spears, with the motto Vircs agininis units habet.
A real type of the ideal knight-errant of romance wherever honor was to be won or incurred, ncurred, Bayard was there. Desper ately wounded in the assault of Brescia, he was carried to the house of a nobleman who had fled, abandoning his wife and daughters to the fate which befalls women in a sacked city, and from which the wounded enemy alone preserved them. Half-recovered from his wounds, he joined Gaston de Foix before Ravenna, where with his own hand he took two Spanish stand ards and converted a retreat of the enemy into a rout. In the subsequent wars with Ferdi nand the Catholic of Spain he displayed the same chivalric valor and the same generalship among the Pyrenees which he had displayed in his boyhood among the passes of the Alps and Apennines. In the dark days which clouded the
latter years of Louis XII, when Henry VIII brought his English archers to back the Ger man Maximilian in Flanders, and Terouanne and Tournay went down, with but feeble resist ance, before the allies, Bayard was the same in adverse as he had been in prosperous fortunes. He was forced to surrender at the disgraceful battle of the Spurs, but again his glory to be taken under circumstances of such honor caused King Henry to set him at liberty with his horse and arms, unransomed. It was, however, in his noon of manhood that his glory shone the brightest. When Francis I invaded Italy after his accession to the throne of France, it was Bayard who was the precursor of his march; whn made Prosper Colonna, at the very moment of his belief that he had ambushed and sur prised him, his prisoner: who, in a word, paved the King's way to the magnificent battle of Marignano. In that tremendous conflict, he per formed prodigies, and contributed more than any or all beside to change what once seemed a lost fight into a victory. At its close his sword conferred the accolade on the shoulder of his King, Francis I, who deemed it honor enough to take knighthood at the hand of such a paladin as Bayard. The fortunes of war, proverbially fickle and changeful, were never more so than at this epoch; and when, a short time later, Charles V invaded Champagne, his wonderful defense of the open town of Mezieres alone prevented his penetrating to the heart of France, of which, by this exploit, he deserved, as he obtained, the name of savior. His next war was his last. Genoa, ever an unwilling conquest of the French arms, re volted; and, under the command of Bonnivet, Bayard was sent to reduce the city to obedience and chastise the rebels. In the first instance success attended their advance; but, after the surrender of Dodi, fortune again changed, and, foot by foot, the French were beaten out of their conquests. In retreating through the Val d'Aosta the French rear was beaten, Bonnivet was severely wounded, and the safety of the army was committed to Bayard, if he per chance might save it. In passing the river Sesia in the presence of a superior enemy, as Bayard was covering the rear and pressing hard upon the Spaniards, who were fast giving way before his impetuous charge, he was shot through the right side by a stone from an arquebus, which shattered his spine. °Jesu, my God V' he cried, °I am a dead man.° And then commanding that he should be placed erect, in a sitting posture, with his back against a tree, with his face to the Spaniards, and the cross hilt of his sword held up as a crucifix before him, he confessed his sins to his esquire, sent his adieux to his King and country, and died in the midst of weeping friends and admiring enemies. With his fall the battle was ended. The French lost everything,— standards, drums, baggage, ordnance,— and their retreat to France became a flight. But there was most grief that they had lost Bayard. His body remained in the hands of the Spaniards; but they embalmed and returned it to France unsolicited. A simple bust, with a brief and modest Latin in scription, in the church of the Minorites, in Grenoble, erected in 1823, is the only monu ment to one of the purest and most beautiful characters in medieval history, the chevalier sans peur et sans reproche.
Bayard's life was written by Symphorien Champier in 1525, and two years later by his secretary, Jacques Joffrey, known as the °loyal servitor.° Other accounts have been translated by E. Watford (London 1867).