A closer look
When the French king unfairly executed her husband on flimsy treason charges, Jeanne de Clisson didn't just write a strongly worded letter. She sold her massive estates, bought a fleet of warships, painted their hulls pitch black, and dyed their sails blood red. The 'Lioness of Brittany' spent the next decade ruthlessly hunting down French ships in the English Channel. She would personally decapitate captured French aristocrats with an axe, always making sure to leave at least two sailors alive so they could sail back and tell the king exactly who had slaughtered his men.
