Knight's descendant plans to honour his ancestor

Chevalier de Bayard – le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche (the knight without fear and beyond reproach) – ranks alongside Napoleon and Joan of Arc as one of France’s national figures which all schoolchildren learn about.

Jean-Christophe Parisot de Bayard was authorised to add de Bayard to his name in 2012 after his research proved he is a descendant of the knight.

The 21st-century de Bayard is himself an extraordinary man. He has a form of muscular dystrophy and became the first tetraplegic student to graduate from the prestigious Sciences Po and the first handicapped préfet in France.

He told Connexion that he decided to investigate when he discovered his paternal grandmother was descended from the same family as Chevalier de Bayard.

“I was close to my grandmother and she was a descendant of the Alleman family. De Bayard’s mother was an Alleman girl.

“I had to put all the pieces of the puzzle together with authentic documents and then send them to be examined by the Garde des Sceaux, the Keeper of the Seals.”

He then organised a DNA analysis of a skull that was suspected to be that of Chevalier de Bayard.

The knight was buried in the Couvent des Minimes, at Saint-Martin-d’Hères, Isère, but his remains were later dispersed. In 1937, four coffins were found and it seemed one belonged to a person of importance. The skull was stored in departmental archives but no-one was sure of its provenance. Mr Parisot de Bayard is convinced it is the knight’s skull: “I wouldn’t fight to give a tomb to an unknown person if I wasn’t 100% sure the skull is that of the chevalier.

“I have read archive documents about where he was buried, analysed the skull, and a DNA sample from a tooth was matched from a female descendant of the Alleman family.

“We know that three nobles wished to be buried with de Bayard and when the four coffins were found in 1937, one of them was an unusual black colour due to the remains of iron armour.

“The DNA showed that the person would have had black eyes, brown hair and pale skin – the same as de Bayard. The most convincing element is the similarity of the DNA sample to the descendant’s.”

Chevalier de Bayard (1473-1524) came from a noble family whose members had long served in the king’s armies.

He fought alongside King Charles VIII, King Louis XII and King Francis I and was respected for his bravery, intelligence, piety, kindness and selflessness. According to French history lessons, he represents everything the word ‘chivalry’ stands for.

As he lay dying from battle wounds in Italy he is quoted as saying to Charles, duc de Bourbon, who was fighting against the King: “Sir, there is no need to pity me. I die as a man of honour ought, doing my duty; but I pity you, because you are fighting against your king, your country, and your oath.”

Mr Parisot de Bayard says it is extraordinary to think he is related to the knight: “I feel responsible for transmitting his story to future generations because we need to know that the real riches in life come from being selfless and true to oneself.

“There is a future in being chivalrous.”