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Jean de Dunois

French noble (1402-1468)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ503809 ↗
Source-derived summary

Jean d'Orléans, Count of Dunois (23 November 1402 – 24 November 1468), known as the "Bastard of Orléans" (French: bâtard d'Orléans) or simply Jean de Dunois, was a French military leader during the Hundred Years' War who participated in military campaigns with Joan of Arc. His nickname, the "Bastard of Orléans", was a mark of his high status, since it acknowledged him as a first cousin to the king and acting head of a cadet branch of the royal family during his half-brother's captivity. In 1439 he received the county of Dunois from his half-brother Charles I, Duke of Orléans, and later King Charles VII made him count of Longueville.

Life

Jean was the illegitimate son of Louis I, Duke of Orléans – son of King Charles V of France – and his mistress Mariette d'Enghien. In 1407, Jean's father, Louis I, Duke of Orléans was assassinated. Eight years later, his half-brother, Charles, Duke of Orléans was captured at the Battle of Agincourt. He remained a prisoner of the English for twenty-five years. This left Jean the only adult male to represent the house of Orléans. He was Knight of the Order of the Porcupine.

Jean took part in the civil war in France during the reign of King Charles VI on the side of the Armagnacs, and was captured by the Burgundians in 1418 in Paris during the Burgundian coup d'état of the city.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Jean de Dunois” is french noble (1402-1468). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Jean, Dunois and French, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1402, 1468, 1439, 1407—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1402-11-23, 1403-02—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Jean, Dunois and French is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “french noble (1402-1468)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q503809. VIAF identifies the subject as 8288549. The Library of Congress control number is n00022124. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1402, 1468, 1439 and 1407.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Jean de Dunois” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.