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Jean Chouan was the nom de guerre of the Frenchman, Jean Cottereau, who was born at Saint-Berthevin, near Laval, in the department of Mayenne on 30 October 1757〔His birth certificate is recorded in the parish register of St. Berthevin (available online at the site of the Departmental Archives of Mayenne) in the following fashion: "B.(''baptism'') of Jean Cottereau. Today, 31 October 1757, he was baptized by the vicar of this parish. He was born yesterday, the legitimate son of Pierre, a maker of wooden shoes, and Jeanne Moyné Cottereau, his wife. The godparents were Pierre Amy, a cousin of the child, and Marie Crouillebois, also a cousin of the child." It was signed by the father, the godmother, a 'J. Le Bourdais', possibly the vicar, and a 'M. Gallot', another priest.〕 and died 18 July 1794 at Olivet, also in Mayenne. He was a counter-revolutionary, an insurrectionist, and a staunch royalist.〔George J. Hill, ''The Story of the War in La Vendée and the Little Chouannerie'' (New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. n.d.), pp. 179-180, 182-183.()〕 Of the four Cottereau brothers, — Jean, Pierre, François, and René, — Jean, the second-born, was the one called ''chouan'' ("the silent one") by their father. Others say his nickname came from an imitation of the call of the tawny owl (the ''chouette hulotte'') he customarily used as a recognition signal.〔Albert Soboul (dir.), ''Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française'', Quadrige/PUF, 1989, p. 218, entry on "Chouans/Chouannerie" by Roger Dupuy〕 Less flatteringly, Jean's young comrades nicknamed him "the boy liar" (''le Gars mentoux'' or ''le garçon menteur'').〔In the course of his activities as a smuggler, Jean Chouan often demonstrated his courage. Whenever he was intimidated or frightened, he had the habit of saying to his comrades: "Fear not, there is no danger." These words, "there is no danger", became his motto, and he often repeated them, sometimes without reason. This explains his 'liar' nickname.〕 The 1926 Luitz-Morat film, ''Jean Chouan'', starred Maurice Lagrenée as Chouan. ==Note of warning== Much of the biographical material on Jean Chouan is based on the work of Jacques Duchemin des Cépeaux, in a work written in 1825 at the request of the king, Charles X, who ruled France from 1824 until 1830. Cépeaux is unapologetically a royalist partisan, and he presents a number of claims that may be unfounded. The story of Jean Chouan is, therefore, almost certainly, in large part, legendary. The persistence of the legend can be explained by the fact it has been continuously nourished by a small faction of Catholics and royalist-legitimists who have remained active up to the present day. So, Chouan's role in history is, at best, questionable, and archives, even those belonging to aristocrats living in the region, indicate that he was completely unknown prior to the Bourbon restoration in 1814. One thing is certain: the republicans, in their effort to quell the insurgency, contributed to the birth of the legend. The name, Jean Chouan, may, in fact, have been invented by republican authorities who were unable to name the true leaders of the insurrection against their own 1789 revolution, the revolution that had unseated the royal house of Bourbon in the first place. There is, in much of the Jean Chouan material, a slight whiff of ''Robin Hood and his merry men''. Chouan is a romantic hero who, with a small band of devoted followers living in the forest, stage courageous raids against a hated regime. How much of this is romantic legend and how much is historically factual will probably always be open to debate, but, in either case, the shoddiness of the history of this "hero" embarrasses many historians. The tales, true or not, have proved to be a rich source of literary inspiration. Most notably, Honoré de Balzac drew from this history in writing the last of his series of novels, ''La Comédie humaine'', — a work called "The Chouans". Nonetheless, it should be remembered that there is a history, indisputably true, associated with the figure of Jean Chouan; it is the history of a bloody and costly civil war in western France. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jean Chouan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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