A minor and pathetic figure

The town hall of Molières, a commune in the Tarn-et-Garrone department in the Occitanie region in southern France. 

Between 1286-94 Molières was held by Bertrand de Panissau, a knight of Périgord who also served the Plantagenet king-duke of Gascony as bailiff of Monpazier. When war with France broke out in 1294, Bernard and his family were taken prisoner by the French, only to escape and join the hundreds of Gascon exiles who fled to England.

Bernard, unkindly described as a ‘minor and rather pathetic figure’ by Charles Bémont, petitioned Edward I for compensation in May 1297. To boost his plea, he claimed to have mustered 4000 sergeants in English service service at Roquepine, Molières, Lalinde and Monpazier. He begged the king-duke for the writing-office of the provost of Ste Foy-la-Grande in the Agenais to be granted for life to one of his two sons, both unbeneficed clerks.

Edward declared himself ‘well content’ with Bernard’s service, and waived the need for proof of his claims. He was provided with compensation for his losses and eventually re-granted the bailliwick of Molières until he could recover his lands. Even then, the war had left Bernard so impoverished he would have sunk into destitution without an extra royal grant of 50 livres tournois. This sorely-tried individual vanished from the record in 1308; one of the many middling and lesser Gascon gentry who fell victim to the French occupation of 1294-1303.