Jean Maugué

Jean Maugué is mentioned by Jerott in Checkmate.

Titles, Nicknames and Other names

none

Role in Novels

Checkmate CM 2.1 Jean Maugué is quoted as a victim of a cannon that blew up. (Vintage p. 99; Kindle loc. 2419)

Role in History

Jean Maugué was a cannon maker during the reign of Louis XI. Nothing is known of his life besides the fact that he was killed by his own cannon, which blew up spectacularly killing twenty-four. An account of the event is given here.<ref>Paul-François Velly, Claude Villaret, Jean-Jacques Garnier, Histoire de France depuis l'établissement de la monarchie jusqu'au règne de Louis XIV, Vol. 16 , Paris, 1770, p. 331 read online (in French)</ref>
The source also cites the quote Priés pour l’âme de Jean Maugué. The accident apparently shocked the authorities of Paris enough to order the town criers to ask the people of Paris to pray for Jean Maugué on all town squares. Over the years it became so well-known that Victor Hugo picked it up in his novel ‘Notre Dame de Paris’ (which tells of story of the hunchback of Notre-Dame), having the poet Pierre Gringoire mention it: “Being somewhat of an armourer, I worked on that great bombard of Jean Maugue, which, as you know, burst on the Pont de Charenton the day they tried it out, and killed twentyfour spectators.”<ref>Victor Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 116 read online</ref>

References