The presbytery and the lodging of a buyer of the ecclesiastical goods are devastated on the 18th of March 1793 by about 300 bandits who will then be called Chouan (= royalists).
On 21 August 1803 Shippard landed Georges Cadoudal, the Chouan chief, at Biville, between Dieppe and Tréport, and on 16 January in the following year he landed General Pichegru at the same place.
When Fouché held the real culprits, Saint-Rejan and Carbon, when it was known that the attempt of Nivôse was the work of Chouans, it was too late.
The surrounding area served as a natural hiding place for outlaws of all kinds: the "Fairy's Cave" was one of the most secure hiding places for Chouans and highwaymen.
Chouan |
The Chouan Army of Rennes and Fougères (Armée des Chouans de Rennes et Fougères or armée royale de Rennes et de Fougères) was a French counter-revolutionary army set up in 1795 by Joseph de Puisaye, who passed on its command to Aimé Picquet du Boisguy, head of the chouans in the area from 1793 onwards.
It was organized by reactionary "Chouan" royalist forces, and was targeted at the radical Jacobins and anyone suspected of supporting them.
There is, in much of the Jean Chouan material, a slight whiff of Robin Hood and his merry men.