Geoffroy IV de la Tour Landry

Who was Geoffroy IV de la Tour Landry?

Geoffrey IV de la Tour Landry was a nobleman of Anjou who compiled Livre pour l'enseignement de ses filles for the instruction of his daughters, in 1371–1372. A similar book he had previously written for his sons, according to his opening text, has disappeared. The work became the most popular educational treatise of the Late Middle Ages. It was translated into German, as Der Ritter vom Turn, and at least twice into English, once by William Caxton, who printed it as The Book of the Knight of the Tower in 1483.

La Tour Landry stands between Chollet and Vezins. Geoffroy fought in the Hundred Years War; he was at the siege of Aguillon in 1346 and was in the war as late as 1383. His name again appears in a military muster in 1363. He married Jeanne de Rougé, younger daughter of Bonabes de Rougé, sieur of Erval, vicomte de La Guerche, and chamberlain to the king. In 1378, as a "knight banneret", he sent a contingent of men to join the siege of Cherbourg, but he did not serve in person. In 1380 Geoffroy was fighting in Brittany, and was last mentioned in 1383. He made a second marriage with Marguerite des Roches, dame de La Mothe de Pendu, the widow of Jean de Clerembault, knight.