| “ | Drawing of the monster which is laying waste on Gévaudan. This beast has the size of a young bull and prefers to attack women and children. It drinks their blood, severs their head and drags it away. | „ |
| ~ Description of the Beast in a newspaper |
The Beast of Gévaudan was an enigmatic feral animal of undetermined species that terrorized Central France during the 18th century, attacking hundreds of people and causing over a hundred casualties and many serious injuries. Countless theories were made about the nature of the beast, which to this day remains an enigma for both scientists and historians. Its mystery and gruesome tales have inspired many fictions.
Description[]
The Beast (or maybe beasts) plagued Gévaudan, a former province of central France which corresponds to the present-day Lauzère department in the mountains of the Massif Central. It is infamous for its size, its ferocity, its daring, and the fact that it escaped considerable manpower (ranging from peasant mobs to hundreds of soldiers, to the best hunters around with their hounds) for years, even resurfacing a short while after being reportedly killed.
The latter was mostly due to the very long and harsh winters, not to mention the very few practicable roads in this wild land of mountains and deep forests, full of chasms and marshes, where fogs and violent storms were common. All these hindrances gave the Beast a notable field advantage over its pursuers.
Eyewitnesses described it as a reddish canine-like animal the size of a young bull, with strong jaws, short ears, a black stripe on its back, a long and bushy tail, exuding an awful stench. Some testimonies mention hooves instead of paws, while others mention a smaller female accompanying the monster without taking part in the attacks. Yet, the exactness of the testimonies can be debated due to oral tradition, with attacks being retold and most likely magnified (and sometimes downright made up) from one person to another, not to mention outright mass hysteria. The most reliable information being found in investigation reports written by the local clerics, and later the minutes of the hunt by the king's soldiers and huntsmen.
It has been established that the Beast specifically targeted humans, sometimes even in villages by daytime, even with easier prey like cattle and small game around, though it sometime attacked domestic animals. Such behaviour was ruled impossible for wolves who normally avoid contact with humans. It was described as an exceptionally fast and powerful animal able dodge blows and jump over walls, not to mention a relentless and intelligent hunter.
The Beast was abnormally aggressive, being known for keeping attacking even against several armed people, for backing down for a while after getting driven away, only to stay and wait for an opportunity to strike again until too many backup forced it to flee, or for avoiding places where too many people were tracking it down. It was apparently able to travel across wide distances in a matter of hours, attacking in two faraway places in the same day, and covered a very large area of action stretching ninety by eighty kilometres.
It was even said to have gotten back up after being shot in more than one occasion, which started a rumor pretending that it was impervious to bullets.
History[]
First Attack[]
The first attack reported happened in 1764, when the Beast tried to kill a woman guarding cattle, though the oxen managed to drive it away. A short while later it killed a fourteen-year-old girl, its first official victim. However, her death was attributed to "the ferocious beast", implying that it had been already well known and people knew it was no normal wolf.
A statue of a woman named Marie-Jeanne Valet driving the beast away in the village of Auvers.
As the number of attacks increased, and with them the fear, in spite of the local people’s, hunters’ and guards’ best efforts, the newspapers began to relay its story all over the kingdom, perking King Louis the XVth’s interest. The king personally rewarded a group of young men who managed to drive the Beast away, and later a woman who saved her child from it ordered every soldier in Gévaudan to take part in the hunts.
Hunting Attempts[]
However, the soldiers' hunts proved no more successful than the population's, mostly due to the very long, harsh winters and the very few practicable roads in this land of mountains and deep forests, full of chasms, marshes, fogs and violent storms. All these hindrances gave the Beast a notable field advantage over its pursuers. Thinking that the Beast was a divine punishment the country's clerics ordered prayers and penitence, but to no avail.
In 1765, the king sent his best hunters one after the other to deal with the monster, while the Beast's story spread all over Europe. Yet, even the biggest hunt recorded and the finest wolf killers failed in turn. After months of unsuccessful soldiers' hunts, in 1765 the king sent his best hunters in succession to end the threat, while the Beast's story spread over Europe, some retellings mocking the Royal Court. Yet, even the biggest hunt recorded and the finest wolf killers failed.
In the Summer of 1765, at the height of the mass hysteria, the court dispatched its third and best hunter, the king's harquebus bearer François Antoine de Beauterne. He ultimately killed an enormous wolf, which was later called the "Wolf of Chazes" and recognized as the beast by some of its surviving victims.
François Antoine ordered an autopsy to identify the beast, before having it stuffed and brought to the royal court of Versailles. But after a few months of calm new attacks happened, and the Beast's return was established in January 1766. However, the king refused to believe it and the newspapers lost all interest in the case, outright denying it. As for the Beast, it appears to have grown wary of humans, being much more cautious, striking only sporadically, and operating in a smaller area.
Demise[]
The Beast’s legend would ultimately end for good the 19 of June 1767. The local nobility took the matter in hand, most notably the Marquis of Apcher. The Beast met its end in a last hunt, in which it was fatally shot from the local hunter Jean Chastel, and was finished off by the Marquis' hounds.
The legend states that Chastel was reading the Bible and praying before shooting the monster, with bullets made from silver medals of the Virgin Mary. The monster reportedly waited for his prayers to finish, in contradiction with its usual habit to attack on sight, or at least to wait for an opening. Yet, this was certainly an exaggeration made to glorify Chastel's feat. Especially considering that he and his family had a very bad reputation in the land.
What is sure is that since that day, no further attack was reported. It is said that the beast was hastily stuffed and brought to Versailles to be examined by the renowned naturalist George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, but was quickly buried due to its carcass' unbearable stench. Yet, there is no official documents left and this story is a bit dubious.
Possible Explanations[]
Many theories were made from the time of the Beast's killing spree to modern days, but as of today none of them can fully explain the case. Some suggest that they were not one beast but several ones of the same specy, which could explain how the Beast reappeared after being reportedly shot by François Antoine and how it could attack people a short while after having been seen in far away villages.
- During the Beast's killing spree, many people spoke of a werewolf, a monster or another supernatural being.
- In a similar fashion, some in the local clergy spoke of a divine plague sent by God to punish the lack of faith of the French population. Some clerics allegedly blamed the Enlightenment and its increasing success among the elite. The latter being popular in fictional works based on these events.
- Speaking of which, popular theories mostly used in fictions speak of a conspiracy, most often devised to set up a seemingly divine plague and use its threat to get rid of the aforementioned Enlightenment.
- Some theories going by conspiracies speak of a large beast bred in captivity and trained to kill, which was then disguised as a monster. The Beast's resistance to bullets could be explained by the fact that it was covered with boar skins or another type of animal-made armour.
- Another theory speaking of human implication evokes a demented serial killer donning animal furs and using weapons designed to look like a beast’s claws and jaws, victim of a mental illness making them act like a feral wolf. However, this is very unlikely given all the testimonies of a great animal, far bigger than a human.
- A more plausible theory about human implication evokes an exotic beast, like a rare kind of Asian hyena, which could have escaped from a circus or the kennels of a local noble who travelled to foreign countries.
- One or several abnormally large and aggressive wolves, probably rabid ones, were of course evoked. However, no victim was declared contracting rabies, and the many wolf hunters and experts who spent their lives tracking down such beasts were adamant that this was no normal wolf.
- Some scientists think of a survivor of the Mesonychid, a long-extinct kind of huge, hooved wolf.
- Given that the official description state that the beast had characteristics of both a wolf and a dog, a kind of cross-breed is quite likely, the question being which one…
- And so on and so forth…
Gallery[]
