The
Wolf of Soissons was a
man-eatingMan-eater is a colloquial term for an animal that adds humans to its diet. Although human beings can be attacked by many kinds of animals, man-eaters are those that have incorporated human flesh into their usual diet...
wolf which terrorized the commune of
SoissonsSoissons is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardie in northern France, located on the Aisne River, about 100 kilometres northeast of Paris...
northeast of
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
over a period of two days in 1765, attacking eighteen people, four of which died from their wounds.
The first victims of the wolf were a pregnant woman and her unborn child, attacked in the parish of Septmont on the last day of February. Diligent locals had taken the infant, a scant four or five months old, from the womb to be baptized before it died when the wolf struck again not three hundred yards from the scene of the first attack.
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The
Wolf of Soissons was a
man-eatingMan-eater is a colloquial term for an animal that adds humans to its diet. Although human beings can be attacked by many kinds of animals, man-eaters are those that have incorporated human flesh into their usual diet...
wolf which terrorized the commune of
SoissonsSoissons is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardie in northern France, located on the Aisne River, about 100 kilometres northeast of Paris...
northeast of
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
over a period of two days in 1765, attacking eighteen people, four of which died from their wounds.
The first victims of the wolf were a pregnant woman and her unborn child, attacked in the parish of Septmont on the last day of February. Diligent locals had taken the infant, a scant four or five months old, from the womb to be baptized before it died when the wolf struck again not three hundred yards from the scene of the first attack. One Madame d'Amberief and her son survived only by fighting together.
On 1 March near the hamlet of Courcelles a man was attacked by the wolf and survived with head wounds. The next victims were two young boys, named Boucher and Maréchal, who were savaged on the road to Paris, both badly wounded. A farmer on horseback lost part of his face to the wolf before escaping to a local mill, where a boy of seventeen was caught unawares and slain. After these atrocities the wolf fled to Bazoches, where it partially decapitated a woman and severely wounded a girl, who ran screaming to the village for help. Four citizens of Bazoches set an ambush at the body of the latest victim, but when the wolf returned it proved too much for them and the villagers soon found themselves fighting for their lives. The arrival of more peasants from the village finally put the wolf to flight, chasing it into a courtyard where it fought with a chained dog. When the chain broke the wolf was pursued through a pasture, where it killed a number of sheep, and into a stable, where a servant and cattle were mutilated.
The episode ended when one Antoine Saverelle, former member of the local militia, tracked the wolf to small lane armed with a pitchfork. The wolf sprang at him but he managed to pin its head to the ground with the instrument, holding it down for roughly fifteen minutes before an armed peasant came to his aid and killed the animal. Saverelle received a reward of three-hundred
livresThe livre was the currency of France until 1795. Several different livres existed, some concurrently. The livre was the name of both units of account and coins.-Origin:...
from
Louis XV of FranceLouis XV ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death on 10 May 1774...
for his bravery.
See also
- Beast of Gévaudan
The Beast of Gévaudan is a name given to man-eating wolf-like animals that terrorized the former province of Gévaudan , in the Margeride Mountains in south-central France from 1764 to 1767 over an area stretching . The beasts were consistently described by eyewitnesses as having formidable teeth...
, a contemporary
- Wolves of Périgord
The Wolves of Périgord were a pack of man-eating wolves that dominated the northwestern regions of Périgord, France, in February of 1766. According to official records, the wolves killed eighteen people and wounded many others before they were eliminated....
, more contemporaries
- Wolf of Sarlat
The Wolf of Sarlat attacked and wounded seventeen people in Sarlat, France, in June 1766. Unlike other wolves that had become man-eaters, it was notable in that it attacked only grown men, standing on its hind legs to get at the face and neck. A burgher of Saint-Julien, Monsieur Dubex de Descamps,...
, another rogue
- Wolves of Paris
The Wolves of Paris were a man-eating wolf pack that entered Paris during the winter of 1450 through breaches in the city walls, killing forty people. A wolf named Courtaud, or "Bobtail", was the leader of the pack...
, man-eaters from 1450 Paris
- Wolf of Ansbach
The Wolf of Ansbach was a man-eating wolf that attacked and killed an unknown number of people in the Principality of Ansbach in 1685, then a part of the Holy Roman Empire....
- List of fatal wolf attacks
- Wolf hunting
Wolf hunting is the practice of hunting grey wolves or other lupine animals. Wolves are mainly hunted for sport, for their skins, to protect livestock, and in some rare cases to protect humans. Wolves have been actively hunted since 12,000 to 13,000 years ago, when they first began to pose threats...