Courtaud

Common card · No. 435117

Courtaud (Old French: Courtaut, "short (or stumpy) tail") was a wolf blamed for numerous fatal attacks on humans near Paris in the 1430s, during a period of frequent wolf attacks in the region in the later years of the Hundred Years' War. It was captured near Paris in the autumn of 1439. Courtaud is described in contemporary chronicles, mainly in the anonymous Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, as unusually dangerous, and it was named for its missing tail. Historians attribute the rise in wolf attacks during this period to war-related disruption and a severe famine in the late 1430s, which are thought to have brought wolves into closer contact with humans. In the 20th century, Ernest Thompson Seton retold and embellished Courtaud's story, and his version influenced later accounts.

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