"flayers") were armed bands who desolated France in the reign of Charles VII, stripping their victims of everything, often to their very clothes.
Rodrigo de Villandrando was known as the "Emperor of Pillagers" (empereur des brigands) and "L'Écorcheur" (the flayer).
[2] The permanence of conflicts during the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) had created career soldiers, paid by the king or nobles.
[3] During times of peace or truce, these unemployed warriors gathered in bands and lived on pillage and ransoms.
Those who did not have the financial means to go home or wanted to continue their martial lifestyle, which was highly profitable, then formed autonomous bands of the road which exerted pressure on the regions of France.