The villainous Villon.

The 2000 line poem Le grand Testament made the poet Francois Villon famous. It also brought to light his real portrait as a vagabond, a thief and a beggar!

Born in Paris in 1431, he was a brilliant student. He got involved in a number of drunken brawls and killed a priest with his sword. He was banished from Paris in 1455, but was later given a royal pardon.

He was in and out of prison for theft and for fighting. Another person got killed by him. Villon was sentenced to death by hanging.

Good friends intervened and got his death sentence changed into ten years of exile. He left the prison in 1463 and was never heard of of again!

His poetry gives an unrivaled picture of the criminal life in medieval France.