Editing François Villon (section)

=== Banishment and disappearance ===
In November 1462, Villon was imprisoned for theft. He was taken to the [[Grand Châtelet]] fortress that stood at what is now [[Place du Châtelet]] in Paris. In default of evidence, the old charge of burgling the College of Navarre was revived. No royal pardon arrived to counter the demand for restitution, but bail was accepted and Villon was released. However, he fell promptly into a street quarrel. He was arrested, tortured and condemned to be hanged (''"pendu et étranglé"''), although the sentence was commuted to banishment by the [[parlement]] on 5 January 1463.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|p=87}}

Villon's fate after January 1463 is unknown. [[Rabelais]] retells two stories about him which are usually dismissed as without any basis in fact.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|pp=87–88}} Anthony Bonner speculated that the poet, as he left Paris, was "broken in health and spirit." Bonner writes further:

{{blockquote|He might have died on a mat of straw in some cheap tavern, or in a cold, dank cell; or in a fight in some dark street with another French [[coquillard]]; or perhaps, as he always feared, on a gallows in a little town in France. We will probably never know.<ref name=Bonner>{{cite book | first = François | last = Villon | translator-first = Anthony | translator-last = Bonner | title = The Complete Works of François Villon | location = New York | publisher = Bantam | year = 1960 | page = xxiii}}</ref>}}