Dark Agnes de Chastillon

Dark Agnes is a literary creation by Robert E. Howard set in 16th‑century France. In Howard's origin material she is a Normandy woman (given as Agnes de la Fere / de le Fere in some sources and Agnes de Chastillon in others) who endured abuse by her father and escaped an arranged marriage by killing the bridegroom. After these events she comes under the training or influence of the mercenary captain Guiscard de Clisson and acquires martial skill; she later travels with the companion Etienne Villiers and at one point journeys toward Italy. Howard wrote two complete Dark Agnes stories ('Sword Woman' and 'Blades for France') and left a partial draft ('Mistress of Death') which was posthumously completed by another writer.

Sources consistently describe Agnes as red‑haired and marked by a martial bearing: she is presented as a competent swordswoman whose physical portrayal emphasizes hair color, temper, and fighting deportment rather than extensive bodily detail. The stories and summaries do not supply sustained descriptions of height, precise dress, age, or distinguishing scars; instead they emphasize her short temper, readiness for combat, and the epithet 'Sword Woman.'

Agnes's abilities are those of a trained human fighter: she is a skilled swordswoman whose competence is depicted as the product of both innate talent and training under mercenary leadership (notably Guiscard de Clisson). Her behavior is decisive and violent when provoked—she kills to escape an enforced marriage and undertakes armed adventures with a sidekick, Etienne Villiers. While most of her tales are historical adventure grounded in mundane combat, one incomplete Howard fragment ('Mistress of Death') includes a sorcerer/fantastic element; later adaptations and crossovers sometimes place her against occult threats, but the primary texts portray her as human rather than supernatural.