Battle of Castillon

Battle of Castillon
Part of the Hundred Years' War
Painting depicting the Battle of Castillon (1453), by the French painter Charles-Philippe Larivière (1798–1876). (Galerie des Batailles, Palace of Versailles) Here, the John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury is dying from his horse due to horrible wounds.
Date 17 July 1453 Location Castillon-la-Bataille, Gascony Result Decisive French victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of England	Kingdom of France Duchy of Brittany
Commanders and leaders
John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury †	Jean Bureau
Strength
c. 9,000	c. 10,000
Casualties and losses
4,000, mainly wounded or captured	100 dead or wounded

The Battle of Castillon of 1453 was the last battle fought between the French and the English during the Hundred Years' War. It resulted in a decisive French victory.

Context

After the French capture of Bordeaux in 1451, the Hundred Years' War appeared to be at an end. However, after three hundred years of English rule the citizens of Bordeaux considered themselves subjects of the English monarch and sent messengers to Henry VI of England demanding he recapture the province.

On 17 October 1452, John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury landed near Bordeaux with a force of 3,000 men-at-arms and archers. The French garrison was ejected by the citizens of Bordeaux, who then gleefully opened the gates to the English. Most of western Gascony followed Bordeaux's example and welcomed the English home.

During the winter month Charles VII of France gathered his armies in readiness for the campaigning season. When spring arrived Charles advanced toward Bordeaux simultaneously along three different routes with three armies.

Preparation

Talbot received another 3,000 men to face this new problem, but it was still an inadequate number to hold back the thousands of Frenchmen on Gascony's borders. When the leading French army laid siege to Castillon, Talbot abandoned his original plans (acceding to the pleas of the town commanders) and set out to relieve it. The French commander, Jean Bureau, in fear of Talbot, ordered his 7,000 to 10,000 men to encircle their camp with a ditch and palisade, and deployed his 300 cannon on the parapet. This was an extraordinarily defensive setup by the French, who enjoyed great numerical superiority. They had made no attempt to invest Castillon.

Talbot approached the French camp on 17 July 1453, arriving before his main body of troops with an advance guard of 1,300 mounted men. He routed a similar sized force of French francs-archers (militia) in the woods before the French encampment, giving his men a large boost of morale.

Main battle

A few hours after this preliminary skirmish, a messenger from the town reported to Talbot's resting troops (they had marched through the night) that the French army was in full retreat and that hundreds of horsemen were fleeing the fortifications. From the town walls a huge dust cloud could be seen heading off into the distance. Unfortunately for him, they were only camp followers ordered to leave the camp before the upcoming battle.

Talbot hastily reorganised his men and charged down towards the French camp, only to find the parapets defended by thousands of archers and crossbowmen and hundreds of cannon. Surprised but undaunted, Talbot gave the signal to attack the French army. Talbot didn't take part in the battle directly. He had been previously captured and paroled, thus was not allowed to take arms against the French.

English troops charged the camp, across a ditch, only to be met with a hail of arrows and quarrels, and a fierce gun, cannon and small arms fire. The concentrated fire could be explained by the fact that the ditch followed, probably by accident, the former bed of a small stream, giving a bastionned look to defences.

Once battle started, Talbot received a thin trickle of men from his leading footmen. After an hour the cavalry of the Breton army sent by the Duke of Brittany arrived and charged his right flank. The English gave way, pursued instantly by the French main body of troops.

During the rout Talbot's horse was killed by a cannon ball and he fell trapped beneath it, until a Frenchman, a Francs Archer, recognised him and killed him with a hand-axe. His death, and the subsequent recapture of Bordeaux three months later, effectively ended the Hundred Years' War.

Aftermath

Following Henry VI's episode of insanity in 1453, the subsequent outbreak of the Wars of the Roses and the evident loss of military ascendancy to the French, the English were no longer in any position to pursue their claim to the French throne. The English Crown lost all its continental possessions except for the channel islands and the city of Calais, which was the last English possession in France until it was finally lost in 1558.

External links

• spectacle
• Castillon from Oriflamme, French medieval history page
• A contemporary newsletter describing the battle (in French)