Battle of Blanquefort

Battle of Blanquefort
Part of the Hundred Years' War
Battle of Blanquefort, miniature from the Vigiles du roi Charles VII by Martial d'Auvergne, c. 1484
Date 1 November 1450 Location Gascony Result French victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of England Duchy of Gascony	Kingdom of France
Commanders and leaders
Gadifer Shorthose Thomas Gassiot	Arnaud-Amanieu d'Albret John, Count of Penthièvre Robin Pettilow
Strength
7,000–10,000 men	400–3,000 men
Casualties and losses
1,500–2,500 killed 1,200-2,500 captured	Unknown

The Battle of Blanquefort or La Male Journade took place on 1 November 1450 during the Hundred Years' war when a French army drew out Anglo-Gascon forces from Bordeaux in the English-controlled Duchy of Gascony. The Anglo-Gascon infantry suffered heavy losses, and the battle resulted in a decisive French victory. The battle was known locally as La Male Journade or in French Mauvaise Journée and marked the beginning of a campaign to drive the English from Gascony.

The Battle

At the first engagement, at a place called Jallepont, the first French lines slipped away on purpose and led the Anglo-Gascons in pursuit until they reached a cul-de-sac closed by the banks of the Jalle. It was a trap: Robin Petit-Loup’s archers were hidden in the surrounding woods and decimated the pursuers in nearly an hour of heavy fire. Meanwhile, Arnaud-Amanieu d'Albret, seigneur d'Orval, closed his lines with a pincer movement which took the English from the flanks.

The survivors, overcome by panic, fled towards Bordeaux. A French chronicler, Jean Chartier, called into question the cowardice of Gadifier Shartoise, the English mayor of Bordeaux, whom he accused of abandoning all his soldiers on foot to flee towards Bordeaux.

The French knights pursued the fugitives for several kilometres, and killed all those from whom no ransom could be expected. Only the nobles and the rich bourgeois escaped the massacre.

The magnitude of the losses sounded the death knell for the last hopes of the English to resist the French in southwestern France.

References

• Castex, Jean-Claude , Répertoire Des Combats Franco-anglais de la Guerre de Cent Ans (1337-1453), Les Éditions du Phare-Ouest, 2012, 384 p.
• Nicolle, David. The Fall of English France 1449–53. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012. ISBN 1849086176
• Gaier, C., Armes et combats dans l’univers médiéval, Bruxelles, De Boeck-Wesmael, 1995, vol. 1.