Armagnaken

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The Armagnac were partisans of the Dukes of Orléans ( Louis of Orléans , 1392–1407, and after his assassination Charles of Orléans , 1407–1465) in the Hundred Years War and thus they were among the followers of the Dauphin . Since 1349 this was the title of the respective crown prince, from 1401 to 1422 these were the five sons of King Charles VI.

Armagnacs as a war party

Charles of Orléans was too young to play an active role and was also captured by the English for 25 years at the Battle of Azincourt in 1415 . The actual leadership of the Dauphin's party was held by Bernard VII d'Armagnac from 1410 , after he had married his daughter Bonne to Charles of Orléans. The Orléans party has since been called Armagnacs . The Armagnacs fought with the House of Burgundy ( Philip the Bold (1363–1404) and later Johann Ohnefurcht (1404–1419)) and his followers, the Bourguignons , over who would rule over the insane King Charles VI. should take over. On the side of Charles of Orléans stood mainly the nobility and on the side of John it was the towns and guilds . At times this conflict took on the form of civil war between Armagnacs and Bourguignons .

After the assassination of Bernard VII (1418), Charles VI's fifth son took over. as Dauphin (after 1422 Charles VII ) the leadership of the league.

Armagnaks as mercenary gangs

Bernard VII had recruited soldiers in the south of France who gave the civil war an unprecedented brutality. After the end of the war, these mercenaries spread fear and terror as so-called Armagnaks (in German-speaking countries: Armegecken), called Les Bandes after their white armband .

In the Old Zurich War they were described as "a wild mercenary horde, consisting of French, Bretons, Gascon, Lombards, Spaniards, Scots and English, mostly mounted mercenary people, 40,000 heads, of which 20,000 people capable of fighting".

In 1444 they were victorious in the Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs (1444), but suffered so heavy losses due to the bitter resistance of the Confederates that their leader, the heir to the throne Louis XI. , broke off the campaign.

literature

  • Bertrand Schnerb: Les Armagnacs et les Bourguignons. La maudite was. Paris 2001.
  • Peter Neu: The Armagnaken in the Trier region in "New Trierisches Jahrbuch 1962", Trierisch Association self-published, 1962, p. 12