Battle of Patay

The battle of Patay in a contemporary representation

date	June 18, 1429
place	Patay , France
output	French victory

Parties to the conflict
Kingdom of France	Kingdom of England
Commander
Joan of Arc La Hire Jean Poton de Xaintrailles	John Fastolf John Talbot
Troop strength
1,500 cavalrymen	5,000 men
losses
about 100 men	1,500 dead, wounded or prisoners

The Battle of Patay on June 18, 1429 was one of the most important battles of the Hundred Years War between the kingdoms of England and France . In the Battle of Patay (northwest of Orléans ), the English troops under John Fastolf and John Talbot were decisively defeated and pushed north.

The French army was commanded by Joan of Arc and her captains " La Hire " and Jean Poton de Xaintrailles .

background

After the siege of Orléans was lifted , the French captured several English castles in the Loire Valley . Thus they won the bridges for the later French attack on English and Burgundian territory in the north. Almost all of France north of the Loire River was under foreign control. In the French victory in Orléans, the only French-controlled bridge was destroyed. The French won back bridges along the Loire in three minor battles.

The French Loire Campaign of 1429 consisted of five actions:

The battle of Patay took place the day after the British surrender at Beaugency. The English tried the same tactics in this battle that they had used in the victorious battles of Crécy in 1346 and Agincourt in 1415, and Poitiers in 1356 . This tactic calls for large numbers of long archers who are protected by sharpened stakes that are driven into the ground before being positioned. These slow down and hinder the cavalry attack while the archers bring down the enemy. However, in the battle of Patay, the French knights were finally able to catch the English army unprepared.

No other country in Europe used the longbow as extensively as England. Although the weapon itself was relatively inexpensive to produce, it was difficult to collect a large pool of trained archers. Constant practice was required to develop the skills and great muscle strength was required to use the longbow effectively. In order to ensure a sufficient number of qualified longbow archers, the English government needed a large number of volunteers and farmers who regularly trained with their bows. The large number of long archers which the English could thus field gave them a great military advantage during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Longbowmen, however, had a serious weakness: due to their light armor (or lack of it at all), they were clearly at a disadvantage in close combat with armored troops. At Patay, the French army took advantage of this crucial weakness.

The battle

An English reinforcement army under Sir John Fastolf advanced from Paris after the defeat at Orléans. The French reacted quickly and, after accepting the British surrender at Beaugency the day before, occupied the three bridges before Fastolf's army arrived. The French, believing that they could not overcome a fully prepared English army in open battle, explored the area in the hope of meeting the English army unprepared and defenseless.

The English held the area with the remaining defenders of Meung-Sur-Loire, as the French only controlled the bridge at this point, but could not occupy the neighboring castle or town. They were also joined by retreating Beaugency defenders. The English were preparing for an open field battle at a location, the exact location of which is unknown but traditionally believed to be near the small town of Patay. Fastolf, John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, and Sir Thomas Skalen commanded the English.

The normal defense tactic of the English Army was to drive sharp stakes into the ground near their positions. This prevented cavalry attacks and delayed the infantry long enough for the long archers to gain a decisive advantage over the enemy lines by inflicting heavy losses on them. However, the English archers inadvertently revealed their location to the French scouts before their preparations were completed as they chased a lone deer in a nearby field with hunting cries.

When the news of the English position became known, about 1,500 men of the heavily armed and armored cavalry vanguard of the French army under captains La Hire and Jean Poton de Xaintrailles attacked the English. The battle quickly turned into a flight, as every Englishman ran away on horseback while the infantry, mostly consisting of long archers, was gutted in droves. Long archers were never used to fight armored knights, with the exception of prepared positions where they could not be attacked by knights. Thus, with the French tactics of a large frontal cavalry attack, a decisive victory had been achieved.

Captain Jean Dagneau captured the famous General John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury . After this feat, Dagneau was ennobled in March 1438 by Charles VII , King of France. This was the origin of the family name Dagneau de Richecour.

With the English, Talbot accused Fastolf of cowardice and accused him of having deserted with his comrades in the face of the enemy. An allegation that he vigorously defended after his release from captivity. Fastolf denied the allegations just as vigorously and was finally rehabilitated after being summoned to court by a special chapter of the Order of the Garter.

literature

Devries, Kelly. Joan of Arc: A Military Leader (Glaucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 1999). ISBN 0-7509-1805-5
Richey, Stephen W. Joan of Arc: The Warrior Saint. (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2003). ISBN 0-275-98103-7
Allmand, C. The Hundred Years War: England and France at War c. 1300-1450. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). ISBN 0-521-31923-4
Stephen Cooper, The Real Falstaff, Sir John Fastolf and the Hundred Years War (Pen & Sword, 2010)

Web links

Commons : Battle of Patay - collection of images, videos and audio files

http://www.xenophongroup.com/montjoie/patay.htm (English)
dynamic maps of Joan of Arc's campaigns from Southern Methodist University (English)
Jeanne d'Arc: Her Life and Death by Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant (English)
A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times by François Pierre Guillaume Guizot, vol. 3 (english)