Battle of Auberoche

Battle of Auberoche

Part of: Hundred Years War

date	October 21, 1345
place	Auberoche , Gascony
output	English victory

Parties to the conflict
Kingdom of England	Kingdom of France
Commander
Henry, Earl of Derby	Louis of Poitiers
Troop strength
1,500	7,000
losses
unknown (low)	unknown (high)

The Battle of Auberoche was a major confrontation between the English and the French during the early phase of the Hundred Years War . It was held in the village of Auberoche near Périgueux in Gascony . At that time, Gascony belonged to the English crown , but the English troops there consisted mainly of gas scouts. The battle took place along the Auvézère River , which was part of the highly disputed border between the English and French territories .

The campaign

The village and the castle Auberoche was initially snatched from the French by an English raid force under Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster and Count of Derby. This had landed in June 1345 with a small army from England and had topped it up with local troops from Gascony. With these troops he led a large-scale Chevauchée across the border aimed at capturing the important city of Bergerac in August. Auberoche was one of the places this army captured before retreating to Bordeaux to replenish troops and replenish supplies. In October the French launched a counter-attack with 7,000 men under Louis of Poitiers . The attack had been ordered by the lord of Poitiers, the Duke of Normandy and later King Jean II of France . He was supposed to secure the Duke's path for an upcoming campaign from La Réole .

The siege

The French troops besieged Auberoche Castle and cut it off from both supplies and possible English reinforcements from the west. The French army camp was divided into two parts, with the majority of the soldiers camping near the river between the castle and the village, while a smaller force camped in the north to thwart possible escape attempts by the English from the besieged castle. Although the French made every effort to intercept possible messengers from the city, one finally managed to cross the French lines and reach the encampment of the Count of Derby. He was already on the way to Auberoche with a quickly assembled force of about 1,500 English and Gascon men, but had stopped to wait for the arrival of a second army, led by Lawrence Hastings, 1st Earl of Pembroke .

The battle

After the hoped-for English reinforcements had still not arrived by October 20, Derby and his men marched in secret towards Périgueux during the night, crossing the shallow river twice and in the morning reached a position on a hill near Auberoche, von from which he could see the main French camp. The English had hidden behind the hill until dawn, still hoping that Pembroke would arrive with his reinforcements. Derby called together a council of his officers , including the notorious Walter Mauny , and it was decided that one could not wait another day in order not to lose the element of surprise. The army should attack immediately and try to overrun the French camp before it could be effectively defended.

Derby scouted the French positions personally and eventually opted for a three-point attack. His cavalry would attack over the flat ground to the south, the infantry would follow a path through the forest and attack the French from behind, while the long archers would line up along the tree line to take the French positions under fire from there. The attack began as the French were having their supper and came as a complete surprise to them. They were thrown into complete disorder by a hail of arrows and the rushing English cavalry. The French soldiers who escaped from the camp, grouped themselves into small groups on the flat terrain and thus became ideal targets for the English archers. The fighting in the camp lasted for a long time and at times it seemed that the numerically clearly superior French might at least succeed in repelling the attackers. Sir Frank Halle , the English commander of Auberoche Castle, had expected this development and at the crucial moment made a sortie and attacked the slowly retreating French from behind. This triggered the complete disbandment and flight of the French troops, who were being pursued by the English cavalry.

Outcome of the battle

The smaller part of the French troops, who were assigned to watch over the castle from the north, escaped the battle unscathed. They made no attempt to intervene in the fighting or even to prevent the castle garrison from failing, but they left behind a large amount of supplies and booty to be added to the English army. The French commander Louis von Poitiers succumbed to his wounds in the English camp and his deputy commander was taken prisoner by the English. A number of other French nobles were also captured, and the ransom made Derby and his soldiers a fortune. Derby alone are said to have received £ 67,000 in ransom.

The battle also had longer-term political ramifications. The advance of the Duke of Normandy into English territory was abandoned and for the next six months no French troops dared to cross the border in Gascony. Communication between the Duke of Normandy in the north and Pierre I, Duke of Bourbon , who commanded the French troops in the south, broke off for some time. Military actions against the English troops could therefore no longer be coordinated in the following period. Derby used this weakness to bring other cities in the region under his control. In the following months he conquered Montségur and successfully besieged La Réole and Aiguillon . As a result of these military successes, the British were able to bring the entire region under their control, which was to pay off through increased tax revenues and an influx of new recruits for the English armies. In addition, the local nobility, who had fought on one side and on the other in this repeatedly contested region, now clearly supported the English. The English dominance in Gascony was essentially unbroken for the next hundred years.

literature

• Jonathan Sumption : The Hundred Years War. Volume 1: Trial by Battle. Faber and Faber Limited, London 1990, ISBN 0-571-20095-8 .
• Alfred H. Burne : The Crécy War. A military History of the Hundred Years War from 1337 to the Peace of Bretigny, 1360. Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1955 (reprint. Greenhill Books et al., London 1991, ISBN 1-85367-081-2 ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ One of the stories passed down by the chronicler Jean Froissart is that the French transported one of the intercepted messengers back to the besieged castle using a ballista . The man suffered fatal injuries. At the same time, the truth of this episode is doubted by many modern historians (cf. also: Burne: Crecy War. P. 105).
2. ↑ Sumption: Trial by Battle. P. 470.
3. ↑ Burne: Crecy War. P. 113.