Battle for Beaugency
| date | June 16, 1429 to June 17, 1429 |
|---|---|
| place | Beaugency |
| output | French victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| approx. 8000-9000 men | approx. 3500-4500 men |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
unknown |
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Chevauchées of the 1340s: Saint-Omer - Auberoche
Edward III. Campaign (1346/47): Caen - Blanchetaque - Crécy - Calais
War of the Breton Succession (1341–1364) : Champtoceaux - Brest - Morlaix - Saint-Pol-de-Léon - La Roche-Derrien - Tournament of Thirty - Mauron - Auray
France's allies : Neville's Cross - Les Espagnols sur Mer - Brignais
Chevauchées of the 1350s: Poitiers
Castilian Civil War & War of the Two Peter (1351–1375): Barcelona - Araviana - Nájera - Montiel
French counter-offensive: La Rochelle - Gravesend
Wars between Portugal and Castile (1369– 1385): Lisbon - Saltés - Lisbon - Aljubarrota
Battle of Northern France: Rouen - Baugé - Meaux - Cravant - La Brossinière - Verneuil
Jeanne d'Arc and the turn of the war: Orléans - Battle of the herring - Jargeau - Meung-sur-Loire - Beaugency - Patay - Compiegne - Gerberoy
background
Beaugency was a small town on the north bank of the Loire in central France. In particular, the bridge there over the river was of strategic importance for the warring parties of the Hundred Years War . The English had taken the city a few years earlier in order to use it as a possible starting point for an invasion of southern France. At the time of the battle, they occupied almost all of France north of the Loire.
Jeanne d'Arc and Jean II. De Alençon left Orléans with an army with siege weapons in order to bring the Loire crossings back under French control. After they were on 10./11. Jargeau and had already taken the bridge of Meung-sur-Loire on June 15 , they now advanced on Beaugency.
Course of the battle
Jeanne d'Arc and de Alençon led about 8-9000 men to the attack. The English defenders, led by John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury , had about 3500-4500 men. The main defense structure of the city consisted of a castle in the middle of the city. On the very first day of the battle, the defenders from the city withdrew to this castle, which the French then covered with the fire of their siege weapons. In the evening the first reports came in that the English relief army under John Fastolf was approaching. The following day de Alençon was able to negotiate the surrender of the city with the English. They evacuated the castle and town without a fight and received free withdrawal.
consequences
The English defenders abandoned the important Loire bridge, but speculated that they would quickly recapture it. John Talbot immediately joined the oncoming army of John Fastolf after the withdrawal. Just one day after Beaugency was surrendered, the French and English armies clashed in open battle at Patay .
literature
- Christopher Allmand: The Hundred Years War. England and France at War c. 1300 - c. 1450. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1988, ISBN 0-521-31923-4 .
- Kelly DeVries : Joan of Arc. A military leader. Sutton Publishing, Stroud 1999, ISBN 0-7509-1805-5 .
- Margaret Oliphant: Jeanne d'Arc Her Life and Death (= Heroes of the Nations 17, ZDB -ID 1092386-x ). GP Putnam's Sons, New York et al. 1896, online edition .
- Stephen W. Richey: Joan of Arc. The Warrior Saint. Praeger, Westport CT et al. 2003, ISBN 0-275-98103-7 .
swell
- Anonymous, Journal du siège d'Orléans et du voyage de Reims . Saturnin Hotot: Orléans 1576. Edited online edition
Web links
- Siege of Orléans and the Loire campaign , with detailed descriptions and maps
- Website about the life and work of Joan of Arc