Battle of Castillon

Battle of Castillon

Part of: Hundred Years War

Battle of Castillon (contemporary illustration)

date	July 17, 1453
place	Castillon-la-Bataille
output	decisive victory for the French
consequences	End of war

Parties to the conflict
Kingdom of France Duchy of Brittany	Kingdom of England Duchy of Gascony
Commander
Jean Bureau	Sir John Talbot †
Troop strength
about 10,000 men	about 5,000 men
losses
100 men killed or injured	4,000 men killed, wounded or captured

Tactical map of the course of the battle

The Battle of Castillon on July 17, 1453 was a decisive conflict in favor of France at the end of the Hundred Years War between Henry VI. of England and Charles VII of France.

Starting position

Even after the death of the French national heroine Jeanne d'Arc , the French continued to advance in the last leg of the Hundred Years War. The coronation of the English King Henry VI. On December 16, 1431, in the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris as King of France, this could no longer change, as the coronation of Charles VII in Reims a year earlier had a much more noticeable effect on the French people.

Between 1436 and 1441, the French recaptured the entire Île-de-France and in 1437 Charles VII moved into Paris. French conquests followed in southwest France (1442) and Normandy (1443), which after the armistice of 1444 was finally lost to France by the English in 1449/50. The English, concerned about their south-western bridgehead , then launched a counter-offensive near Bordeaux with their commander John Talbot , which ended in a decisive battle near Castillon.

course

The English commander, John Talbot, received an additional 3,000 men reinforcement for the task of securing the bridgehead in the southwest. However, his army also consisted of an insufficiently armed number of gas scouts . When the English besieged the city of Castillon, the French commander Jean Bureau ordered the English quarters to be encircled with trenches and other obstacles. He also had a wall built with around 300 cannons . With about 10,000 men and heavy equipment, the French were in a better starting position. The British had little chance of conquering the city.

On July 17, 1453, Talbot approached the main French camp with 1,300 knights who advanced on the main army. With this troop he was able to inflict heavy losses on the French archery unit. After further minor skirmishes, the main English army learned from a messenger from the city that the French would withdraw (in fact, it was only the relatives of the French fighters who left the camp). Talbot acted quickly, completely concentrated his army and advanced further towards the French camp. Once there, he found the entire French armed forces. Although he was facing a superior force about twice as strong, he ordered the attack on the fortified position of the French. The English foot troops suffered great losses from enemy fire during their advance, but could not initially be significantly weakened. The decision in favor of the French was made after about an hour of tough wrestling, when the cavalry of the Breton Duke Peter II reached the battlefield and broke through the right flank of the English. The English were now embraced, and Talbot and his son died in the ensuing turmoil. The exact circumstances of his death are not known, but it is believed that Talbot's horse died from a projectile and, when he fell, partially buried the almost seventy-year-old under itself. A Frenchman standing nearby recognized Talbot and then killed him with an ax. After the death of their leader, the English fled the battlefield.

Consequences of the battle

After their decisive defeat, the English lost all territorial possessions on the mainland except for the city of Calais , which did not revert to France until 1559. After the end of the Hundred Years War, the three decades of Wars of the Roses caused chaos in England. Nevertheless, the English kings only gave up their claim to the French crown during the coalition wars against revolutionary France at the beginning of the 19th century.

Castillon swords

Around 1974 a hoard was made of around 80 medieval swords associated with the Battle of Castillon. The circumstances of the find are unclear and have been kept secret; possibly the swords were found during dredging work. In various publications there is talk of a find in a box, then in barrels and finally a boat in the Dordogne (or one of its fords ) near Castillon. The swords were sold piece by piece to private collectors and museums and fetched high prices at auctions. They are assigned to a number of very different types and were examined more closely by the British weapons specialist Ewart Oakeshott , who also published about them and classified them in his system of categorizing medieval swords . Examples are exhibited in the Musée de l'Armée in Paris and in the Royal Armories Collections.

literature

• David Nicolle , Angus McBride, Paul Knight, Graham Turner: The Armies of the 100 Years War 1337-1453 . Siegler, Sankt Augustin 2005, ISBN 3-87748-645-2 .

Web links

Commons : Battle of Castillon  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ For example Oakeshott: Records of the medieval sword . Boydell Press, 2007
2. ↑ Sword (1430-1450) - Royal Armories collections. In: collections.royalarmouries.org. Retrieved May 9, 2019 . 

Coordinates: 44 ° 51 ′  N , 0 ° 2 ′  W