Battle of Meung-sur-Loire

date	June 15, 1429
place	Meung-sur-Loire
output	French victory

Parties to the conflict
Kingdom of France	Kingdom of England
Commander
Jeanne d'Arc , Jean II. De Alençon	John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury , Thomas Scales
Troop strength
6–7000 maximum	unknown
losses
unknown	unknown

The Battle of Meung-sur-Loire took place on June 15, 1429. It was one of the battles that Joan of Arc fought after the end of the siege of Orléans and part of the so-called Loire campaign, which was the French’s first sustained offensive in the Hundred Years War in a generation.

background

Almost all of France north of the Loire had been occupied by the English and their allies, the Duchy of Burgundy , by 1429 . By taking all of the Loire bridges and destroying the bridge in Orléans, the French had lost all opportunities to cross the river. Meung-sur-Loire was a small town on the north bank of the Loire in central France, a little west of Orléans. There was one of the bridges over the river, which was to gain importance in the later course of the war. The English had captured the city a few years earlier in order to use it as a possible starting point for an offensive against southern France.

Course of the battle

The English defenses at Meung-sur-Loire consisted of the walled city itself, the fortifications on the bridge, and a large castle just outside the city. The castle served the English as a kind of headquarters, in which the commanders of the troops, John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury and Thomas de Scales, 7th Baron Scales , resided.

On the French side, Jeanne d'Arc and Jean II. De Alençon controlled a force of no more than 6,000 to 7,000 men. Jeanne d'Arc and de Alençon ignored both the city and the castle during their attack and, after the massive use of siege weapons, carried out a frontal attack on the bridge fortification, which immediately led to success. The battle for the bridge therefore only lasted one day. Instead of turning against the castle and the fortified city, Jeanne d'Arc and de Alençon only left a garrison sufficient to guard the bridge and immediately turned towards their next destination, Beaugency .

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

Individual evidence

↑ The information comes from the Journal du Siège d'Orléans , which was first printed about 150 years after the battle. The figure mentioned can therefore either be a contemporary exaggeration or it may include the non-fighting members of the entourage.

Web links

Siege of Orléans and the Loire campaign , with detailed descriptions and maps.
Website about the life and work of Joan of Arc.

[1] The information comes from the Journal du Siège d'Orléans , which was first printed about 150 years after the battle. The figure mentioned can therefore either be a contemporary exaggeration or it may include the non-fighting members of the entourage.