Battle of Castillon

The Battle of Castillon in 1453 was the last battle fought between the French and the English during the Hundred Years' War. It resulted in a decisive French victory.

Context
After the French capture of Bordeaux in 1451, the Hundred Years' War appeared to be at an end. However, after three hundred years of English rule, the citizens of Bordeaux considered themselves subjects of the English monarch and sent messengers to Henry VI of England demanding that he recapture the province.

On 17 October 1452, John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury landed near Bordeaux with a force of 3,000 men-at-arms and archers. The French garrison was ejected by the citizens of Bordeaux, who then gleefully opened the gates to the English. Most of western Gascony followed the example set by Bordeaux, and welcomed the English forces.

During the winter months of 1452-1453, Charles VII of France gathered his armies in readiness for the campaigning season. When spring arrived, Charles advanced toward Bordeaux along three different routes simultaneously, with three armies.

Preparation
Talbot received another 3,000 men to face this new problem, but it was still an inadequate number to hold back the thousands of Frenchmen on Gascony's borders. When the leading French army laid siege to Castillon, Talbot abandoned his original plans (acceding to the pleas of the town commanders), and set out to relieve the town garrison commanders. The French commander, Jean Bureau, in fear of Talbot, ordered his men (estimated at between 7,000 and 10,000 in number) to encircle their camp with a ditch and palisade, and deployed his 300 cannons on the parapet. This was an extraordinarily defensive setup by the French, who enjoyed great numerical superiority. They had made no attempt to invade Castillon.

Talbot approached the French camp on 17 July 1453, arriving before his main body of troops with a vanguard of 1,300 mounted men. He routed a similar sized force of French francs-archers (militia) in the woods before the French encampment, giving his men a large boost of morale.

Main battle
A few hours after this preliminary skirmish, a messenger from the town reported to Talbot's troops, as they rested from a night long march, that the French army was in full retreat, and that hundreds of horsemen were fleeing the fortifications. From the town walls, a huge dust cloud could be seen heading off into the distance. Unfortunately for Talbot, they were only camp followers ordered to leave before the upcoming battle.

Talbot hastily reorganized his men and charged down towards the French camp, only to find the parapets defended by thousands of archers and crossbowmen in addition to hundreds of cannon. Surprised but undaunted, Talbot signaled his soldiers to attack the French army. Talbot didn't take part in the battle directly. He had been previously captured and paroled, and thus was not allowed to take arms against the French.

English troops charged the camp across a ditch, only to be met with a hail of arrows and quarrels, and a fierce barrage of gun, cannon and small arms fire. The concentrated fire could be due to the fact that the ditch followed, probably accidentally, the former bed of a small stream, giving a bastionned look to defenses.

Once battle started, Talbot received a thin trickle of men from his leading footmen. After an hour, the cavalry of the Breton army sent by the Duke of Brittany arrived and charged his right flank. The English gave way, pursued instantly by the main French body of troops.

During the rout, Talbot's horse was killed by a cannon ball and he fell, trapped beneath it, until a Frenchman, a Francs Archer, recognized him and killed him with a hand-axe. His death, and the subsequent recapture of Bordeaux three months later, effectively ended the Hundred Years' War.

Aftermath
Following Henry VI of England's episode of insanity in 1453, outbreak of the Wars of the Roses, and the evident loss of military ascendancy to the French, the English were no longer in any position to pursue their claim to the French throne. The English Crown lost all its continental possessions except for the channel islands and the city of Calais, which was the last English possession in France. It was finally lost in 1558.

A casualty after the battle of Castillon was Pierre de Montferrand husband of Mary Plantagenet, illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Bedford and a granddaughter of Henry IV of England. Refusing to pay homage to the French king he was subsequently beheaded in Poitiers on 12 July 1453.