( Galerie des Batailles, Palace of Versailles). īattle Painting depicting the Battle of Castillon (1453) by the French painter Charles-Philippe Larivière (1798–1876). Despite earlier plans to wait for reinforcements, Talbot pressed his men onward to the French camp, believing the rest of his men would arrive soon. The following day, this force defeated a small French detachment of archers stationed at a priory near Castillon. He outdistanced a majority of his forces, arriving at Libourne by sunset with only 500 men-at-arms and 800 mounted archers. The park included up to 300 guns of various sizes, and was protected by a ditch and palisade on three sides and a steep bank of the River Lidoire on the fourth. According to Desmond Seward, the park 'consisted of a deep trench with a wall of earth behind it which was strengthened by tree-trunks its most remarkable feature was the irregular, wavy line of the ditch and earthwork, which enabled the guns to enfilade any attackers'. In a defensive setup, Bureau's forces built an artillery park out of range from Castillon's guns. The French army was commanded by committee Charles VII's ordnance officer Jean Bureau laid out the camp to maximize French artillery strength. Talbot acceded to the pleas of the town leaders, abandoning his original plan to wait at Bordeaux for more reinforcements, and set out to relieve the garrison. The French laid siege to Castillon (approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of Bordeaux) on 8 July. Talbot received 3,000 additional men, reinforcements led by his fourth and favourite son, John, the Viscount Lisle. Prelude Ĭharles invaded Guyenne with three separate armies, all headed for Bordeaux.

After this surprise, Charles prepared his forces over the winter, and by early 1453 he was ready to counterattack. The French had known an English expedition was coming, but had expected it to come through Normandy. The English subsequently took control over most of western Gascony by the end of the year. With the cooperation of the townspeople, Talbot easily took the city on 23 October.

A feared and famous military leader, Talbot was rumoured to be seventy-five or eighty years old, but it is more likely that he was around sixty-six at the time. On 17 October 1452, the Earl of Shrewsbury landed near Bordeaux with a force of 3,000 men. After three hundred years of Plantagenet rule, the citizens of Bordeaux considered themselves as subjects of the English monarch and sent messengers to Henry VI of England demanding that he recapture the province. The English primarily focused on reinforcing their only remaining possession, Calais, and watching over the seas. Īfter the 1451 French capture of Bordeaux by the armies of Charles VII, the Hundred Years' War appeared to be at an end. This period from 1420 to 1453 is characterized by Anne Curry as the 'wars of the Treaty of Troyes' for control of the crown of France. The breakdown of the 1420 Treaty of Troyes began the final stage of the Hundred Years' War. The balance of power in Europe shifted, and political instability ensued in England. The battle led to the English losing almost all their holdings in France, especially Gascony ( Aquitaine), an English possession for the previous three centuries. Castillon was a major European battle won through the extensive use of field artillery. Talbot then refused to withdraw even after realizing the strength of the French position, causing his men to suffer severe casualties from the French artillery. On the day of the battle, the English commander, John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, believing that the enemy was retreating, led his army in an attack on a fortified French encampment without waiting for reinforcements. Historians regard this decisive French victory as marking the end of the Hundred Years' War. The Battle of Castillon between the forces of England and France took place on 17 July 1453 in Gascony near the town of Castillon-sur-Dordogne (later Castillon-la-Bataille).

Map of dordogne and gascony