The ultimate battle

How did this avoidable battle become inevitable?

And how did Charles VII, nicknamed »the little king of Bourges«, become the »most glorious king of France», capable of driving the English out of France, just as Joan of Arc had asked him to do before she died at the stake, on 29 May 1431?

This was because, from around 1445 onwards, talented, courageous and loyal warlords around him were able to build up a disciplined, well-equipped and well-commanded army, financed by the king’s creditor and banker, Jacques Cœur. The results were commensurate with such efforts: in 1450, Normandy was reconquered. In the summer of 1451, it was the turn of Guyenne, under the command of Jean Dunois, a companion of Joan of Arc, known as the Bastard of Orléans.

Bordeaux surrendered on 23 June and Bayonne on 20 August. Charles VII was even determined to establish a parliament in Bordeaux to administer justice on his behalf throughout the province. However, his new subjects still had to get used to obeying him, whilst their political and commercial privileges led them to miss the English, who were more loyal and better customers for Bordeaux wines. By mutual agreement between Bordeaux and London, preparations for their return were made towards the end of 1451. In early summer 1452, plans were made to send 5,000 men-at-arms to Guyenne under the command of John Talbot, the most renowned English commander. They landed on 17 October and, six days later, Bordeaux was once again under English control. To withstand the French army, which was immediately put on alert, reinforcements of English soldiers arrived under the command of Lord Lisle, General Talbot’s son. This brought the total number of English combatants to 7,000, with an equivalent number on the French side.

Their clash took place at Castillon on 17 July 1453, on the banks of the Dordogne, which had been transformed into a vast graveyard of unburied warriors. Talbot was killed there, along with his son. Many English soldiers attempted to flee towards Saint-Émilion, pursued by the Breton cavalry of Charles VII’s army. Others took refuge in the town of Castillon, which surrendered the very next day. After so many resounding French defeats, such as Crécy (1346), Poitiers (1356) and Agincourt (1415), the King of France took his revenge at Castillon. He had the Bureau brothers – Jean and Gaspard – to thank for this. Above all the former, in his capacity as Grand Master of the Royal Artillery, which was equipped with an ever-increasing number of cannons. Around 1460, there were fewer than fifty; by 1480, there were more than two hundred. Artillery would soon come to dominate the wars of the Renaissance.

The conquest of Guyenne – preceded by that of Normandy and followed by the acquisition of Brittany following the marriage in 1491 of King Charles VIII to Duchess Anne of Brittany – redrew the map of the Kingdom of France, opening it up to the Atlantic in the age of the great discoveries… The Battle of Castillon brought to an end Aquitaine’s three centuries of belonging to the English crown of the king-dukes. In 1453, the fall of Constantinople to the Turks brought an end to the Christian presence in the East, whilst scholars and artists from the Byzantine Empire sought refuge in Italy. At the same time, between 1450 and 1455, Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press sparked an unprecedented cultural revolution, with the production, publication and distribution of works that spread throughout Europe, the greatest success of which was: the Bible. All these were signs and evidence that the Middle Ages were drawing to a close after lasting a millennium…

Why the people of Bordeaux called on the English for help in 1452…

Defeated, their bodies cast into the downstream current of the River Dordogne, were the soldiers of John Talbot, the valiant commander of the English army, swimming against the tide of history?

Everything points to this, given that the armies of the King of France, Charles VII, had already secured a decisive victory against the King of England, the Duke of Aquitaine, as early as 1451. The entire territory of Aquitaine was in the hands of the King of France, having finally been recovered following the Duchess Eleanor’s remarriage to Henry Plantagenet in 1152. Three centuries later, the inhabitants of Bordeaux had to face the facts: by coming under French rule, they risked both having to pay the taxes owed by the subjects of the King of France and losing the commercial privileges that the English king-dukes had granted them to secure their loyalty.

These advantages made them the regular suppliers of their «claret» wines, which were highly prized by the English, particularly Londoners. Every year, shortly after the grape harvest, ships from across the Channel and Breton boats would transport the new wines from Bordeaux and Libourne to the ports of southern England. Very soon, the Bordeaux wine merchants and traders came to regret having come under the authority of the King of France, and they rallied to seek the aid of their former masters, the kings of England, with the support of the city council (the jurade) and Archbishop Pey Berland, who had been sent on a mission to request military aid.