Battle of Castillon. Charles-Philippe Larivière, 19th-c.

[THE LOSS OF GUIENNE: The End of the Hundred Years' War]
"The fate of Guienne was at this moment in the balance. In 1451 Charles VII had turned his victorious arms from Normandy to the south. The Bastard of Orleans had captured one after another the outlying bulwarks of Bordeaux; Bourg and Blaye had fallen in May, Fronsac and Libourne early in June. No succours arrived from England, where the parliamentary struggle of 1451 was then at its height, and on June 30 the inhabitants of Bordeaux, with manifest reluctance, surrendered their city. On August 20 Bayonne, the last fortress where the English banner flew, had opened its gates, and the subjection of Guienne seemed complete.

"But provincial independence was dear to the Guiennois; they were loyal in their hearts to Henry VI, and they chafed bitterly against the new taxes and the abrogation of old customs which the French conquest brought about. Within six months of the fall of Bayonne Gascon nobles and burghers were visiting London in secret, to pledge their faith that the whole province would rise in arms the moment that an English army showed itself on the Gironde. When the appeal was made to him not to wreck this fair chance of resuming the struggle with France, York [Richard, Duke of York], as the advocate of a vigorous war policy, could hardly refuse his aid. He consented, and a great effort was made to raise an army for the invasion of Guienne. In July, 1452, the veteran Talbot, who had been created Earl of Shrewsbury some years before, was commissioned to raise 3,000 men for that enterprise.

"The struggle of York and Somerset was suspended for a year and more, while both parties gave their aid for this attempt to rescue the last remnant of the English dominion in France. Talbot landed on October 17 in the Médoc; on the 21st the Bordelais threw open their gates to him. Within a few weeks most of the places around the great city were once more English. Then came winter, and nearly six months of respite before the slow-moving Charles of France launched his armies against Guienne. By this time Talbot had received reinforcements from England under his son Lord Lisle; with their aid he won back Fronsac, which all through the reign of Henry VI had been the frontier fortress of the English territory in Guienne. It was only in July, 1453, that the French appeared, in overwhelming force, and laid siege to Castillon on the Dordogne.

"Talbot marched out to its relief, with every man, Gascon and English, that he could collect. On the 17th he fell furiously upon the besiegers, who were stockaded in a great entrenched camp. So well were they covered that the old earl did not see how he could turn his archery, the real strength of his army, to any account. Forming his whole force into a dense column, with the men-at-arms at the head, he marched straight at the trenches. Though torn to pieces by the French artillery, the assailants crossed the ditch, and strove time after time to force their way into the lines. They were repelled, and presently outlying contingents from other parts of the circumvallation came up, and began to take the English in flank and rear. At this moment Talbot was struck down by a cannon ball, which broke his leg. His sons and his body-squires fought fiercely in his defence, but were slain one after another. The French sallied out of their trenches, the English column broke up, and all was lost.  Talbot and Lisle were found dead side by side, and all the flower of their host had perished.

"Nothing can show better the loyalty of the Guiennois to the English cause than the fact that many of the smaller towns held out for two months after the disaster at Castillon, and that Bordeaux itself, though hopeless of succour, did not surrender till October 19, after it had stood a siege of eighty days. But this was the end; the French king took good care that his new subjects should not have another chance to rebel, and England for twenty years was in no condition to think of sending an army overseas. Yet the remembrance of their old connexion with the island realm long remained deep in the breasts of the men of Bordeaux; not only in the days of Edward IV, but so late as those of Henry VIII, secret messages were sent to England from the Gironde, and a vigorous attempt to recover Guienne might yet have found aid from within. Fortunately for both parties the attempt was never made.

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