By Peter Hoskins
The Battle of Castillon, 1453, The Death Knell of English France, is the second book author Peter Hoskins has written for Helion. Peter, who lives in France, has written extensively on the Hundred Years War. In this new blog, he discusses the attraction of the period.
When I first came to live in south-west France, I was immediately struck by how the mediaeval history of our two countries remained evident in so many ways. A couple of miles from where I lived was a small chateau which had belonged to a Frenchman who had been a counsellor to Edward III in the 1360s. Local towns spoke of their history during the period of La Domination Anglaise (a misleading term for a relationship which was by and large based on mutual interests for the Gascons and English – but that’s another story) and street names such as the Rue du Prince Noir and Rue des Plantagenets abounded. When in 2005 I started to research my first book, In the Steps of the Black Prince, The Road to Poitiers 1355-56, more subtle evidence of the lasting English influence in Aquitaine became apparent. Two examples were language and attitudes, all the more striking when one recalls that the English were finally expelled from the region more than five-and-a-half centuries ago. The French word for river, rivière, strictly speaking applies to a tributary, and a river that flows into the sea is a fleuve. The rivers Garonne and Dordogne which converge to form the Gironde are therefore rivières and the latter a fleuve. However, for many French people in the region they are all still rivers, dating back to the English, or perhaps more accurately Anglo-Norman, language influence and reflecting English rather than French usage. Much of my research involved following the campaign routes on foot and interviewing local historians. On one occasion I was staying in a bed and breakfast and some fellow guests asked what I was doing and where I had come from. On hearing that I had started from Bordeaux they said, ‘Oh dear, the people of Bordeaux are so boring and uninteresting, they have no sense of fun. It is their English heritage.’ A little later I was close to Toulouse and asked the historian with whom I was talking whether he was from Toulouse. ‘Good heavens no! The Toulousains are vulgar, they have no culture, and they think of nothing but partying. We Bordelais are sober, cultivated, and well-educated. Its our English heritage you know.’ Perhaps all caricatures have an element of truth in them, but what amazed me was that after so long people could attribute these perceived characteristics to events so long ago.
As I travelled on my research, I continued to find evidence of the lasting nature of the English presence in Aquitaine. Many bastide towns were founded by English Kings in their capacity as Dukes of Aquitaine. The town of La Réole had a plaque in a square recording how the town owed its wealth to the English presence in the Middle Ages. I now live in the town of Saintes on the river Charente. The boundaries of English Aquitaine changed frequently with the ebb and flow of fortunes of war, but for a period the river was the frontier between English held and French territory with the English town on the left bank where I live. The cathedral bears an inscription recording Louis IX’s victory over Henry III outside the walls of the town in 1242 in one of the many Anglo-French conflicts which pre-figured the Hundred Years War. A few miles away is the town and castle of Taillebourg. Eleanor of Aquitaine and her first husband Louis VII stayed here on the night of their marriage, and after her second marriage to Henry Plantagenet her son Richard the Lionheart captured the castle in 1179. It also figured in the war between Louis IX and Henry III in 1242-43, and in 1351 it was Charles VII’s headquarters during the first of his campaigns to drive the English from Aquitaine. Two years later the Earl of Kendal was imprisoned here following his capture after the Battle of Castillon. With this as background, my next book, The Battle of Castillon 1453, The Death Knell for English France, was a natural subject for me. Having written extensively on the Hundred Years War, in addition to the local interest, I wanted to have a look at this little known and final battle of the Hundred Years War. The battle is of interest not only because it triggered the surrender of Bordeaux and the end of three centuries of English presence, but because for the first time artillery had a decisive influence on the battlefield. As part of my research, I visited the battlefield. There are two monuments in the vicinity. One erected in 1888, at a time when Anglo-French relations were at a low ebb, commemorates the French commanders and their victory. A second, on the spot where the commander of the Anglo-Gascon army, John Talbot, First Earl of Shrewsbury, was said to have been buried after the battle was raised in 1953 to commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of the battle – not to celebrate the French victory, but to remember the bravery of Talbot who rode into battle unarmed and without armour to respect his oath, given on his release from captivity in 1450, never again to take up arms against Charles VII. The English heritage runs deep indeed in this part of France.
Taillebourg castle was closely associated with Anglo-French rivalry. In July 1242 the army of Henry III was driven off by Louis IX before the French victory outside Saintes two days later. It was used by Charles VII as his headquarters in the summer of 1451 after the fall of Bordeaux to plan the capture of Bayonne. The castle was rebuilt in 1423; the only structure remaining from this period is a tower.
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