Battle of Formigny

The battles of Formigny is a battle of the Guerre One hundred Year old which was held the April 15th 1450 with Formigny in Normandy between the English and the French.

Origin

The March 23rd 1449, whereas a truce had been signed between the France and the England, an adventurer with the pay of the English, Surienne says the Aragonese, seizes the Breton city of Fougères. Even if Arthur de Richemont, future duke of Brittany Arthur III, brother of the duke of Brittany, has been constable of France for several years, this action makes rock officially the Brittany in the camp French. The Duke of Brittany François I {{er}} sign with the King de France Charles VII an alliance which launches a campaign in Normandy succeed to a victory to Rouen the October 29th 1449 over Henri VI of England and obliging the English to beat a retreat on the Cotentin. The October 12th, only the places of Avranches, Bayeux, Bricquebec, Caen, Cherbourg and Saint-Saver-the-Viscount are still held by the English. But with the winter the Bretons relax their army, promising a return in Normandy as of next January.

Benefitting from this lull, the duke of Suffolk manages to finance the sending of 3 500 men approximately under the orders of Sir Thomas Kyriell, force which unloads with Cherbourg the March 15th. They must join the 2 000 men of the garrison of Caen. On their way Valognes is held by the French party. The March 20th, its seat starts with reinforcements of the other English garrisons carried out by Matthieu Goth. The king is alerted and organizes an army of 3 000 men carried out by Jean de Bourbon, Count de Clermont, armed which Richemont was to join. This army arrives at Carentan the April 12th to learn rendering from Valognes two days before. The count de Richemont who raised the Breton army is informed only towards the March 25th.

It is an army of 4 000 men that the duke of Brittany and his brother raised. However, the April 8th, arrived to Fraud-of-Brittany, the duke decides to remain in Brittany by retaining half of the Breton army. It is thus only on April 10th that with a Breton army of only 2 000 men, Richemont engages in Normandy.

The April 13rd, Richemont is able at Coutances where it receives a message of the count de Clermont, to inform it of the situation but, interpreting the movement of Kyriell badly, it supposes a way towards Saint-Lo. In fact Kyriell takes the risk to find a ford in the marshes of the Baie of Large Vey and, in the afternoon, he arrives at the village of Formigny which he strengthens to establish a stage. The April 14th, Clermont learns the passage from the English but does not react and sends only in the evening a messenger to Richemont which will be informed only in the morning of the 15.

Unfolding

Whereas they raised the camp quietly and were on the point of taking again the road of Bayeux, the English are joined by the army of 2 000 men of Clermont, coming from the west, decided well to stop their walk. Faithful to the good old English strategy, Kyriell makes put its troops in battle, the archers in front of, protected by piles, and waits. All the riders go down from horse, only remain gone up those which belong to the reserve, on the left side, in the south. The right side, in north, is reinforced by a small strengthened tiny room.

Clermont maintains its army out of reach English arrows and advances only 60 Lance S and its two couleuvrines under the supervision of Louis Giribaut, which starts to make devastations among the archers, at a rate of a blow each one every eight minutes. The goal is to seize a bridge and a nearby ford to control a river separating the two English army corps. However this attempt is made before the arrival of the Breton army sent by the Duc of Brittany under the command of the constable of Richemont.

Matthieu Goth is not long in counter-attacking. The Hallebardier S English reach artillery. Pierre de Brézé intervenes in its turn to release the French Artillerie and all the French Army is soon with the combat and in difficulty. About the same moment, Arthur de Richemont is, with some Lieue S from there, prevented by peasants of the beginning of the combat. It makes accelerate its troops. English side, only the body of Goth is with the combat, Kiryel keeping the second body in reserve. The combat lasts nearly 3 a.m.

It is at this time that appear 2 000 men on a hill in the south. That gives initially place to a cry of joy of the English who believe in a reinforcement of the Caen-native garrison under the direction of Edmond de Somerset. However, when appear the black cross and the hermines Breton banners, they owe déchanter: it is about the Breton army of the count de Richemont with his cavalry which descends the hill by charging the reserve with cavalry of the English.

The English line is inserted and dislocated; the Breton army has just carried the blow of thanks to the English army. The archers Welsh, fearing to see amputees of their index, fought until death. Certain chroniclers spoke about 500 Welsh, driven back archers, asking to go and massacred, despite everything, until the last by Norman peasants.

The battle is often quoted to be that where the use of the gun had for the first time a decisive effect. It is rather difficult to judge in this direction because it seems well that it is rather the arrival of the Breton army of Arthur de Richemont, with its powerful load of cavalry on the back of the English army which had a decisive and significant effect for the English defeat.

Assessment

The whole Normandy is quickly recovered by the France, it is the end of the Guerre One hundred Year old for the northern part.

See too

Sources

Guillaume Gruel, Memories of Artus III, duke of Brittany, count de Richemont, and constable of France, since 1393 until in 1457 (consultable in electronic document on Gallica here)

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