Battle of Taillebourg

There were two battles of Taillebourg , strategic crossing point between the north of France and the south, by the bridge built on Charente.

The least known first and is that which saw the victory of Charlemagne in 808 over the Sarrasins.

The second opposed, in 1242, the troops capétiennes of the king de France holy Louis and of his brother the count de Poitiers Alphonse with those the their vassal ones revolted, Henri III of England and Hugues X of Lusignan.

A feudal revolt

The departure of this last episode of the first war One hundred Year old between French and English is in the revolt of a baron poitevin, Hugues X, lord of Lusignan.

The county had a long tradition of autonomy within Aquitaine, far from the successive capitals of the kingdom of France, or England, when it had been attached to the English field at the time of the marriage of Aliénor of Aquitaine with the English sovereign. It is thus at the same time to spare the distrust of the lords poitevins with regard to a recent suzerain (Poitou was attached to the Crown in 1214 with the peace of Chinon), and to constitute a field with his/her son junior, that Louis VIII '' the Lion had given Poitou in Apanage to Alphonse of Poitiers. This one was only 6 years old with died of his/her father, in 1226, and was thus like his/her older brother Louis, placed under the regency of his/her mother Blanche of Castille.

It is adoubé only at age the 18 years, by his brother, and takes possession of sound stronghold only in 1240. It receives on this occasion the liege Hommage of the lords of the province, of which one of most powerful of them, Hugues X of Lusignan. This one, in addition to its family stronghold, had several places in Poitou, of which the castle of Montreuil, and especially the Comté of Walk.

Just like of many lords poitevins, Hugues de Lusignan does not agree to lose autonomy that it had before, and as in 1173 - 1179, 1188 and 1194 against the king of England, and in 1219 - 1224, the nobility poitevine leagues against its too powerful suzerain. The starting point of the confrontation is at Christmas 1241, when, undoubtedly at the instigation of his wife Isabelle of Angouleme mother D Henri III of England, Hugues X of Lusignan insults the count of Poitiers in his palate.

The resumption in hand capétienne

Immediately, the family capétienne reacts. The January 5th 1242, Alphonse of Poitiers convenes the nobility poitevine with Chinon for the Easter. Faithful lords, others less faithful but enemy of Lusignan, answer the call: thus Geoffroi IV of Ransom, lord of Gençay. Although his/her Blanche mother faced already successfully with feudal revolts and still manages the businesses of the kingdom since 1226 with the title of Baillistre , Louis IX decides to carry help to his/her brother and directs the countryside. It arrives at Chinon on April 28th, with Poitiers on May 4th, with an army of 30 000 men, knights and infantrymen, and of the machines of seat. May 9th they succeed in seizing the castle of Montreuil-Bonin, the Fortified town of Lusignan. After having taken the tower of Béruges, Moncontour, Vouvant and Fontenay-the-Count they move towards Saintes. The king of England, Henri III, indeed unloaded with Royan mid-May, before joining with Pons his relative Hugues de Lusignan and Raymond VII of Toulouse which seeks to compensate for the treaty of 1229 which removed the greatest part of its grounds to him. He is also accompanied by his brother Richard, prince of Cornouailles and count de Poitiers in title since 1225.

Unfolding

The king of France is lodged in the castle of Taillebourg, which overhangs the first bridge on the Charente since its mouth and strategic passage between Saint-Jean-with Angély and Poitou in the north, and Saintes (which belonged then to Lusignan) and Aquitaine in the South.

The July 19th, the two armies face on each side of the bridge, without of true combat place having. The battle takes place the July 21st, and is summarized in a massive load of the French knights, who déboulent castle and hustle their adversaries, constrained to flee.

After this engagement which enables them to control a strategic bridge, Franco-Poitevins exploit their advantage. The July 23rd, takes place the battle which is really decisive under the walls of Saintes (see Bataille of Holy). Anglo-Poitevins are again beaten, in a final way.

Assessment

The king of England signs a five years truce in Pons the 1242. A more lasting peace is concluded in Paris the December 4th 1259 (treated of Paris).

The king of France restores with his vassal infidel the grounds of which it is not sure that the conquest was perfectly legitimate: Quercy, the Limousin and Saintonge, thinking that this noble gesture would ensure to him at the same time peace with England, from which it estimates the king, and the possession of the Poitou, of the Maine, the Anjou and the Normandy.

The payment of the feudal revolt is less advantageous and more rapid for Hugues de Lusignan: a third of its castles poitevins is confiscated, rearmed and sold by Alphonse of Poitiers; it loses also the pension which it perceived of the royal treasure. His/her daughter Isabelle de Lusignan, hardly pubescent, wife in 1250 her enemy Geoffroi de Rancon, lord of Gençay, which makes rebuild its castle with the Dot.

As for Raymond VII, the Peace of Lorris, signed in January 1243, renews the conditions which had been made to him before.

Works of art

Eugene Delacroix represented the battle in its table the Battle of Taillebourg gained by saint Louis , presented to the Living room of 1837. It shows there all the ardor of the load of the knights.

External bonds

Henri III of England tells its version of the battle in a letter with the Emperor Frederic II of the Holy roman Empire.

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