The Crumbling English Dream in France

By 1452, England’s once-mighty continental empire had shrunk dramatically. The loss of Brittany, Normandy, and Gascony left only Bordeaux as a significant foothold in France. When a delegation of Bordeaux merchants—longtime trading partners with England—arrived in London pleading for military support, the young King Henry VI faced a critical decision. His choice fell upon John Talbot, the aging but formidable 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, a veteran of Henry V’s legendary campaigns who had fought at Agincourt but suffered humiliation at the hands of Joan of Arc at Patay.

At nearly seventy years old, Talbot saw this as his chance for redemption. On October 17, 1452, he landed in Bordeaux with 3,000 troops. The city, still loyal to England, welcomed him with open gates. The French, expecting an English landing in Normandy, were caught off guard, delaying their counterattack for nearly ten months. By the time Charles VII of France mustered his forces in mid-1453, Talbot had already expanded his army to over 6,000 men.

The Rise of Firepower: Castillon and the End of an Era

In mid-July, the French began their campaign to retake Bordeaux by besieging Castillon, a strategic town along the Dordogne River. The French army had evolved significantly since their earlier defeats. Alongside traditional heavy cavalry and infantry, Charles VII’s forces now boasted over 300 cannons and bombards, while Genoese handgunners replaced the once-dominant crossbow mercenaries.

Despite their numerical advantage (9,000 troops), the French avoided open battle, opting instead to fortify their positions and wait. They established a defensive line along the dried-up bed of the Lidoire River, with hundreds of archers stationed at Saint-Laurent, a key chokepoint north of Castillon.

Talbot, eager to restore his reputation, could not ignore Castillon’s plight. On July 16, he marched his forces from Bordeaux, and by dawn the next day, his vanguard had reached Saint-Laurent. In a swift cavalry charge, the English overwhelmed the French archers, some pursuing them all the way back to the French camp. Mistaking the movement of French baggage trains for a retreat, Talbot—against wiser counsel—ordered an immediate assault.

The decision proved disastrous. As Talbot led his dismounted knights across the Lidoire, they found themselves charging directly into a fortified position bristling with handgunners and artillery. French volleys tore through the English ranks, while their follow-up forces arrived piecemeal, only to be cut down. By midday, French cavalry struck the English flanks, and Talbot himself fell when his horse was killed by a cannonball. A French archer finished the legendary commander with a battle-axe to the skull.

The Battle of Castillon cost England over 4,000 elite troops. With Talbot’s death, England lost its last field army in southern France. When Bordeaux surrendered shortly after, the Hundred Years’ War effectively ended. More than just a military defeat, Castillon marked a turning point in European warfare—the first major battle where gunpowder weapons proved decisive.

The Domestic Fallout: England’s Descent into Civil War

England’s military failures abroad exacerbated political instability at home. Henry VI, though an advocate for education (founding Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge), proved inept at managing the kingdom’s crises. After the death of his capable regent, John, Duke of Bedford, in 1435, England’s position in France deteriorated rapidly.

Meanwhile, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester—another key figure in Henry’s government—faced personal and political ruin. His scandalous divorce and subsequent marriage to Eleanor Cobham led to her imprisonment for treason (allegedly cursing the king), and Humphrey himself died under suspicious arrest in 1441.

By 1453, with France lost and public discontent rising (including Jack Cade’s rebellion in Kent and Sussex), Henry VI suffered a mental breakdown. Richard, Duke of York, was appointed Protector—but as a descendant of Edward III, he had his own claim to the throne.

Margaret of Anjou, Henry’s formidable queen, rallied the Lancastrian faction against York. When she bore a son in 1453 (to Henry’s apparent surprise), tensions escalated. In 1455, York marched on London, clashing with Lancastrian forces at St. Albans—the first battle of the Wars of the Roses, named for the rival factions’ emblems: Lancaster’s red rose and York’s white.

The Wars of the Roses: A Cycle of Betrayal and Bloodshed

The conflict spiraled into a decades-long power struggle. Key moments included:

– York’s Temporary Victories: After capturing Henry VI at Northampton (1460), York claimed the throne—only for Parliament to recognize him as heir, not king.
– Margaret’s Resurgence: Allied with Scotland, Margaret defeated and killed York at Wakefield (1460), displaying his head on York’s gates—a move that backfired politically.
– Edward IV’s Rise: York’s son Edward seized the throne in 1461 after the bloody Battle of Towton, the war’s largest and deadliest engagement.

Yet peace remained elusive. Edward’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville alienated his key ally, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (“the Kingmaker”), who defected to Margaret. In 1470, Warwick briefly restored Henry VI—only for Edward to return with Burgundian support, crushing the Lancastrians at Tewkesbury (1471). Henry VI and his son were killed, cementing Yorkist rule.

The Tudor Dawn: Richard III’s Downfall and Henry VII’s Compromise

Edward IV’s death in 1483 reignited the conflict. His brother Richard III seized the throne, imprisoning (and likely murdering) Edward’s young sons, the “Princes in the Tower.” This act galvanized opposition, including Henry Tudor, a distant Lancastrian claimant.

At Bosworth Field (1485), Richard III died in battle—famously crying “Treason!” as his allies abandoned him. Henry Tudor, crowned Henry VII, married Edward IV’s daughter Elizabeth, uniting the warring houses under the Tudor rose: white petals for York, red for Lancaster.

Legacy: From Medieval Chaos to Tudor Order

The Wars of the Roses reshaped England:
– Military Evolution: The decline of feudal levies in favor of professional soldiers and artillery.
– Political Centralization: Tudor monarchs curtailed noble power, laying the groundwork for the modern state.
– Cultural Memory: Immortalized by Shakespeare and later adaptations, the conflict endures as a tale of ambition, betrayal, and the birth of a new England.

The Battle of Castillon, though a French victory, set this chain of events in motion—proving that the fall of empires often begins far from home.