Battle of Patay
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
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| The French crushing the English. The English, however, did not fight on horseback | |||||||||||||||||
| Battle of Patay | |||||||||||||||||
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| Conflict | Hundred Years' War | ||||||||||||||||
| Date | 18 June, 1429 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place | South of Patay, slightly north of Orleans | ||||||||||||||||
| Result | Decisive French victory | ||||||||||||||||
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The Battle of Patay was a battle in the Hundred Year's War between the French and English in 1429 in north-central France. It was a decisive victory for the French and turned the tide of the war.
After the Siege of Orleans and its relief by Joan of Arc, the French recaptured the English strongholds in the Loire valley. The English, taken aback by the reversal of fortunes, were determined to keep the upper hand. However, they were unable to force Joan's army to battle and were withdrawing from the Loire valley, and their leader, Sir John Fastolf, did not expect the vigorous pursuit that followed.
1,500 elite mounted men-at-arms under La Hire and Poton de Xaintrailles, composing of the vanguard of the pursuing French army, surprised and crushed the English rear guard. A story goes that the French frightened a stag, who bolted through the forest and into the English rear guard. Seeing such a prize, the English broke ranks and tried to chase it. It was due to the noise of the English rear guard that alerted the French, who promptly attacked.
Regardless, the main force under Talbot and Fastolf, seeing the loss of their rear guard, rushed to find a defensive position where they could exploit their archer superiority. Yet the French, remembering the debacles of The Battle of Crecy and the Battle of Agincourt, knew that attacking the English with prepared defenses was suicide. So the French pressed forth in haste, crushing the panicking and disorganized English who didn't have enough time to prepare defenses.
Every Englishmen with a horse fled under the mounted assault while the infantry, mostly composed of the famed English Longbowmen, where cut down. For once the French tactic of a large cavalary assault succeeded, with startling results. The only remaining English field army was utterly annihalated, and the course of the war would now flow in the favor of its ultimate victors, the French.
