Battle of Baugé

Battle of Baugé
Part of the Hundred Years' War
Battle of Baugé
Date 21 March 1421 Location Baugé, France Result Franco-Scottish victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of France Kingdom of Scotland	Kingdom of England
Commanders and leaders
John Stewart, 2nd Earl of Buchan, Gilbert de Lafayette, Constable of France	Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence †
Strength
6,000	10,000
Casualties and losses
light	1 000 dead, 500 captured

Hundred Years' War Edwardian phase Breton Succession Castilian Civil War War of the Two Peters Caroline phase Despenser's Crusade 1383–1385 Crisis Lancastrian phase Armagnac–Burgundian conflict

Hundred Years' War (1415–1453) Harfleur Agincourt Rouen 2nd La Rochelle Baugé Meaux Cravant La Brossinière Verneuil Orléans Herrings Loire Jargeau Meung-sur-Loire Beaugency Patay Compiègne La Charité Gerbevoy Formigny Castillon

Anglo-Scottish Wars Duns Otterburn Nesbit Moor (1402) Humbleton Hill Yeavering Piperdean Sark Berwick Lochmaben Fair Flodden Field Haddon Rig Solway Moss Edinburgh (1544) Ancrum Moor Pinkie Cleugh Haddington Broughty Castle Redeswire

The Battle of Baugé, fought between the English and the Franco-Scots on 21 March 1421 in Baugé, France, east of Angers, was a major defeat for the English in the Hundred Years' War. The English army was led by the king's brother Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence, while the Franco-Scots were led by both John Stewart, 2nd Earl of Buchan, and Gilbert de Lafayette, the Constable of France. English strength was 10,000 men, against the French-Scots' 6,000.

Contents 1 The battle 2 Aftermath 3 See also 4 References

The battle

While Henry was in England raising fresh levies in 1421, his brother Thomas the Duke of Clarence led less than 1,500^[1]men south towards the Loire. They set about besieging the castle at Bauge when a Scottish army of 6,000 men commanded by the Earl of Buchan made contact with them the day before Good Friday. A truce was reached, lasting until Monday, so that the combatants could properly observe the religious occasion of Easter. The English lifted their siege and withdrew to nearby Beaufort, while the Scots camped at Le Lude. However, early in the afternoon of Saturday Scottish scouts reported that the English had broken the truce and were advancing upon the Scots, hoping to take them by surprise. The Scots rallied hastily and battle was joined at a bridge which the Duke of Clarence, with banner unfurled for battle, sought to cross. A detachment of a few hundred men under Sir Robert Stewart of Ralston, reinforced by the retinue of Hugh Kennedy, held the bridge and prevented passage long enough for the Earl of Buchan to rally the rest of his army, whereupon they made a fighting retreat to the town where the English archers would be ineffective.

Both armies now joined in a bitter melee that lasted until nightfall. During the melee Sir John Carmichael of Douglasdale broke his lance unhorsing the Duke of Clarence; since that day the Carmichael coat of arms displays an armoured hand holding aloft a broken lance in commemoration of the victory. Once on the ground, the Duke was killed by either Sir Alexander Buchanan, or Sir John Swinton, 15th of that Ilk. The English dead included the Lord Roos, Sir John Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville and Gilbert de Umfraville, whose death directly led to the extinction of the male line of that illustrious family, well known to the Scots since the Wars of Independence. The Earl of Somerset and his brother were captured by Laurence Vernon (later elevated to the rank of knight for his conduct), the Earl of Huntingdon was captured by Sir John Sibbald, and Lord Fitz Walter was taken by Henry Cunningham.

Aftermath

On hearing of the Scottish victory, Pope Martin V passed comment by reiterating a common mediaeval saying, that "the Scots are well-known as an antidote to the English." In the summer of 1421 the Dauphin campaigned north of the Loire and retook much territory. In gratitude to the Scots he made Archibald Douglas, Earl of Wigtown, count of Longueville and lord of Dun-le-roi. Sir John Stewart of Darnley received the lands of Aubigny-sur-Nere and Concressault. The Earl of Buchan was made Constable of France. In 1422 the Dauphin created the "hundred men-at-arms of the King's bodyguard", known as the "Hundred Lances of France", to supplement the 24 archers of the Garde Ecossaise. The Hundred Lances eventually became the company known as the Gendarmerie of France who distinguished themselves at Fontenoy in 1745. John Carmichael was elected bishop of Orléans in 1426, and was one of the 6 bishops to attend the coronation of the Dauphin as Charles VII in 1429 at Rheims. Hugh Kennedy, known to the French as Canede, was granted the right to quarter his coat of arms with the fleur de lys of France.

See also

• Auld Alliance

References