|
The Battle of Baugé, fought between the English and a Franco-Scots army on 22 March 1421 at 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 4,000 men, although only 1,500 deployed, against 5,000 Scots. ==Background== When France's Charles IV died in 1328 leaving only daughters, the nearest male relative was Edward III of England. Edward had inherited his right to the throne of France through his mother Isabella, the sister of the dead French king. The assemblies of the French barons and prelates and the University of Paris decided that males who derive their right to inheritance through their mother should be excluded. The nearest heir through male ancestry was Edward's cousin, Philip, Count of Valois, and it was he who was crowned king of France.〔Previté-Orton The shorter Cambridge Medieval History 2. p. 872〕 The English kings had become dukes of Aquitaine after Henry II of England married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, from which point the lands were held in vassalage to the French crown. Edward did not see himself as subordinate to Philip and was reluctant to be Philip's vassal. He saw the argument over the crown of France as a dynastic dispute rather than of vassalage. Philip confiscated the lands that Edward held in Aquitaine, on the grounds that Edward had breached his obligation as vassal, precipitating what became known as the Hundred Years' War during which Edward was to reassert his claim to the French crown.〔Bartlett. England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings 1075 -1225. pp. 17-22〕 The Hundred Years' War had periods of peace as well as conflict and it was after, what became known, as the second peace between 1389-1415 Henry V, with the intention of resuming the war, sailed from England to France, with a force of about 10,500. He then pursued a largely successful military campaign and regained, from the French crown, much of England's previously held lands in France.〔Curry. Arms, Armies and Fortifications in the Hundred Years' War. pp. 44-45〕 The Scots had been in an alliance with France since 1295.〔Prestwich. The Plantagenets. pp. 304–305〕 In 1419 the situation in France was desperate. Normandy was lost to the English and Paris to the Burgundians. In these deteriorating circumstances, the Dauphin appealed to the Scots for help. A Scottish army was assembled under the leadership of John, Earl of Buchan and Archibald, Earl of Wigtown and from late 1419 to 1421 the Scottish army became the mainstay of the Dauphin’s defence of the lower Loire valley.〔Brown. The Black Douglases: War and Lordship in Late Medieval Scotland, 1300-1455. pp. 216-218〕 When Henry returned to England in 1421, he left his heir presumptive, Thomas, Duke of Clarence, in charge of the remaining army. Following the King's instructions, Clarence led 4000 men in raids through the Anjou and Maine.〔Wagner. Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years' War. pp. 43-44〕 This chevauchée met with little resistance, and by Good Friday, 21 March 1421, the English army had made camp near the little town of Vieil-Baugé. The Franco-Scots army of about 5000 also arrived in the Vieil-Baugé area to block the English army's progress. It was commanded by the Earl of Buchan and the new Constable of France, the Sieur de Lafayette; however, the English forces were dispersed, and significantly many of the English archers had ridden off in search of plunder or forage. On Easter Saturday, one of these foraging groups captured a Scots man-at-arms who they brought before the Duke of Clarence. Clarence was keen to engage the enemy; however, he had a problem: the following day was Easter Sunday, one of the most holy days in the Christian calendar, when a battle would be unthinkable. A two-day delay was also deemed as out of the question.〔〔Neillands. The Hundred Years' War. p. 233,〕 According to the chronicles of Walter Bower both commanders agreed to a short truce for Easter.〔Macdougall. An Antidote to the English p. 65〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Baugé」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|