Battle of Castillon

On 17 July 1453 at Castillon in Guyenne, Charles VII's army destroyed John Talbot's English forces using concentrated field artillery deployed by the Bureau brothers. The last major battle of the Hundred Years' War, it ended English presence in Aquitaine except Calais.

After reconquering Normandy in 1450, Charles VII turned his effort to Guyenne, English for three centuries. Bordeaux fell in 1451, but French administration displeased its inhabitants: a Bordeaux delegation asked for the English to return, and Talbot retook the city the following year with Henry VI's backing. The royal army sent in 1453 gathered 1,800 lances fournies, 800 francs-archers and Breton contingents under a collegial command effectively led, in all likelihood, by Jean de Bueil. Above all it brought 'the king's great and small artillery', mounted on carts and directed by the brothers Jean and Gaspard Bureau.

Jean Bureau had an entrenched artillery park established near Castillon, its guns laid to sweep the approaches. On 17 July Talbot attacked frontally, convinced the French were withdrawing; his assault was contained. Bureau then adjusted his pieces and fired in enfilade from every barrel, almost at point-blank range. A culverin ball killed Talbot's horse and broke his leg; a French archer finished him. The charge of the Breton cavalry turned the English retreat into a rout. It was one of the first occasions in Europe on which massed field artillery decided a pitched battle on its own.

Castillon surrendered two days after the battle, Bordeaux capitulated in October 1453. The Hundred Years' War died out on the continent: the English retained only Calais, which they held until 1558. The battle sealed the superiority of the royal cannon over the cavalry charge and earned the Bureau brothers a place apart in French military history. The town has since taken the name Castillon-la-Bataille.