Battle of Formigny

On 15 April 1450 near Formigny in Normandy, Charles VII's French, initially outnumbered, won a decisive victory thanks to the arrival of Arthur de Richemont's Breton cavalry. The English field army in Normandy was destroyed; reconquest of the duchy accelerated.

The Treaty of Arras of 1435 had reconciled France and Burgundy, and Charles VII used the respite to assert his authority and press the reconquest. The English attack on Fougères in March 1449 swung Brittany into the French camp and set off the Normandy campaign. At Formigny, Thomas Kyriell drew up some 7,000 men against 2,500 French foot and 2,000 Breton horse.

True to English practice, Kyriell placed his archers in front behind their stakes and waited. Two culverins under Louis Giribaut overturned the equation: firing once every eight minutes, they wrought havoc among the archers and forced them out of their defensive position to go and take the guns. The fight remained undecided until Constable Arthur de Richemont arrived with his Breton cavalry on the flank. Admiral de Coëtivy saw the hand of God in it: 'I believe God brought us my lord the Constable, for had he not come at that hour…'

The English left about 3,800 dead and 1,200 to 1,400 prisoners, the French 600 to 800 men. The victory opened the swift reconquest of the whole of Normandy: Cherbourg surrendered in August 1450, and the English presence in the north of the kingdom came to an end. Formigny foreshadows Castillon: already it is the royal artillery that forces the decision against the longbow.