Battle of Gisors

On September 27, 1198, Philip II Augustus attempted to cut an Anglo-Norman column near Courcelles-lès-Gisors. Richard the Lionheart, warned, concentrated his cavalry and charged before the French occupied the Epte bridge. The Capetian banners are overturned; the king of France is thrown into the river with several knights and owes his salvation only to his light chain mail.

Since the truce of 1197, Richard has fortified the Norman border (Château Gaillard) and multiplied alliances with Flanders and Brittany. When Philippe resumes the war, he seeks to isolate Gisors, key to Vexin. The French forces, made up of royal knights and militias from Île-de-France, deployed in the Bois de Courcelles; Richard, camped in Trie, has Gascon and Brabant scouts who announce the opposing movement to him.

Richard orders a corner attack led by his Poitevin knights and the truck driver Mercadier; the Gascon infantry cuts the hedge bordering the road to widen the field of maneuver. The French, squeezed between the river and the woods, were unable to deploy. A second charge of Flemish auxiliaries hit the Capetian left wing, pushing it back towards the narrow bridge where men and horses fell into the Epte.

The defeat confirmed Richard's tactical domination in the last months of his life: Philippe had to abandon several positions in Vexin and accepted a truce in the winter. The humiliation of the King of France fueled the English chronicles and reinforced the prestige of the Angevin cavalry. In the long term, the episode convinces Philippe to favor methodical sieges and economical attrition rather than meetings in the open.