Battle of Blanquefort explained

Conflict:Battle of Blanquefort
Partof:the Hundred Years' War
Date:1 November 1450
Place:Gascony
Result:French victory
Combatant1: Kingdom of England Duchy of Gascony
Combatant2: Kingdom of France
Commander1:Gadifer Shorthose Thomas Gassiot
Commander2:Arnaud-Amanieu d'Albret John, Count of Penthièvre Robin Pettilow
Strength1:7,000–10,000 men
Strength2:400–3,000 men
Casualties1:1,500–2,500 killed1,200-2,500 captured
Casualties2:Unknown

The Battle of Blanquefort or La Male Journade took place on 1 November 1450 during the Hundred Years' war when a French army drew out Anglo-Gascon forces from Bordeaux in the English-controlled Duchy of Gascony. The Anglo-Gascon infantry suffered heavy losses, and the battle resulted in a decisive French victory. The battle was known locally as La Male Journade or in French Mauvaise Journée and marked the beginning of a campaign to drive the English from Gascony.

The Battle

At the first engagement, at a place called Jallepont, the first French lines slipped away on purpose and led the Anglo-Gascons in pursuit until they reached a cul-de-sac closed by the banks of the Jalle. It was a trap: Robin Petit-Loup’s archers were hidden in the surrounding woods and decimated the pursuers in nearly an hour of heavy fire. Meanwhile, Arnaud-Amanieu d'Albret, lord of d'Orval, closed his lines with a pincer movement which took the English from the flanks.

The survivors, overcome by panic, fled towards Bordeaux. A French chronicler,, called into question the cowardice of Gadifier Shartoise, the English mayor of Bordeaux, whom he accused of abandoning all his soldiers on foot to flee towards Bordeaux.

The French knights pursued the fugitives for several kilometres, and killed all those from whom no ransom could be expected. Only the nobles and the rich bourgeois escaped the massacre.

The magnitude of the losses sounded the death knell for the last hopes of the English to resist the French in southwestern France.

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