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Jeanne d'Arc at the Tourelles, Lenepveu

📝🔒 Field Note: Siege of Orléans, France, May 1429 —battle for the Tourelles

October 2024, Orléans, south side of the Loire River. I am exploring the Hundred Years War battle locations around the city of Orléans. On this site on 7 May 1429, a French Army led by Count John Dunois, ‘The Bastard of Orléans’, and Captain La Hire, and inspired by Jeanne d’Arc, a 17-year old French peasant girl from Domremy, defeated a strong English force defending the ‘Tourelles’ fortress on the southern bank of the Loire River. The Tourelles controlled access across the Pont bridge into the French-held city of Orleans.

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⚔️ Battle of Patay, France,
18 June 1429

In the English-speaking world, the Battle of Agincourt in October 1415 is legendary. But there was a lesser-known battle a few years later where the outcome was reversed. A combat-experienced French army, inspired by Jeanne d’Arc, the Maid of Orleans, launched a lightning campaign that overwhelmed multiple English strongholds before wiping out an entire English army in open combat at the Battle of Patay on 18 June 1429. Mark Twain even wrote about this battle!

Medieval depiction of the Battle of Agincourt

⚔️ Battle of Agincourt, France,
25 October 1415

The Battle of Agincourt is one of the most famous battles in history. A small English force is trapped by a much larger French force but prevails against the odds. Shakespeare wrote about it and Hollywood continues to make movies about it. The battle reinforced the legend of the sturdy English longbowmen, equipped with the famous longbow, wreaking havoc on waves of heavily armoured French cavalry. So many of the French nobles were killed at Agincourt, it took years to recover.