Castillon: The Last Battle of the Hundred Years War

The Battle of Castillon, fought outside the French city of the same name on 17 July 1453, was the final battle in the Hundred Years War.It was also a disastrous defeat for the English monarchy.It saw the death of one of England’s most famous medieval commanders and the complete collapse of the last vestiges of English rule in Gascony, which had been a possession of the English monarchy for nearly three centuries.The French King Charles VII completed his unification of his kingdom, once riven by a civil war that had forced him to flee Paris, and left England with only Calais as a toe-hold in France. Castillon drew together a wide cast of characters who had defined the end of the Hundred Years War.John Talbot and the Gascon nobility represented the English but against them were men who had fought alongside Jeanne d’Arc, mercenary captains, and soldiers from across France.The French were also supported by the cannons and defences of the Bureau brothers, who had risen from relatively modes