6 - Siege and Conquest by Sword: The Second Campaign, 1346

Summary

The Siege of Aiguillon

At the beginning of 1346, the French army in Aquitaine and the surrounding regions was in disarray following the English acquisition of territory, and by March its possessions were restricted to a few major strongholds. In response to Lancaster's military success and territorial gains the French raised an army of an unprecedented size for the southern theatre of war. The army that Philippe VI provided for his son, Jean, duke of Normandy, was the result of a period of intense military recruitment financed by papal loans and taxation of the communities in the south. Soldiers were recruited from various regions in France and crossbowmen were hired from Aragon and Genoa. It is difficult to determine the size or composition of the entire French army; from among the vast range of numbers given by the chroniclers, it seems reasonable to estimate that the army numbered somewhere between the 10,000 given by Robert Avesbury and the 30,000 recorded in the Récits d'un bourgeois de Valenciennes. This huge force was led by no fewer than twenty-one counts and another thirty-one noblemen.

The main army under Normandy's command comprised an array of northern lords, including Pierre, duke of Bourbon, Eudes IV, duke of Burgundy, and Gautier of Brienne, duke of Athens, as well as Jean, count of Boulogne, Bouchard, count of Vendôme and Charles, count of Joigny. They were augmented by the military officers of the royal household: Raoul II, constable of France and count of Eu, and both marshals and the master of the Royal Archers. A second army assembled at Toulouse at the instance of Jean de Marigny, bishop of Beauvais, which included nobility drawn from the southern seneschalcies, such as Jean, count of Armagnac, Pierre- Ramond, count of Comminges, and Gaston Fébus, count of Foix. The French force which mustered in the south brought with it a train of siege equipment, including five cannons; considering the weight and size of such equipment it made logistical sense for it to be brought by the southern army which was located closer to the intended theatre of war than its northern counterpart.