On 15 April 1450 a French army under the Count of Clermont attacked an English force under Sir Thomas Kyriell near the village of Formigny, between Carentan and Bayeux in Normandy. For hours the English archers held their ground, and they even seized two French guns. Then a second French army under the Constable of France, Arthur de Richemont, came up on their flank, and the English broke. Kyriell's army, the last English field army in Normandy, was destroyed, and within months the whole duchy was French again.
Normandy slipping away
Normandy had been in English hands since its conquest by Henry V. When the war resumed in 1449, the French advanced fast. In the autumn Rouen, the capital of the duchy, fell, and in December, BritishBattles notes, the cannon of Jean Bureau forced the surrender of Harfleur. The English still held Caen and a few other towns.1
To save them, an army was raised in England under Sir Thomas Kyriell and landed at Cherbourg in March 1450. Its size is reported differently: Britannica gives some 3,500 men, Herodote 3,000, and BritishBattles 2,500 who, with reinforcements from the Duke of Somerset's garrisons, grew to about 4,000. Instead of marching straight to Caen, Kyriell turned aside to besiege Valognes, which cost him time.2
Two French armies
After Valognes, Kyriell marched east along the coast toward Bayeux, crossing the Vire estuary by a long causeway passable only at low tide, and halted at Formigny on 14 April. Clermont, with about 3,000 men at Carentan, followed him and sent word to the Constable, Arthur de Richemont, who was at Saint-Lô with a Breton force. BritishBattles puts the Constable's army at about 2,000, Herodote at 1,500.3
On 15 April Clermont found the English drawn up across the road near a small stream. BritishBattles says Clermont wanted to wait for the Constable but was overruled by young nobles in his army, who had no memory of Agincourt.4
Guns and archers
The accounts differ on the order of events. In the account of BritishBattles, the French men-at-arms first attacked on foot while horsemen tried the flanks, and for some two hours they could make no headway against the English archers. Clermont then brought up two culverins, whose fire galled the English line until the archers charged out, overran the gunners and dragged the guns back. Herodote has Clermont send his artillery forward first, for fear of the archers, and commit his infantry only to win the guns back. Britannica says the English held the French off for about three hours and briefly took two cannon, supplied by the brothers Jean and Gaspard Bureau, and calls Formigny the first French use of field artillery.5
All the sources agree on what came next. Richemont's army appeared on the English flank, beyond the brook. Kyriell tried to turn part of his line to face it, but the English gave ground and made a last stand around the bridge before they were overwhelmed. Kyriell was captured, while Sir Matthew Gough cut his way out and escaped.6
The end of English Normandy
English losses were very heavy. BritishBattles reports that French records counted 3,774 English dead buried in fourteen grave pits, though it thinks the pits probably held the dead of both sides, and HistoryOfWar.org gives 4,000 English killed. Either way, the English army ceased to exist.7
The French went on to take Vire, Bayeux and Avranches. Caen surrendered in June after three weeks of bombardment by the Bureau brothers, and the rest of Normandy followed in August. According to Herodote, the victory earned Charles VII the name the Victorious. The date is in the Julian calendar, which France then used. The Hundred Years' War's earlier English triumphs are covered in our article on Agincourt.8
Also on this day
- 1825: Third siege of Missolonghi. Ottoman forces besieged the Greek-held town of Missolonghi by land and sea in the Greek War of Independence.
