Siege of Caen | |||||||
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Part of the Hundred Years' War | |||||||
Siege of Caen, miniature from the Vigiles du roi Charles VII by Martial d'Auvergne, c. 1484 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Kingdom of England | Kingdom of France Duchy of Brittany | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset | Arthur de Richemont |
The siege of Caen took place in 1450 during the Hundred Years War when French forces laid siege to Caen in the English-controlled Normandy following their decisive victory at the Battle of Formigny.
After Formingy, the remnants of the English Army under Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset withdrew to Caen, pursued by the much larger French army commanded by Arthur de Richemont. After three weeks of siege Somerset surrendered. English control of Normandy rapidly collapsed, ending with the loss of Cherbourg in August. [1]
Year 1450 (MCDL) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.
Caen is a commune 15 km (9.3 mi) inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants, while its functional urban area has 470,000, making Caen the second largest urban area in Normandy and the 19th largest in France. It is also the third largest commune in all of Normandy after Le Havre and Rouen.
Lower Normandy is a former administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, Lower and Upper Normandy merged becoming one region called Normandy.
The Battle of Tinchebray took place on 28 September 1106, in Tinchebray, Normandy, between an invading force led by King Henry I of England, and the Norman army of his elder brother Robert Curthose, the Duke of Normandy. Henry's knights won a decisive victory: they captured Robert, and Henry imprisoned him in England and then in Wales until Robert's death in 1134.
The Battle of Formigny, fought on 15 April 1450, was a major battle of the Hundred Years' War between England and France. A decisive French victory that destroyed the last significant English field army in Normandy, it paved the way for the capture of their remaining strongholds.
The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert's) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army, which served under various titles from 1685 to 1959. In 1959, the regiment was amalgamated with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry to form the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry which was again amalgamated, in 1968, with the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, the King's Shropshire Light Infantry and the Durham Light Infantry to form The Light Infantry. In 2007, however, The Light Infantry was amalgamated further with the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment and the Royal Green Jackets to form The Rifles.
The siege of Calais occurred at the conclusion of the Crécy campaign, when an English army under the command of King Edward III of England successfully besieged the French town of Calais during the Edwardian phase of the Hundred Years' War.
The Battle for Caen is the name given to fighting between the British Second Army and the German Panzergruppe West in the Second World War for control of the city of Caen and its vicinity during the larger Battle of Normandy. The battles followed Operation Neptune, the Allied landings on the French coast on 6 June 1944 (D-Day).
The Lancastrian War was the third and final phase of the Hundred Years' War between England and France. It lasted from 1415, when King Henry V of England invaded Normandy, to 1453, when the English lost Bordeaux. It followed a long period of peace from the end of the Caroline War in 1389. The phase is named after the House of Lancaster, the ruling house of the Kingdom of England, to which Henry V belonged.
The Battle of Caen was an assault conducted on 26 July 1346 by forces from the Kingdom of England, led by King Edward III, on the French-held town of Caen and Normandy as a part of the Hundred Years' War.
Events from the 1410s in England.
The Hundred Years' War was a series of armed conflicts fought between the kingdoms of England and France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from English claims to the French throne initially made by Edward III of England. The war grew into a broader military, economic, and political struggle involving factions from across Western Europe, fueled by emerging nationalism on both sides. The periodization of the war typically charts it as taking place over 116 years. However, it was an intermittent conflict which was frequently interrupted by external factors, such as the Black Death, and several years of truces.
The Ordinance of Normandy is the name given to a paper attributed to Philip VI of France, dated 23 March 1338 and exhibited in the Parliament of England on 8 September 1346. The document called for a second Norman conquest of England, with an invading army led by the Duke of Normandy, and England was to be divided between the Duke of Normandy and his nobles as a fief for the King of France. It would have been discovered by the English army at Caen, following the Battle of Caen in 1346 that ensued from the English invasion of Normandy. The Earl of Huntingdon brought the document to England after he was invalided home and it was read out in St. Paul's Cathedral in London by the Archbishop of Canterbury, John de Stratford. The document was also exhibited in Parliament on 8 September 1346, which was summoned to vote supplies to the king, who was engaged in the Siege of Calais. It was claimed that King Philip vowed to "destruire & anientier tote la Nation & la Lange Engleys" [destroy and ruin the entire English nation and country]. However some scholars believe the letter to have been forged.
Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, 4th Earl of Somerset, 1st Earl of Dorset, 1st Marquess of Dorset styled 1st Count of Mortain, KG, was an English nobleman and an important figure during the Hundred Years' War. His rivalry with Richard, Duke of York, was a leading cause of the Wars of the Roses.
Events from the year 1450 in France
The Crécy campaign was a series of large-scale raids (chevauchées) conducted by the Kingdom of England throughout northern France in 1346 that devastated the French countryside on a wide front, culminating in the Battle of Crécy. The campaign was part of the Hundred Years' War.
The siege of Caen took place during the Hundred Years War when English forces under King Henry V laid siege to and captured Caen in Normandy from its French defenders.
Lancaster's chevauchée of 1356 in Normandy was an English offensive directed by Henry, Duke of Lancaster, in northern France during 1356, as a part of the Hundred Years' War. The offensive took the form of a large mounted raid – a chevauchée – and lasted from 22 June to 13 July. During its final week the English were pursued by a much larger French army under King John II that failed to force them to battle.
The siege of Breteuil was the investment of the Norman town of Breteuil, held by partisans of Charles II, King of Navarre, by French forces. It lasted from April to about 20 August 1356. It was interrupted on 5 July when a small English army commanded by Henry, Earl of Lancaster relieved and resupplied it. The French king, John II, attempted to bring Lancaster to battle with the much larger French royal army, but Lancaster marched away and the attempt failed. John then renewed the siege of Breteuil.
English offensives in 1345–1347, during the Hundred Years' War, resulted in repeated defeats of the French, the loss or devastation of much French territory and the capture by the English of the port of Calais. The war had broken out in 1337 and flared up in 1340 when the king of England, Edward III, laid claim to the French crown and campaigned in northern France. There was then a lull in the major hostilities, although much small-scale fighting continued.