The History Book

156

and were armed with some

300 guns under the command

of artillery expert Jean Bureau.

Expecting reinforcements, Talbot

signaled an attack but as the

English approached, they found

themselves outnumbered by a well-

prepared army. The French artillery

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Military revolution

BEFORE

1044 The first surviving

formula for gunpowder

appears in a Chinese

military compendium.

1346 Edward II uses cannons

at the Battle of Crécy.

1439 Jean Bureau is made

master gunner of the

French artillery.

1445 Charles VII creates

a French standing army.

1453 Constantinople falls to

an Ottoman army employing

heavy cannons.

AFTER

1520s The Italian Wars

demonstrate the effectiveness

of infantry with firearms.

1529 Michaelangelo designs

a star fort for Florence.

c.1540 Some German cavalry

adopt wheel-lock pistols as

their main armament.

Royal power becomes more centralized as

nobles lose military and political strength.

Armored knights and bowmen are gradually replaced

by infantry armed with pikes and firearms.

More efficient firearms

are invented.

Feudal system declines

as royal power rises.

The role played by artillery at Castillon

highlights advantages of hiring professional

forces over levying troops from nobles.

I

n July 1453, John Talbot, Earl

of Shrewsbury, marched out

of Bordeaux with some 6,000

men towards the English-held town

of Castillon, which the French were

preparing to besiege. The French

had constructed a fortified camp

big enough to contain 10,000 men,

WAR HAS

BECOME VERY

DIFFERENT

THE BATTLE OF CASTILLON ( 1453 )

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157

French troops (left) engage with the

English over wooden defenses in this

15th-century illustration of the Battle of

Castillon, from a French chronicle of

King Charles VII’s life.

See also: The signing of the Magna Carta 100–01 ■ The outbreak of the Black Death in Europe 118–19 ■

The fall of Constantinople 138–41 ■ Christopher Columbus reaches America 142–47 ■ The Defenestration of Prague 164–69

THE EARLY MODERN ERA

fired, their bowmen followed suit,

and the English were mowed down

en masse. It was the first field battle

in European history to be decided

by gunpowder.

Hundred Years’ War ends

The Battle of Castillon was the

climax of the Hundred Years’ War,

fought since 1337 by England and

France, countries that had long

been closely linked by their ruling

families. By the time of Castillon,

great changes had taken place in

the fabric of European life, which

profoundly altered the armies with

which the French and English

monarchs fought.

The Europe of the 15th century

was principally a money economy,

and everyone, including soldiers,

expected to be paid. Kings were

thus increasingly reliant on

mercenaries who fought for pay. This

was a sharp contrast to the feudal

system that had existed previously,

in which fighting men were provided

by the nobility in exchange for land.

Eventually, rulers began employing

mercenaries on a permanent basis:

a standing army. But it wasn’t until

the later 17th century that this

model became the norm.

Cannons and guns

The kings who fought for control of

France relied increasingly on large

armies and expensive artillery.

Cannons, like those that secured

the French victory at Castillon,

transformed warfare. The stout

walls of medieval castles provided

little defense against a cannonball.

To better resist artillery rulers began,

from the 16th century, to build a

new type of fortification, the star

fort. These forts had walls sunk into

ditches to strengthen them against

direct fire and also used cannons

themselves in an active defense.

At the same time, hand firearms

that fired projectiles that smashed

through the armor of mounted

knights and required little skill to

wield, gradually replaced the bow.

Drilled infantry—wielding pikes

and firearms—replaced massed

ranks of archers, and formed the

core of the new line of battle.

To pay for their new armies,

rulers steadily began to centralize

their domains. More efficient

taxation systems and bureaucracies

were established, curbing the

power of an aristocracy whose

influence was already diminished

by the decline of the feudal system.

Victory at Castillon, guaranteed

by gunpowder, ensured the survival

of an independent France that was

becoming more like a centralized

state and less like a feudal country.

As a result of the French triumph,

France was able to consolidate the

territory under its control and the

map of this part of western Europe

began to take on its modern form.

England, bereft of its European

possessions, also became more

centralized, and its rulers turned

away from contintental Europe,

leveraging the country’s resources

to begin maritime exploration of

the Atlantic and North America. ■

There is no wall, whatever its

thickness that, artillery will

not destroy in only a few days.

Machiavelli, 1519

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