Day Six: Chateau Galliard and Vernieul

The day started with the usually session of PT and then we headed out about 830 to find the battlefield. Our breakfast this morning was by far the cheapest and yet the best in my opinion. We stopped near a large cathedral and grabbed breakfast from a nearby bakery. Breakfast consisted of chocolate baguettes, chocolatines (chocolate croissants), tarts of all sorts, small confectionary cakes, and other baked goods.

The battle of Verneuil took place on 14 August 1424, 9 years after the battle of Agincourt. The French army prior to the battle had avoided fighting the English, moved to the castle of Verneuil and had a Scottish allied contingent disguised as English soldiers to deceive the castle garrison into thinking that the French had defeated a large English army and that their was no relief coming for them. The English garrison ultimately surrendered and the French took the castle. Soon afterwards the relief army did appear on the outskirts of Verneuil.

The battle consisted of roughly 8000 English soldiers and about 16000 French Soldiers. The fighting was actually quite straight forward; the French cavalry and the Lombard mercenaries rode around the English flanks and attacked the rear but were driven off by the English reserve archers. The two main lines advanced on each other. The Duke of Bedford (The English regent of Henry the VI) pushed the French line back to the city moat and many of the French drowned. He turned his line around and advanced on the Scottish rear (The 6000 Scots were fighting with the French because the English was a common enemy) After the English reserve had driven off all of the cavalry; they turned and flanked the Scottish line as well. The Scots were soon surrounded and having taken an oath to never surrender or retreat, the Scots died to a man.

We began the field exercise by mirroring the advance of the French cavalry through the town of Verneuil to the battlefield. Since the terrain was relatively flat and the battlefield was only 1000 yards by 1 mile, we decided to conduct a map exercise to show the positions of both armies. We discussed how the armies would have been arrayed and why and looked for terrain features that may have affected the tactical decisions of the commanders. We then moved down the road to inspect the English position and looked at their line of advance.

One of the more interesting ideas discussed was one by Professor Rogers. The English had roughly 13000 horses with their army. The area for the baggage train was too small to fit all of these horses into. So his proposal was that since the English advanced out of the protection of the tree line and exposed their flanks, why did the French not take advantage of this and what did they do with the horses? Professor Rogers suggests that the Duke of Bedford could have ordered the valets (the men responsible for the horses, generally thought of as squires) to tie their horses together, about 3 or 4 each, and lead them out of the baggage train encampment and march to the end of the English position. Those under the Duke of Bedford advance to the right flank, those under the Earl of Salisbury to the left, and then turn and begin to form a wall of horses, four deep, along the English flanks. As the English advanced forward the line of horses would just follow. The valets would be told to just follow the horses in front of you and a massive chain could be formed that way. With an archer on the inside horse and a valet on the outside horse, a defensive wall of horses is a possible obstacle.

The purpose of a staff ride is to visit the actual battlefields and determine how the written accounts match the actual terrain. Initially, when Professor Rogers pitched his horse wall idea, I thought that he was slightly off kilter. Looking at the contour map of Verneuil, it looked as though the terrain may be too hilly or that the terrain would not allow for the construction of a horse wall. But after visiting the site and seeing the terrain, we walked through the scenario and it seems very plausible that the English could have constructed a “Horse-wall” to protect their flanks.

The day ended with us entering the city of Rouen. We had our group’s “Nice Dinner” and then we walked about the city. Turkey also won their advancement into the finals of the Euro cup as illustrated by the numerous cars driving erratically down the empty streets, honking horns and waving Turkish flags for several hours of the night.





After touring the battlefield at Verneuil, we traveled north to the city of Ville des Andelys. Here lie the ruins of the Chateau Gaillard, built by the English during the reign of Richard the Lionheart between 1197 and 1198. The castle is situated on a cliff overlooking the east bank of the Seine river. Little remains of the outer walls, but 900 years ago, the massive fortress dominated the river valley as the greatest English stronghold in the region.

Although the castle was not really involved in the Hundred Years War, it played a key role during the struggle between the French and the English in their earlier wars. In 1203, for example, John had assumed the English throne after Richard’s death, and he led the English in a campaign to conquer France. The French, led by King Philip the Second, sought to dislodge the English from their capital in Rouen. However, in order to do this, they first had to conquer the English fortifications at Chateau Guillard and gain control of the Seine river. As the French army approached the castle from the west bank, the English burned the bridge across the river, leaving the French with no way to cross. But to the dismay of the English, the French were able to create a pontoon bridge and move part of their force across the river. Recognizing the importance of the castle, King John organized a two pronged attack on the French camp. One group of English soldiers would attack the camp at dusk, while another contingent of soldiers would simultaneously travel by boat to resupply the castle and attack the French pontoon bridge. Unfortunately for the English, the boats arrived too late in the battle, and the French were able to easily ward off the English attack. After the battle, King John decided that it was too costly to invest more forces in the defense of Chateau Gaillard, so he left the castle’s garrison to fend for itself.

The French then moved into position to besiege the castle. After a few months, King Philip decided that he had waited long enough to capture the castle, and he ordered the French to begin a full assault on the castle. Using ladders to scale the castle walls, they quickly captured the outer ward of the castle, and the English fell back into Chateau Gaillard’s inner ward. The French then took to mining into the castle’s foundation in order to collapse one of the castle’s walls. While this was occurring, a French soldier noticed a tower window close to the ground. He and some of his fellow soldiers scaled the tower and climbed into the abandoned tower. Realizing that the English had locked up this part of the castle, they started trying to bash the door down. The English realized that the French were inside the castle, and they immediately started the wooden chapel on fire in order to deter the French movement into the castle. However, at this point, the French miners broke through the wall, and the soldiers quickly surged into the castle, killing or capturing the remaining English defenders.

When we visited the site of Chateau Gaillard during the staff ride, I was amazed at how impenetrable the fortress seemed. As part of the defenses, the English had dug ditches up to 30 feet deep around the castle. The walls of the towers were between two and three meters thick, and the multiple layers of defenses would have slowed any attacker, giving the defenders time to regroup and continue fighting. We also discovered that there used to be a well at the castle that was 200 meters deep, which would have supplied the English with as much water as they could gather until the well’s ropes wore out. Visiting the castle helped me to better realize its importance and the significant challenges posed by attacking or defending such a fortification as the Chateau Gaillard.