The Siege of Orléans (1428–1429) | The Hundred Years' War

The Siege of Orléans, lifted on 8 May 1429, was the turning point of the Hundred Years’ War. The English had been besieging the strategically important city of Orléans, on the river Loire, since October 1428, and the fall of the city would have opened the way for an English advance into the still-unconquered south of France. The arrival of Joan of Arc in late April 1429, the lifting of the siege in May, and the subsequent French counter-offensive transformed the strategic situation and made possible the coronation of Charles VII at Reims on 17 July 1429. The siege is one of the most studied events of the war, both for its strategic significance and for the role of Joan of Arc.

The standard treatments are Sumption’s The Hundred Years’ War, vol. III (2009) and the relevant chapters of Contamine’s La Guerre de Cent Ans (1968). The most detailed treatment of the siege itself is the work of the contributors to the Dictionary of the Hundred Years’ War (2018, ed. Rogers and DeVries). The standard account of Joan’s role in the siege is in the Procès de Jeanne d’Arc.

The strategic importance of Orléans

The city of Orléans, situated on the north bank of the Loire, was one of the most important cities in France. The city controlled a major crossing of the Loire and was a key point on the road from northern to southern France. Whoever held Orléans held the gate to the south, and the possession of the city was the key to the reconquest of France.

The city had been held by the French since the early phases of the war, and its loss to the English would have been a strategic disaster. The English, recognising the importance of the city, had begun the siege in October 1428, with an army of perhaps 5,000 men. The French garrison, under the command of Jean, Count of Dunois (the Bastard of Orléans), was much smaller, but the city was well fortified and well supplied, and the English made little progress in the early months of the siege.

The English commander was the Earl of Salisbury, one of the most experienced English commanders of the age. Salisbury had been the architect of the English conquest of Normandy in 1417, and he was determined to take Orléans and open the way for an English advance into the south.

The English siege

The English siege of Orléans was conducted in a relatively traditional manner. The English built a series of bastides — fortified outposts — around the city, and they attempted to starve the garrison into submission. The English also had a substantial number of cannon, which they used to bombard the city’s walls.

The French garrison, despite being heavily outnumbered, mounted a vigorous defence. The French conducted several sorties, and they were able to maintain a tenuous supply line with the surrounding countryside. The city, however, was increasingly short of supplies, and the garrison was becoming desperate by the spring of 1429.

The death of the Earl of Salisbury in November 1428, struck by a cannonball during a sortie, was a serious blow to the English cause. Salisbury’s death meant that the English siege was now in the hands of his subordinates, and the English command was divided and ineffective. The English siege dragged on through the winter of 1428–1429 without a decisive breakthrough.

The arrival of Joan of Arc

In April 1429, a young peasant girl from the village of Domrémy, in the duchy of Bar, appeared at the court of the Dauphin, the future Charles VII, at Chinon. The girl, Joan of Arc, claimed to have been sent by God to deliver France from the English, and she asked to be given command of an army to relieve the siege of Orléans.

Joan’s arrival at the court of the Dauphin was greeted with scepticism by many of the French courtiers, but the Dauphin himself was impressed, and he gave Joan command of a small army and ordered her to proceed to Orléans. Joan’s army, which included a number of veteran soldiers, reached Orléans on 29 April 1429, and the siege entered its final phase.

The lifting of the siege

Joan’s arrival transformed the situation. The English, who had been conducting the siege in a relatively routine manner, were now confronted with a determined French force led by a charismatic commander. The English, who had heard rumours of Joan’s divine mission, were reportedly terrified.

The lifting of the siege was achieved through a series of French attacks on the English bastides. The French, supported by Joan, attacked and captured the English outposts one by one, and the English, who were unable to mount an effective defence, were forced to abandon the siege. The French re-entered Orléans in triumph on 8 May 1429, and the English retreated northward. The English garrison commander, William Glasdale, was killed in the rout, the most prominent English casualty of the siege.

The standard reading, set out in the Procès and developed in the modern literature, is that the lifting of the siege was the work of the French garrison and the relieving force together. Joan’s role was political and moral, not military: she persuaded the French to act, and her presence transformed the morale of the garrison. The actual fighting was done by the veteran captains of the French army — Dunois, the Duke of Alençon, La Hire, and others.

The coronation at Reims

The most important consequence of the lifting of the siege was the coronation of Charles VII at Reims on 17 July 1429. The coronation, which had been the central objective of Joan’s mission, was an event of enormous symbolic importance: the Dauphin, who had been a dispossessed prince, was now the legitimate King of France, crowned and anointed in the traditional city of French coronations.

The coronation, however, did not end the war. Joan was captured by the Burgundians at Compiègne on 23 May 1430, sold to the English, and burned at the stake in Rouen on 30 May 1431. The English, despite the loss of Orléans and the coronation of Charles VII, continued to occupy much of northern France, and the war would drag on for another 22 years. The final English possession in France, Bordeaux, would not fall until 1453.

The strategic significance

The Siege of Orléans was the turning point of the war for several reasons. First, the English position in France, which had seemed so strong only a few years earlier, began to crumble in the months after the siege. The French, encouraged by their success at Orléans, mounted a series of counter-offensives, and the English were forced to evacuate much of the Loire valley.

Second, the arrival of Joan of Arc transformed the political situation in France. The Dauphin, who had been a dispossessed prince, was now the legitimate King of France, and his coronation at Reims gave him a new moral authority. The English, who had insisted that they were the legitimate rulers of France through the terms of the Treaty of Troyes, were now on the defensive.

Third, the siege marked the end of the long English ascendancy. The English victories at Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt had established the English as the dominant military force in Europe, but the victory at Orléans marked the beginning of a long French recovery. The French reconquest, completed in 1453 with the Battle of Castillon, was made possible by the lifting of the siege.

The legacy

The Siege of Orléans has been remembered as one of the most important events in the history of the Hundred Years’ War and in the history of France. The figure of Joan of Arc, the peasant girl who led the French to victory, has become one of the most celebrated figures in French history, and her canonisation in 1920 marked her formal recognition as a saint. The story of the siege has been the subject of countless works of art, literature, and music, and it remains a touchstone of French national identity.

The siege also has a particular significance in the historiography of the war. The lifting of the siege was, in the standard reading, the moment when the war turned, and the moment when the French national identity that would eventually defeat the English was forged. The strategic and political consequences are treated in the Lancastrian phase and the Joan of Arc articles.