Battle of Jargeau

Battle of Jargeau, miniature from Vigiles du roi Charles VII

Date	11–12 June 1429
Location	Jargeau, France
Result	French victory

Belligerents

Kingdom of France

Kingdom of England

Commanders and leaders

Joan of Arc,

John II of Alençon

William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk

Strength

3,000

5,000

Casualties and losses

Light

Heavy

The Battle of Jargeau took place on 11–12 June 1429. It was Joan of Arc's first offensive battle. Shortly after relieving the siege at Orléans, French forces recaptured the neighbouring district along the Loire river. This campaign was the first sustained French offensive in a generation in the Hundred Years' War.

By the end of 1428, during the later years of the Hundred Years' War, the English and their allies from the Burgundian faction had occupied almost all of France north of the Loire River. Many strategic points along the Loire had also been seized, and Orléans, the last major city on the river, had been under siege since October of that year (1428). Were the English able to secure complete control of the Loire valley, the southern part of France, the last remaining position of the Dauphin would be open to invasion.

In early March 1429, Joan of Arc arrived at Chinon to meet with the Dauphin and, after being examined by church officials in Poitiers, joined a large French force which set out to relieve the siege at Orléans. This operation proved successful as the siege was lifted by 9 May.

The bridge at Orléans had been destroyed shortly before the siege lifted. The French had lost control of all other river crossings. Three swift and numerically small battles at Jargeau, Meung-sur-Loire, and Beaugency demonstrated renewed French confidence and laid the groundwork for subsequent French offenses on Rheims and Paris. The Loire campaign killed, captured, or disgraced a majority of the top tier of English commanders and decimated the numbers of the highly skilled English longbowmen.

The French Loire Campaign of 1429 consisted of five actions:

Following the lifting of the siege of Orléans, the French forces spent the next month or so recruiting and growing in strength for the next phase of military operations. In early June, at a meeting of French military leaders in the presence of the Dauphin, it was decided to pursue a strategy of clearing the Loire River valley of English troops. The army was assembled at Orléans where Joan rejoined them on 9 June. That same day the army departed for Jargeau, the first stop on the Loire Valley Campaign.

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