Saintonge War

Part of the Capetian-Plantagenet rivalry

St. Louis IX at the Battle of Taillebourg, by Eugène Delacroix

Date	1242 – 1243
Location	Saintonge, France
Result	French victory

Belligerents

Kingdom of France

Kingdom of England

Commanders and leaders

Louis IX

Henry III

Strength

8,500

18,000

Casualties and losses

1,500

11,000

The Saintonge War was a feudal dynastic encounter that occurred in 1242 and 1243 between forces of Louis IX of France and those of Henry III of England. Saintonge is the region around Saintes in the centre-west of France. The conflict arose because some vassals of Louis were displeased with the accession of his brother, Alphonse, as Count of Poitou. The French decisively defeated the English at the Battle of Taillebourg and concluded the struggle at the Siege of Saintes. Because of dynastic sensibilities and the desire to go on a crusade, Louis did not annex Guyenne.

By the terms of his will Louis VIII had left Poitou as an appanage to his younger son Alphonse. In June 1241, Louis IX held a plenary court at Saumur in Anjou and announced that Alphonse, having come of age, was ready to come into possession. Many nobles from Aquitaine attended the court, among them Isabella of Angoulême and her husband, the Count of La Marche, Hugh de Lusignan. After the meeting at Saumur, Louis went to Poitiers and installed his brother as the Count of Poitiers. The Lusignans were not receptive to Capetian authority in the region. Isabella was particularly frustrated that her son, the Earl of Cornwall and brother to King Henry III, had not got the title. Shortly after his arrival at Poitiers, Louis learned that Hugh had assembled an army of men-at-arms at the nearby town of Lusignan. Talks between Louis and Alphonse and Hugh and Isabella did not resolve the dispute.

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