| Bordeaux, the fickle and
traitorous city held for three-hundred years by the English, betrayed
the French Army. At Compiègne, a nearby fort to Paris, a Burgundian
arrow unhorsed the heroine. The fort locked her troops in, and the woman
was carried off before being sold to the English. She was tried and
found (unjustly on part of the bishop's agenda) to be a heretic, and
thus she was burned at the stake. However, this political victory had
come far too late. France seethed with rage. Jean Bureau, artillery
master and good friend of the leading commander at the time, helped in
what is believed to be the most devastating battle in the whole war,
Castillon. Arguably the last battle of the war, Castillon was the peak
of French nationalism fired right in the face of thousands of English.
Even with the defensible position and the help of the Earl of
Shrewsbury, the English suffered an embarrassing defeat. |
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