In the years of our Lord 1449 to 1450, things had not been going well for His Majesty, Henry VI. There would be Cade’s Rebellion in Sussex and Kent, and the French were pressing forward in Normandy to remove the final holding of the English. The Duke of Somerset already had surrendered Rouen and now faced an impending siege of Caen and or Cherbourg. Holding the line of communication between these two cities was the walled town of Baydeux. Its defense had been entrusted to a mercenary from Milan, Count Miguel de Peccolo assisted by Sir Thomas Cheek and Sir Bryant of Williams.
Charles VII planned to first seize Caen, and this is where his precious artillery and gunpowder went. The wall town of Baydeux was seen as a secondary effort, needed to allow for the quick movement of troops to Cherbourg once Caen had fallen. To this endeavor he tasked the Warrior/Orator, Duke David La Raybin. He was to have as assistants two brothers, the Knights David and Sam Duncanout, who were said to have heraldry back into Normandy but whose family had always opposed English rule. They hoped by supporting Charles they would be favored with generous land grants that would come from victory in Normandy. Also there was the Old Warhorse, Baron Bill de Harting accompanied by Sir Michael Randels. Charles also directed that a young apprentice to the engineering arts accompany the group, he was Comte Ben Raybinout.
Duke Raybin decided that he would attack in the winter of 1449, and English spies were quick to relay the decision to the defenders. The English mobilized their men to quickly scour the countryside for all the supplies they could gather. Even Count Peccolo led bands of men a field to gather needed sustenance to withstand a long siege. As it was Fall, many crops had already been harvested which made all the easier the defenders task. The French Army, 3000 strong, arrived before the town as the last of the scavenging parties returned. Well stocked and 1500 men strong, the garrison settled down to last out the French.
As the French deployed, the harsh winter weather set in and prevented all but the most modest of engineering to occur. Week after week saw almost perpetual rain or snow, with two heavy snowfalls occurring. Sir Sam Duncanout found that his men suffered heavily during this period. His encampment was poorly sited on what became marshy ground. In addition the English had tainted some of the wells and left diseased livestock wandering in the area. His men suffered cruelly from an immediate bout of the cursed Pox! It was soon followed by an outbreak of the Bloody Flux. Although dishearten by their condition, his men held true, a testament to his leadership and their devotion. Both sides, for the most part kept to their camps, although the English took great delight in taunting the French about how warm, dry and well fed they were.
When Spring arrived, so to did the sun on a more regular basis. Charles VII had finally gotten his Army around Caen by March, and the French operations at Baydeux finally began in earnest. The English, celebrating Spring, held a Festival and went off half rations for one whole week. Skirmishing by archers became a more common occurrence, as did attempts to raid into and out of the town. The Old Warhorse Bill was given the honor of running all the French raids on the town and for the most part his men were often successful, becoming adept at finding and killing defenders in their sleep. The English, found either great success or miserable failure. Many a defender died trying to destroy the great siege engines constructed by Ben. Near a half dozen engines were destroyed by raids or the accurate fire from Sir Thomas Cheeks catapults, However, the lost fighters were sorely missed. One particular band was captured enmass and Duke David had them promptly and publicly executed. Count Peccolo, standing upon the battlements, shouted to these poor soles, “We will avenge you!”. Many a French man laughed at those words, but fate would show their truth.
The English as I have said, tried often to raid and destroy siege engines and were often successful in stealing French pack animals that were quickly carried back to the town to keep the people fed. Upon one such endeavor the raiders chanced upon the “Royal” privy of the Duke, and, that facility was occupied by the same. The leader of the raid, Sir Bryant, gave the cold steel to the astonished Duke and made haste back to the town, where much rejoicing occurred followed by a week long feast. The stunned French, cast their eyes about as to who would be their new leader and selected Sir Randels. Many of their men grew restless, and Sir Dave Duncanout found he could no longer support the folly of this siege and he and his men departed back to Flanders where they intended to try and get their seasonal plantings done. However, his Brothers men held quite firm even though they were constantly put on the skirmish line and continued to have bouts of the bloody flux. It wouldn’t be until Summer, with 80% of his men dead that they would finally have enough and leave to go home too.
Ben the Engineer, with dogged determination, arrayed an impressive group of siege engines along the Southwest side of the town and quickly knocked down a southern section of the wall. He and Sir Thomas Cheek held weekly contests of fire, and little by little an a joining section of wall came apart. The 200 lb balls fired by the Trebuckets were fearsome when they hit taking great patches of stone and mortar. Only the scarcity of suitable stone for such projectiles delayed the destruction of the wall. April had seen the destruction of an English relief force for Caen at the Battle of Formigny, and Henry VI had no other men to spare for any other attempt, Normandy was on its own. Summer was marked around Baydeux by continued unsuccessful French Skirmishing and successful raids into the town and failed English raids. French Sergents, bored with the long siege took to the new sport of “riding the walls”. It was a contest of nerve and daring to see who could ride closest and longest along the towns walls without getting killed. The English were only too happy to play their part in the game and sent many a noble in training to their death.
As summer days passed, Count Peccolo had to shift to full rations to keep his troops morale up. Summer turned to fall and the French continued to wait for the second section of wall to fall, but it held. The Siege at Caen had been concluded on the 6th of July and those troops immediately set off for Cherbourg. Although promised by Engineer Ben that the cannons could bring the final wall section down in a week, Constable de Richemont, would not allow the town of Baydeux to draw away from the coming siege of Cherbourg. Ben would have to make due with whatever he could construct. Which he did at a feverish pitch. One by one siege towers arose all around the town.
Fall arrived with the defenders still bravely defying the French, the last English holdout in Normandy as Cherbourg had fallen on the 12th of August. Count Peccolo eyed the supplies nervously as winter was approaching. Could his men last thru the winter without going to half rations. He knew that morale would plummet once half rations would be instituted, maybe very well ending the siege as his men would mutiny. The French still waited for the second wall section to fall. Finally, in the 44th week of the siege, the final projectile hit the wall and caused it to tumble down. With it came the order from Sir Randels for an assault. Nearly 500 mounted Knights and Sergeants stormed thru the second breach as the Old War Horse led his 300 men into the first. Count Peccolo was here with Sir Thomas and they numbered no more than 220 men, most lightly armed archers. Knowing it would be suicide to try and defend the rubble of the wall where their enemys numbers could be brought to bear, the English retreated to the narrow streets and passages to try and stop the French. Although some French fell, so did the English whose space on the line had no replacements to step forward and fill. The French poured into the town.
On the Southwest side of town two Siege towers rumbled forward, it would be 160 defenders against a mass of infantry that numbered near 650. Although one of those towers was rendered immobile the other reached the wall and the attackers poured forth. The brave defenders slew the French as fast as they came across the gantry, but the French took the few remaining English men-at-arm with them. Sir Bryant soon found he had only 20 men-at-arms and 80 archers remaining as more French continued to pour across the wall.
Knowing that the end was most near, Count Peccolo bid for terms from Sir Randels as enough bloodshed had occurred. Once terms were reached and agreed upon, a feast was held at the Pub Sports Page to honor the tenacity of the English and the bravery of the French.
Back to Dispatch August 2003 Table of Contents
Back to Dispatch List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 2003 by HMGS Mid-South
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com