(ca. 1388-1453). John Talbot, first earl of Shrewsbury, was the chief Lancastrian commander in the late Hundred Years’ War. He derived wealth and power from his high birth and fortunate marriage. Though summoned to Parliament in 1409 and made Lord Lieutenant in Ireland in 1414, he was to gain fame as a soldier rather than as a statesman. Talbot fought in the Welsh and Irish wars from 1404 and on the Continent after 1420. He received the Order of the Garter after distinguishing himself at Verneuil in 1424. He shared command of the failed English siege of Orleans in 1429 and was captured at the subsequent Battle of Patay.
The years following his release in 1433 he devoted to defending Henry VI’s continental possessions. Despite his recapture of Harfleur in 1440 and defense of Pontoise in 1441, he could not prevent the eventual loss of Normandy and Guyenne after 1449. Talbot’s heroic death in a superbly ill-conceived assault against French artillery at Castillon in 1453 confirmed the final defeat of English pretensions to French holdings outside of Calais. Brave but harsh and intemperate, Talbot was a better warrior than a general. Feared and respected by his contemporaries, he is remembered as England’s last chivalric hero.
Paul D. Solon
[See also: HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR; ORLEANS CAMPAIGN: RECONQUEST OF FRANCE]
Allmand, Christopher T. Lancastrian Normandy, 1415-1450: The History of a Medieval Occupation. Oxford: Clarendon, 1983.
Brill, Reginald. An English Captain ofthe Later Hundred Year’s War: John Lord Talbot, c. 13881444. Diss. Princeton University, 1966.
Pollard, A. J. John Talbot and the War in France, 1427-1453. London: Royal Historical Society, 1983.
Talbot, Hugh. The English Achilles: An Account ofthe Life and Campaigns of John Talbot.
London: Chatto and Windus, 1981.
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