Background
Meung-sur-Loire (now in Loiret) was a small town on the northern bank of the Loire river in central France, slightly west of Orléans. It controlled a bridge of strategic significance during the latter part of the war. Captured by the English a few years earlier as a staging point for a planned invasion of southern France, the French offensive recaptured the bridge and hampered English movement south of the river during the campaign.
The French Loire Campaign of 1429 consisted of five actions:
- 1. The Siege of Orléans.
- 2. The Battle of Jargeau.
- 3. The Battle of Meung-sur-Loire.
- 4. The Battle of Beaugency.
- 5. The Battle of Patay.
Virtually all of France north of the Loire had fallen to foreign occupation by the end of 1428. 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.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Meung-sur-Loire
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