Gerberoy 1435 AD

[Erpingham]

Name of the Battle and Date: Gerberoy, 9th May 1435
Protagonists (opposing nations and generals):
English: Sir John Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel
French: La Hire, Poton de Xaintrailles, Philip de la Tour, And Regnault de Fontaines
Numbers:  English : 800+ French 600?  Thomas Basin gives 5-600 English and 250-360 French.  Larger numbers are quoted on Wikipedia but these derive essentially from a 17th century source and don't reflect contemporary accounts.
Sources:
THE CHRONICLES OF ENGUERRAND DE MONSTRELET.
TRANSLATED BY THOMAS JOHNES, ESQ.  Bradbury and Evans London 1853

Text
CHAPTER CLXXII.-LA HIRE, POTON, PHILIP DE LA TOUR, AND THE LORD DE FONTAINES DEFEAT THE EARL OF ARUNDEL BEFORE THE CASTLE OF GERBEROY. 
The duke of Bedford was at Rouen when he heard of the capture of Rue. He was remonstrated with on the great prejudice this would be to those of his party, more particularly of the town and castle of Crotoy. To provide a remedy, he wrote to the earl of Arundel, then quartered near to Mantes, ordering him to collect all his men, and to march them to Gournay in Normandy, thence to Neufchatel d'Azincourt, to Abbeville and to Ponthieu instantly to besiege the town of Rue. The earl partly obeyed the orders of the duke and marched eight hundred of his men to Gournay, with the intent of continuing the line of march prescribed to him. But from the representations of the inhabitants of Gornay, Gisors, and other places, he changed his mind; for having heard at Gournay that the French were repairing an old fortress called Gerberoy, between Beauvais and Gournay, judged it would be very prejudicial to the English interests were they suffered to finish the works they had begun. In consequence, therefore, of the representations of the towns of the English party that were near to it, he determined to attack the French at Gerberoy and take the fort by storm.
He caused a sufficiency of provision and artillery to be collected at Gournay, and marched from thence about midnight, accompanied by some of the garrison. At eight o'clock in the morning his van came in sight of Gerberoy, and the rest followed with the baggage, not aware indeed that the French were so numerous, or under such captains. The earl posted his men in a field enclosed with hedges, and detached a hundred, or six score, toward the barriers of the castle, that the garrison might not sally forth and surprise them. 
While this was going forward, Poton, La Hire, sir Regnault de Fontaines, Philip de la Tour, and other valiant captains who had arrived there the preceding night with five or six hundred combatants, held a council how they should act, and whether they should wait or not for the enemy to attack them. This question was long debated by some, who strongly urged their being badly provided with provision and warlike stores, and that if they allowed themselves to be shut up in the castle, they would run great risks; others declared they would not wait a siege, and therefore advised to attack them on their arrival. It was at  length unanimously concluded for an immediate attack ; and that the three principal captains  namely Poton, La Hire, and Regnault de Fontaines, should be on horseback, with sixty of the best mounted and most expert lances, and that all the remainder, men-at arms, archers and gisarmiers should be on foot, excepting a few that were to remain behind to guard the  fort. They likewise ordered that when the enemy should advance, but few should at the first appear, in order that their numbers might not be known. Having thus arranged their plan, they armed themselves, and made preparations for the combat. 
When the earl of Arundel had properly posted his six score men by way of advanced guard, the remainder were encamping themselves to wait for the arrival of the main body and rear of their army. During this time, the watch the French had placed on the castle observed a very large and thick body of English advancing, by far more considerable than the first and followed by a long train of waggons. They instantly informed their captains  of what they had seen, who now, thinking it a fit opportunity for them to make their attack  Before the two bodies joined, ordered their infantry to sally out of the castle as quietly as they could, and fall on the English, whom they half surprised, and shortly defeated, putting the greater part to death. Then those on horseback (who had sallied out to prevent the earl from assisting his men whom he had posted near the barriers,) advanced toward the main body of the English, who were near at hand, and careless of the enemy because their commander was before them, and immediately threw them into confusion, and repeated their  charges so vigorously that they could not recover themselves; great part retreated to Gournay, or fled to other places, while the rest were either slain or taken. La Hire chased the runaways full two leagues, when many were killed and made prisoners. The infantry had approached the earl of Arundel, who, with the remnant of his men, had returned to a corner of the field, having his rear to a thick hedge, and his front guarded by pointed stakes, so that this fortification could not be forced by the French. Seeing this, they had a culverin brought from their fort, — and, at the second shot, hit the earl near the ankle, so that he was grievously wounded, and could scarcely support himself. 
When La Hire was returning from the pursuit, with the many prisoners he had made, he observed this body of English under the earl quite entire: collecting more forces, he began to combat them, — and they were soon reduced to a similar state with their companions, the whole of them being killed or taken. Among the last, those of name were, the earl of Arundel, sir Richard de Dondeville,* Mondot de Montferrant, Restandif† and others, to the amount of six score, that remained prisoners in the hands of the French.  Upward of twelve score were slain, — and the remainder saved themselves by flight where they could. 
When the business was over, the French collected their men, and found that they had not lost more than twenty. They were very joyful for this signal victory, — and, having devoutly returned thanks for it to their Creator, they returned to their castle. The earl of Arundel was removed thence to Beauvais, where he died of his wound, and was buried in the church of the Cordelier-friars. The other English prisoners redeemed themselves by ransoms; and thus those in Rue remained unmolested. They daily increased their strength and made excursions over the countries far and near. 
*Sir Richard Woodville
†Identified by Johnes as Sir Ralph Standish but possibly Sir Rowland Standish, who died at the battle according to geneologists.

Commentary
Yet another minor battle of the Hundred Years War and yet another English defeat, which perhaps explains why there is so little on it in English language sources.  It merited a paragraph in the 1908 Dictionary of National Biography entry for John Fitzalan and about a page in Juliet Barker's Conquest (pp217-218).  Alfred Burne in the Agincourt War gives it a sentence (p.274).

In truth, it isn't a great turning point of the war.  But it is typical of what low level warfare looked like at this point, after the great dramas of Agincourt, Verneuil and Joan of Arc.  Small field forces are wandering northern France, seizing castles and terrorising the countryside.  Garrisons are too small to do much about this – they are mainly about holding ground and actions against brigandage.  Here we see a small field force divert on its path to retake one troublesome stronghold to pre-empt an attempt to establish another. 

Arundel's plan seems to be to surprise the French garrison who are refortifying the castle at Gerberoy by approaching by night.  He has taken a "belt-and-braces" approach, with the possibility of a surprise attack by his van but, failing that, his main body is bringing up equipment and stores for a proper assault.  What he doesn't know is the garrison has been reinforced by routiers under very experienced captains.  Arundel himself is no beginner at this game and, failing to surprise the castle, he sets men to watch the barriers.  These are wooden structures which defend the main gate, so he is attempting to restrict the garrison from sallying and disrupting his deployment.  He then picks a defensible space to pitch camp.  The main body is marching up without setting proper watch, as they can't imagine anything getting past their van undetected.
The French plan is a simple one to defeat the enemy in detail.  Firstly, isolate the force by the barriers and destroy it, then, with the infantry, to attack the English fortified camp while ambushing the main body on the march.  They almost certainly have as many, if not more, men than the English van and by further preventing its two parts from uniting, increase their superiority.  We might note that the English at the camp are no push over.  The French infantry sends for artillery to soften them up and, in fact, don't overwhelm them until one of the experienced captains returns from chasing the main body and takes charge.  By this stage, Arundel is down (an early example of a commander becoming a casualty from a gunpowder weapon in the field) and his ability to lead seriously reduced.

Finally, a note on the armies.  When I started this, the numbers I had were those given in the French Wikipedia page on the battle (of which the English page is a translation).  This used French sources, primarily a 17th  century local history, for the numbers.  As they seemed in excess of the primary source numbers I had, I followed them up.  They seemed to have no independent authority.  We can see from the two independent accounts checked (Monstrelet and Basin – Wavrin is a paraphrase of Monstrelet at this point) that the French force had only about 60 fully armed and well-mounted men-at-arms.  It did have other men-at-arms but perhaps 300-400 men were infantry.  We have less breakdown of the English force.  Arundel's retinue the previous year was organised on a ratio of one man at arms to four archers, so perhaps 160 MAA and 640 archers.  We lack the muster figures for Gournay's garrison at this time but it was probably less than 100 men.  Arundel possibly borrowed the mounted component of this (garrisons had been re-organised the previous October into a field force of mounted men and a static garrison, mainly on foot), perhaps 50 men. 

[Mick Hession]

Thanks Anthony - excellent post!

Cheers
Mick

[Prufrock]

Thanks Anthony - excellent post!

Yes, very interesting. Thanks!

[Patrick Waterson]

Excellent treatment.

[Erpingham]

Many thanks for the comments.  Small scale warfare was really the "bread and butter" of medieval military life.  This is one step up from the day-to-day life of dealing with and carrying out raids at a garrison v. garrison level, which provides some insight into small force organisations and operations. 

From a skirmish game perspective, you could fight this various ways, depending on how much you wanted to actually play out.  It could be done in three separate fights; the fight at the barriers, the ambush of the main body and the final assault on the English in camp.  Or the barriers and the camp could be fought with the result of the ambush resolved somehow off table, the result reflected by off table forces joining the fight part way through (will it be triumphant French cavalry or retreating Frenchmen pursued by English?).  You could fight both English van engagements as one, allowing Arundel to fight a more mobile battle and tangle with the French cavalry in an attempt to reunite his force,  if he chose.  Lots of gaming options here.

[Andreas Johansson]

I'll join in the praises

Something that occurs to me is that minis rules rarely cover "mid-size" encounters like this. With a "battle" set like DBA or ADLG or the like, this would be unplayably small, but most "skirmish" sets are aimed at dozens or less of combatants. Are there any sets aimed at clashes with about 100-1000 men per side?

[Erpingham]

I'll join in the praises

Something that occurs to me is that minis rules rarely cover "mid-size" encounters like this. With a "battle" set like DBA or ADLG or the like, this would be unplayably small, but most "skirmish" sets are aimed at dozens or less of combatants. Are there any sets aimed at clashes with about 100-1000 men per side?

Firstly, thanks.  You have hit on one of my interests   Unsurprisingly, given my favourite period of warfare, I often think about depicting warfare at this size or a bit larger.  There are some rule sets aimed at this size.  Dux Bellorum, for example, envisages units of 50 men, less for skirmishers or mounted.  You get about 6-10 units a side using the suggested points total.  Other rules are scale indeterminate.  So people have played refights of small battles with skirmish sets like Lion Rampant.  Or any of the Neil Thomas sets, which are deliberately vague about these things.  If we think of the forces in this game, bodies representing 30-40 would probably work.  The English would have 8-ish foot units, the French maybe 10 foot and two mounted MAA.  Up to 10 more English units could turn up as reinforcements if not dealt with by the French cavalry.

[Jim Webster]

I'll join in the praises

Something that occurs to me is that minis rules rarely cover "mid-size" encounters like this. With a "battle" set like DBA or ADLG or the like, this would be unplayably small, but most "skirmish" sets are aimed at dozens or less of combatants. Are there any sets aimed at clashes with about 100-1000 men per side?

Lion Rampant works well with the units done as proper units as opposed to groups of a dozen men. You just have to tweak things to allow for wheeling and keeping some sort of formation
We regularly use if for games where a unit is between fifty and a hundred men