The Outposts of Lancastrian France in Eastern Champagne

Abstract

Although much has been written on the efforts of the Lancastrian regime to impose its power in France in the aftermath of the Treaty of Troyes (1420), the role played by English military forces and administrators in some regions, such as Champagne, remains very obscure. The article examines the case of the most remote outposts of Lancastrian power in France, the garrisons of Montigny-le-Roi and Nogent-le-Roi in the region of Bassigny in the east of Champagne (now in the Département de la Haute-Marne). These garrisons have been portrayed as troublesome to both friend and foe as well as a means of putting political pressure on the duke of Burgundy. However, a study of the report on the garrisons’ abuses in the 1423–1426 and related documents reveals their Anglo-French composition and provides evidence of the efforts of the Lancastrian government to impose control over the garrisons. The same report along with financial sources concerning the garrisons’ effectives makes it possible to reconsider the scale of English participation in the battle of Bulgnéville (1431). Finally, the evidence for the 1430s suggests that after the loss of most important cities of Champagne to the Dauphinists in 1429 the garrisons in Bassigny remained in close contact with the Burgundians and were engaged in a number of joint operations up until the Treaty of Arras (1435) and Franco-Burgundian reconciliation. Thus the article provides a more complex and dynamic picture of the history of the two garrisons and their role in Anglo-Burgundian relations within changing political and military contexts.