Qualla: Battle of Auberoche

Battle of Auberoche: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The French were eating when the arrows arrived. On the evening of October 21, 1345, in a narrow meadow beside the River Auvezere, seven thousand French soldiers sat packed together in camp below the castle of Auberoche, nine miles east of Perigueux. They had been besieging the Anglo-Gascon garrison for days and had no reason to expect trouble. Henry, Earl of Derby, had only 1,200 men -- 400 men-at-arms and 800 mounted archers -- but he had surprise, darkness falling, and a plan that would earn him the title "one of the best warriors in the world."

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Battle of Auberoche: Wine, Money, and the Roots of War

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The battle's origins lay in vineyards. Before the Hundred Years' War, at least a thousand ships departed Gascony each year, carrying more than 80,000 tuns of wine. The customs duty England collected on Bordeaux wine alone exceeded all other English duties combined, making it the ...

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Battle of Auberoche: Derby's Gamble in the Dordogne

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Edward III's strategic instructions to Derby were magnificently vague: "if there is war, do the best you can." Derby arrived in Bordeaux on August 9, 1345, with 500 men-at-arms, 500 mounted archers, and 1,000 foot archers. Where his predecessor had pursued cautious sieges, Derby ...

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Battle of Auberoche: The Evening Assault

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On the night of October 20, Derby marched his small force across a shallow river twice, positioning them on a wooded hill about a mile from the French camp. He personally scouted the enemy position at dawn. Unknown to him, another French army of 9,000 to 10,000 men under the Duke...

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Battle of Auberoche: The Fortune of Ransom

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

French casualties were, by every modern historian's account, staggering. The commander Louis of Poitiers died of his wounds. Among the prisoners were two counts, seven viscounts, three barons, the seneschals of Clermont and Toulouse, a nephew of Pope Clement VI, and so many knigh...

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