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Battle of Baugé

1421 battle during the Hundred Years' War

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ1785755
Source-derived summary

The Battle of Baugé, fought between the English and a Franco-Scots army on 22 March 1421 at Baugé, France, east of Angers, was a major defeat for the English in the Hundred Years' War. The Franco-Scots, 5,000 strong, were led by both John Stewart, Earl of Buchan, and Gilbert Motier de La Fayette, the Marshal of France, while the 4,000 strong English army (of which only 1,500 were deployed) was led by the king's brother Thomas, Duke of Clarence, who was killed in the action.

Background

In 1415 Henry V, with the intention of resuming the war, sailed from England to France with a force of about 10,500. He then pursued a highly successful military campaign, including the decisive victory at the Battle of Agincourt. Thus he regained from the French crown much of England's previously held lands in France, and got the upper hand in French politics, so much so that the 1420 Treaty of Troyes would make him the next king of France.

In 1419 France was in a state of an ongoing civil war between the Royalist faction and the supporters of the dukes of Burgundy.

The situation for the former was desperate, having lost Normandy to the English and Paris to the Burgundians.

In these deteriorating circumstances Charles VII, the Dauphin at the time, appealed to the Scots for help, as the Scots had been in an alliance with France since 1295.. A Scottish army was assembled under the leadership of John, Earl of Buchan, and Archibald, Earl of Wigtown, and from late 1419 to 1421 the Scottish army became the mainstay of the Dauphin's defence of the lower Loire valley.

When Henry returned to England in 1421, he left his trusted brother and heir presumptive, Thomas, Duke of Clarence, in charge of the remaining army.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Battle of Baugé” is 1421 battle during the Hundred Years' War. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Battle, Baugé and battle, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1421, 1415, 1420, 1419—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Battle, Baugé and battle is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1421 battle during the Hundred Years' War” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1785755. Authority coordinates are 47.541, -0.105. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1421, 1415, 1420 and 1419.

Critical limits

Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Battle of Baugé”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Battle of Baugé primary sources, Battle of Baugé archive and Battle research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Battle of Baugé”?
  2. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
  3. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Battle of Baugé” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.