Battle of Castillon

Battle context

The Battle of Castillon, fought in Gascony on 17 July 1453, is conventionally regarded as the concluding engagement of the Hundred Years' War, ending more than a century of intermittent Anglo-French conflict over the French crown and English territorial holdings on the continent. The English force suffered approximately 4,000 casualties, and the death of John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury — one of the most prominent English commanders of the war — at Castillon effectively ended English military capacity to contest Gascony. The battle's outcome secured French control over the region and extinguished the last significant English foothold in France outside Calais. Beyond its place in the Hundred Years' War, Castillon holds a wider significance in military history as the first major European battle decided through the extensive use of field artillery, marking a shift in the conduct of open engagements that would define warfare in the coming centuries.