October 1428 – May 1429 · Loire Valley Theater
October 1428 – May 1429
Orléans was the pivot of the war. English forces had besieged the city since October 1428, and its fall would have opened all of southern France to English conquest. In October 1428, the English commander Salisbury was killed by a cannonball — an omen of things to come. Then in April 1429, a seventeen-year-old peasant girl from Lorraine arrived leading a relief army. Joan of Arc's charisma transformed French morale. In nine days of fighting that began May 4, her forces cleared the English fortifications surrounding the city and broke the siege on May 8. The English, who had besieged the city for seven months, were swept away in less than two weeks.
Commanders