The Assault of Chateau Guyon
October 4th, 1436
The fall of Grenoble has thought me that a carefully planned siege can take years, and that a boldly planned one can take an hour at most.
- Jean D'Artois, dit Le Jeune, commander of the expeditionnary forces of Burgundy, in a letter to his father Count Maximilien D'Artois following his victory over the French armies at Grenoble on August 9th, 1427.
The Burgundian civil war was now in its 4th years following the death of Marie de Berry, duchesse of Auvergne and Queen of Lotharingia, and her husband Alexandre de Beaufort of the House Plantagenet. One of the triplets of Marie de Berry, Philippe, was kidnapped by the Count of Artois, and he claimed Philippe was the heir to the throne of Lotharingia, making him the regent. Myriam de Montainblanc, now duchesse of Lorraine, close friend of Marie de Berry and official regent of Lotharingia, had to keep the real heir, Jean II du Berry, safe from the menace of the Count.
The death of Alexandre Beaufort had only strengthened the Count of Artois, as no one perceived Myriam de Montainblanc as a powerfull person. But when the word came out that she could be the Maid of Lorraine, the savior of France, counts and dukes began to rally to her cause. Three years after the major defeats at Sournay and Mousset, Myriam de Montainblanc, helped by the new duke of Auvergne, Philippe de Châteaupers, began a campaing to regain control of what people now called "Free Lower Counties". And the first stop was at Chateau Guyon, protecting the border between Champagne and Lorraine.
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Myriam looked at the jade necklace brought to her from a dark character calling himself Nestor Pylos. The color reminded her of England. She couldn't believe Marie de Berry had made her ambassador. Her, who didn't even talk a word of english... ambassador. Necessity made her learn the language quickly. Those were the days of the Federation, the talks of a Western Roman Empire. Talks of united France, talks of a grander Auvergne. Somehow, all of this had changed. All of a sudden, she was the duchesse of Lorraine. No one would have expected that. Her, countess of Montainblanc in Auvergne... now regent of Lotharingia, the middle kingdom.
This is why she was sitting on a horse, in armor, on a cold october day, halfway between Dijon and the northern seas... She put back the jade necklace in a small pouch, and gave it to one of her assistant.
She looked in front of her. There stood Chateau Guyon.
5000 men lost their lives here 3 years ago. The new lines between the cursed kingdom of Lotharingia and the rebellous Free Lower Counties laid here. Over this hill, Champagne. A few distances from Paris, probably. Yet, still Burgundian territories.
Around her, her advisors were preparing the assault. Though the villages along the way didn't give much more soldiers (and who would want them anyways... they weren't very trained), they did give good carpenters. In a matter of hours, a few trebuchets had been assembled. It was a risky business, because a few mounted knights could have had raided the trebuchets, thus making for quite a longer siege. Fortunately, positioning two divisions of halbardiers in front of the working carpenters was enough to dissuade any quick light offense.
Phoebus de Châteaupers looked at Myriam.
"Your Grace, this will be an uphill battle. We are almost at their archers range, and we can see the wind is getting against our direction. This will not be easy, Myriam."
She was surprised by that last "Myriam". In the past month, both had become quite accustomed to each other. She just didn't know it had reached THAT level yet. She smiled.
"My dead duke, though we do not have the advantage of a surprise attack, I do intend to have the advantage of a surprising attack..."
Slowly, words came in of troops being ready. Sergeants and foot knights were asked to form wedge formations, to increase their offensive qualities. In the back, proud and nobles mounted knights, almost 200 of them. How they could get that many was surprising to most, but the Baron of Leclerc had promised "interesting" support for the Maid of Lorraine.
In front of them, a few hundred halbardier, in a very loose formation, would slowly hold still to protect the fagile artillery.
Gawain Marcel, chief conceptor of the trebuchets bowed in front of Phoebus de Châteaupers. "Your Grace, the machina are ready for your order".
Pheobus nodded. He smilled at Myriam and raised his right arm.
A few voices could be heard "Men, READY!"
He closed his eyes and lowered his arm.
The low deafening sound of the trebuchet made the horses tremble, and each knights fought to keep the control of their elegant beast. Myriam's horse didn't seem quite nerveous, though. She wasn't really looking at the castle assault. Somehow, her eyes were fixed on her horse's mane. She caressed it gently, as if nothing around her was happening. As the sound of the large boulders crashing on the castle's wall came to her hear, she said softly: "Order the Halberdiers to stay in formation... arrows are coming." And as she spoke those words, arrows came cutting down the first lines of halberdiers. Screams of pain and agony could be heard, and Myriam shed a small tear. The pain of loosing men under her command was unbearable, but she knew it had to be so. Though the sound of the trebuchet was quite loud, nothing could burry the screams. Smoke began to rise from the castle. The heavy boulder were destroying the houses in within the castle's walls. Good aiming was not an attribute of the trebuchets.
"It's coming down!" shouted a soldier on the front line.
A part of the west wall came down, pounded by the heavy trebuchet boulders.
With bloodlust in his eyes, Phoebus screamed: "ATTACK!" Myriam looked at Phoebus ride toward the castle, bringing with him the divisions of footmen and mounted knights with him.
Myriam shed another tear as she saw the archers brutally shoot down the incoming soldiers. She got off her horse, and looked behind her, and burst in tears, unable to accept the fact that she was throwing thousands of men to her death. She looked at her hands, and at her armor, and all she could see was blood.
Meanwhile, the front gate of the castle was breached. The armies of Count Artois were everywhere, but more men kept entering the castle.
Myriam turned back toward the castle, and looked at the destroyed walls, the smoke and the dead bodies lying on the ground. Unlike the men inside the walls who were cheering at the victory, she could only cry at the tragedy that just happened under her command.
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The assault of Chateau Guyon was the first victory of the house of Berry after the defeats at Mousset and Sournay. In the following months, the forces of Berry would travel to Artois, encountering many fights and smaller skirmishes along the way. The faith of Lotharingia was however far from certain. The forces of the Count of Artois were still very strong, but admitedly loosing over 2000 men in the siege of Chateau Guyon would be a heavy blow to the Free Lower Counties.
