Hiya I'm Bruce Fummey. When France was in its darkest days of the hundred years war with England
they put a Scotsman in charge of a grand army
a Scottish army. If you want to know how Scotland saved France from England then
this is the video for you. Now this part of stilling castle is known as the French spur.
It was built at the time of Marie de Guise, during the rough wooing, when Henry viii of England was
invading to force a marriage between her daughter, Mary Queen of Scots and his son Edward. French
troops came to save us, and they built this. But let's face it they were only repaying a favour.
If you're interested in the people places and events in Scottish history then click the
subscribe button at the bottom right hand side of the screen at any time, then click the notification
bell to make sure that you're told about my future videos. In the meantime let me tell you a story.
There had been an alliance between Scotland and France since Edward the first of England
invaded Scotland back in 1296. The death of Alexander iii had left Scotland divided between
Bruces and Baliols, and Edward Longshanks used that as an opportunity to take over.
If you want to know about the aspects of the Auld Alliance that they never talk about then I've
got a video about that and, of course, there'll be a link at the end. But it's now the summer of 1392,
almost 100 years after William Wallace won a famous victory down there at sterling bridge.
The 23 year old Charles vi of France is on an expedition in Brittany.
Suddenly he goes crazy and starts swinging his sword and slashed at his entourage
and his brother the Duke of Orleans in a psychotic episode that leads to two consequences:
one for the rest of his reign and continuing psychotic episodes is known as Charles the mad; two
a regency has to be put in place to manage France for the rest of his unstable reign.
But who should be the regent? On one side we've got the king's brother the duke of Orleans and what we
call the Armagnac faction. On the other side john the fearless Duke of Burgundy and his Burgundians.
Now naked ambition was further complicated by the fact that at this point
there were two competing Popes and varying attitudes to international relations...
by which i mean England. Anyway some years after Daft Charlie spilled his Cocoa Pops,
John the Fearles's Burgundians has Louis of Orleans Armagnac murdered in Paris. Oh no!
Now it's a civil war, there were two popes, but there was only one England. And just as his
predecessor Edward longshanks had used Scotland's division to his advantage, into the French schism
comes Henry v of England. In 1415 he invaded Normandy, and in a muddy field in October he wiped
out the French at the battle of Agincourt. The French dead read like a roll call of the military
and political leaders of the past generation, as in a brutal atrocity against all laws of
chivalry, Henry had thousands of French prisoners slaughtered for England harry and saint George.
Now the scots have a mutual defence alliance, with the French. The question is: Which French?
The Armagnacs or the Burgundians? If you want to understand that you'll have to watch my next
video why did the Scots save the French from the English. In the meantime let's stick with the how.
On the Burgundian side, that's the guys whose murder of the duke of Orleans had escalated
matters in the first place, the queen had a tight grip of Charles the Mad and they allied themselves
with English. On the Orleanais Armagnacs side was the son of Charles the man the Dauphin,
and of course the Scots. A great Scots army landed at La Rochelle on October 1419 under John Stuart
Earl of Buchan, just in time to find out that the Armagnacs had now killed John the Fearless in
retaliation for his murder of the Duke of Orleans Oh no that just threw the Burgundians further into
the arms of the English! And seven months later the treaty of Troyes made Henry the Fifth of England
the Regent and the next in line the French throne when Chick Doolally died. To seal the deal Henry would
marry Mad Charlie's daughter. That's torn it! Buchan went back to Scotland for more troops
and around 5 000 reinforcements were sent. Now whilst we're on the subject of numbers: at the
time of filming, the 14th of December 2020, this channel has just hit 3 000 subscribers. If you're
one of those three thousand then a huge thanks je vous aime bien. I don't know when you're watching
this but it would be really interesting if you could say in the comments section below what day
it is now and how many subscribers we have on that day. It'd be really interesting to find out.
Well for me anyway. If YouTube was going to put in an advert this would probably be the time to do it.
So buchan went back to Scotland for reinforcements.
It was at that time that around 100 scots were assigned as a personal bodyguard to the
Dauphin. They would become the famous Guard Ecossais, but while Scots were guarding the
Dauphin on the French side King James the First of Scotland was at the side of Henry v of England.
In fact in September 1420 when the English triumphed at the siege of Orleans
Henry v had a whole group of Scots defenders hung from the walls as traitors in front of James
for standing against their king. Don't worry the Why Did the Scots Save the French is coming.
Things were going badly in France. Henry v felt confident enough to go back to England to have
his French bride crowned queen of England, and that was when there was a seldom remembered, but
hugely important, battle between the Scots and the English... on French soil. In March 1421 the Battle of
Bauge saw the scots score a resounding victory against the English leaving 1600 English dead,
including Henry v's brother the Duke of Clarence, with virtually no losses on the Scots side.
The Pope, if you believe that he was the real Pope, said that the Scots were the antidote
to the English. Now I'll leave a link to the book Antidote to the English in the description below.
I thought it was about pricey for second-hand, but a great boot nonetheless. The point is that the
Scots had halted the English advance. Now don't get me wrong there were a few friends there too, but
they were incidental. After the battle Buchan was made constable
of France. The French army, which had been largely Scots, was now led by a Scotsman.
But by the summer of 1421 Henry v was back. He and James the First had been to England for the
queen's coronation and they were now moving south from Calais and had crossed the Seine.
Come September, we had a strange state of affairs and no mistake. The Franco Scottish army were at Baugency.
The Scottish king is a knight in the English army as they approach a French army that's full
of Scots and led by the Scottish Earl of Buchan. Now rather than face this clearly embarrassing
eventuality, Buchan stripped the land bare and left the English army to die of hunger and dysentery.
It was dysentery that took the life of Henry v a few months later. On his deathbed he said: 'Whenever
I pursue the Scots, alive or dead, I find them in my beard.' Yes mate them and Rice Crispies. Henry v was
dead but it was the blood of Scots that held back the English tide. Now there was more tide to hold
back and more blood to be spilled. Even with Henry dead the English posed a continuing challenge
and the Dauphin sent for a third army of Scots who arrived under Sir James, the Fourth Earl of Douglas.
The Dauphin gave him a rich French dukedom. But he was only able to enjoy that Dukedom for a summer,
because in the August the Scots fell to their worst defeat on French soil at Verneuil. If you
visit St Gatien Cathedral in Tours, you'll find three Scotsman: the fourth Earl of Douglas aka
the Duke of Terrain, his son James Douglas and his son-in-law John Stuart Earl of Buchan all
buried together in that cathedral. Now the hundred years war would drag on for quite a while yet,
but without the scots grand army it may have been known as the 75 years war and had a very different
outcome. Three significant things happened., The death of Henry v meant that England had their
own regency for his son the child king Henry vi. In Scotland James the First was now back after
18 years as a hostage in England, and in July 1428 in Perth he renewed the old alliance with France;
with his daughter to marry the Dauphin in France. In May of that same year a young girl called Joan of
Arc arrived in Valcolour Castle saying: 'Nothing in the world, neither kings nor dukes nor daughters
of the king of Scots could save France.' It was God's work. Well God had been calling in sick
for a few years now and it was the Scots who'd been manning the front desk until he got there.
Despite her own destiny, Joan of Arc was a bit of a turning point. In February 1429 at the end
of the Siege of Orleans when the victorious Joan of Arc was welcomed with great acclaim
into the town, she was officially greeted by a Scotsman. The former chaplain of the Earl
of Douglas was now the Bishop of Orleans. God and Scotland had got together to save France.
That's how Scotland saved France from England but if you want to know why James the first
had been at the side of Henry v of England in the first place, or why the Scots sided
with Armagnacs rather than the Burgundians you're going to have to watch my video why the Scots save
the French from the English. That's my next video. It'll be released in a few days after this
one, and you'll find the link here you should also watch my video What you Didn't Realise
About the Auld Alliance. You'll get that here. Obviously if you've enjoyed this then please
do the likey sharey thumbs up thing you can even buy me a coffee in the description below
in the meantime Tha mi an dòchas gum bith latha math leibh. Tioraidh an dràsda