This book has its origin in a conversation with M. Marc Seguin, historian of South-West France, at Jonzac in 2013 during which he suggested that the origin of my family’s name might be found among emigrants from Gascony after the French conquest of Bordeaux in the mid-fifteenth century. He recommended that I read the 19th century study of those events by Henri Ribadieu. I found it on the website Gallica of the Bibliothèque nationale française, and it has had a great deal to do with the structure of this book.
Soon afterwards, Mme Véronique Martin, then responsible for the Jonzac site of the Departmental Archives of the Charente-Maritime, introduced me to M. Alain Paul, a retired archivist, who invited me to walk over the battlefield of Castillon in the company of a group engaged in revising an older account of the battle. It was he who pointed me in the direction of Malcolm Vale’s work. I had already heard the recoltants at Saintes market who announced that their wine from Castillon had been ‘nourished by the blood of the English.’
The acquisition of books and articles began and I met other interesting people, such as my neighbour M. James Pitaud, also an historian of the region which at the time was changing its name to Nouvelle Aquitaine. Mme Martin and her team made their resources available to me, as did the staff of the Municipal Library of the Haute-Saintonge, also in Jonzac. Members of the Municipal Council encouraged me in the production of an illustrated guide to their town – the castle at Jonzac, in an older version, was sometimes occupied by the English in the Hundred Years War – but they did not mind an Englishman involving himself in such an enterprise.
It was often pointed out that, historically, the Haute-Saintonge looked more towards Bordeaux than Paris, so I was led to the newly opened and glorious building which houses the Archives Métropole de Bordeaux where medieval documents are found, both in their original form and printed in bound volumes, edited by historians of the Third Republic and after, which their guardians welcomed me to investigate on several occasions. I was guided to several French websites, such as Cairn and Persée, which reproduce learned articles from recent and not so recent journals, comparable with the English and American ones like Wiley and Jstor. Then the Gascon Rolls Project was suggested, and there was no going back. British History Online made its appearance.
Memories of lectures by E.F. Jacob and K.B. McFarlane revived themselves, as well as the fascinating tutorials with Vivien Green, whose The Later Plantaganets had not long been published at the time, and of which my most vivid relevant memory (after sixty years) is his explanation of the mystique which surrounded medieval kings.
In personal terms, my thanks are due to the many people who have helped this book see the light of day. Tom Edlin, who teaches this period for A Level students at Westminster School, read the entire text in its (longer) draft form in his Christmas holidays wishing me a festive season ‘more Edward IV than Henry VI.’ Henrietta Hopkins also read it, since she is my style guru and offered indispensable assistance over proofreading. All my family in two generations encouraged me, as did my dear friend Lucie.
There are many others who helped me in this enterprise as they came and went in the last six years to whom I owe my gratitude, among them Martin Ableman, who found me several treasures in book sales around England. I owe much to Dr. Lester Crook who, on this occasion and on two others previously, has taken up what I have offered and ensured its publication.
Richard Ballard
Jonzac, Versailles, 2013–2019