Scotland saves France
The Battle of Baugé on 22 March 1421 was a stunning Scottish victory on French soil — the first major defeat inflicted on the English since Agincourt, and a moment when the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France proved its worth in blood. A Scottish army under John Stewart, Earl of Buchan, destroyed an English force commanded by Thomas, Duke of Clarence, the brother and heir of Henry V.
The Scottish soldiers at Baugé were part of a substantial expeditionary force sent to France under the Auld Alliance. France was in desperate straits: Henry V had conquered Normandy, won the catastrophic battle of Agincourt, and forced the Treaty of Troyes, which made him heir to the French throne. The Dauphin Charles — the future Charles VII — was clinging to power south of the Loire. He turned to Scotland's oldest ally for help.
Clarence, impatient and arrogant, attacked the Scottish position at Baugé without waiting for his archers. It was a fatal error. The Scots, fighting on foot with spears and axes, met the English men-at-arms head on. In the vicious hand-to-hand combat that followed, Clarence was killed — reportedly struck down by the mace of a Scottish knight. The English army collapsed. It was the most significant English defeat in France since the start of the Hundred Years' War.
The French were euphoric. The Dauphin rewarded Buchan with the office of Constable of France — the highest military rank in the kingdom. Scottish soldiers poured into France in the years that followed, forming the Garde Écossaise (Scots Guard) that protected the French king for centuries. Baugé saved the Dauphin's cause and kept the Auld Alliance alive. The battlefield, in the Loire valley, bears a monument to the Scottish soldiers who saved France at its darkest hour.