Saintonge War

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Saintonge War
Part of the Capet–Plantagenet feud
St. Louis IX at the Battle of Taillebourg, by Eugène Delacroix
Date 1242–1243 Location Saintonge, France Result French victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of France County of Poitou	Kingdom of England Earldom of Cornwall County of La Marche County of Toulouse
Commanders and leaders
Louis IX Alphonse of Poitiers	Henry III Richard of Cornwall Hugh X of Lusignan Raymond VII of Toulouse Hugh d'Aubigny, 5th Earl of Arundel
Strength
Contemporary sources: 50,000 Modern estimates: ~25,000	~30,000
Casualties and losses
Light	Heavy

The Saintonge War was a feudal dynastic conflict that occurred between 1242 and 1243. It opposed Capetian forces supportive of King Louis IX's brother Alphonse, Count of Poitiers and those of Hugh X of Lusignan, Raymond VII of Toulouse and Henry III of England. The latter hoped to regain the Angevin possessions lost during his father's reign. Saintonge is the region around Saintes in the centre-west of France and is the place where most of fighting occurred.

The conflict arose because vassals of Louis in Poitou were displeased with his brother, Alphonse, being made Count of Poitou and preferred the title went to the English king's brother, Richard of Cornwall instead. The French decisively defeated the English and rebel forces at the Battle of Taillebourg and concluded the struggle at the Siege of Saintes. Louis further repressed the Toulousians into surrendering. He restored Guyenne to Henry as a noble gesture and to seek for further peace so that he could go on a crusade. The battle was the last major conflict between the English and French until the Gascon War of 1294–1303.

The war announced the end of Henry's hopes of restoring the Angevin Empire lost under King John I of England and further planted the seeds for the Second Barons' War in England, due to the waste of funds and to the growing resentment among the barons towards the king, for what was from their point of view his tyrannical ways (by ignoring Magna Carta), and for his incompetence in war.