On 17 July 1453, near the Dordogne River, the English charged what they thought was a retreating foe—and galloped into the future. Behind timbered earthworks, France’s Bureau brothers massed field artillery like never before. The English relief army under the famed John Talbot was shredded by shot; Talbot fell, and with him England’s last real hold on Gascony. Castillon wasn’t the largest battle of the Hundred Years’ War, but it was decisive. French guns, carefully sited behind trenches and pali