John Stewart, Earl of Buchan

The Battle of Cravant in 1423, where Buchan was defeated and captured.

In the early summer of 1423, at the Battle of Cravant, Buchan found himself in command of a mixed force of French and Scots soldiers. Buchan confronted a combined Anglo-Burgundian army at the village of Cravant in Burgundy, at a bridge and ford on the banks of the river Yonne, a left-bank tributary of the Seine, southeast of Auxerre. Buchan's forces outnumbered the English and Burgundians on the opposite bank more than two to one. The combined English and Burgundian forces, numbering some 4,000 men, were led by Thomas Montacute, 4th Earl of Salisbury.

For three hours the forces stared each other down, neither willing to attempt an opposed river crossing. Salisbury finally took the initiative and his army began to cross the waist-high river, some 50 metres wide, under a covering hail of arrows from English archers. Meanwhile, another English force under Baron Willoughby de Eresby forced a passage through the Scots across the narrow bridge and divided the Dauphin's army.

When the French ranks began to withdraw, the Scots refused to flee and were cut down by the hundreds. Over 3,000 of them fell at the bridgehead or along the riverbanks, and over 2,000 prisoners were taken, including the Earl of Buchan and the commander of the Dauphin's forces, the Comte de Vendôme. The Dauphin's forces retreated to the Loire, leaving many prisoners behind and over 6,000 dead. Buchan may well have considered himself lucky to be taken alive. King Henry V of England had re-asserted the English claim of suzerainty over Scotland, and therefore executed Scots prisoners of war on the grounds that they were traitors, fighting against their own King.[4]

After the battle Buchan was exchanged, and after his release in 1424 he was appointed Constable of France making him the effective Commander-in-Chief of the French army. To recover from the losses sustained at Cravant, fresh troops under the Earl of Douglas were dispatched from Scotland to France.[2]

The Battle of Verneuil, where Buchan was killed in 1424.

However, despite these welcome reinforcements, disaster would soon overtake Stewart and his Scottish army. On 17 August 1424 Buchan was killed at the Battle of Verneuil, along with most of the Scottish troops in France. Buchan and his generals unwisely chose to face the English army, led by John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford in open battle.[5] Bedford's army attacked aggressively from the south to take the Scots in the rear. Abandoned by their French allies and almost completely surrounded, the Scots made a ferocious last stand, but were overwhelmed.

Verneuil was one of the bloodiest battles of the Hundred Years War, described by the English as a second Agincourt. Altogether some 6000 allied troops were killed, including 4000 Scots. The English lost 1600 men, an unusually high figure for them, far greater than their losses at Agincourt, indicating the ferocity of the fight. The Earl of Douglas fought on the losing side for the last time, joined in death by Buchan.