Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/326

 his kinsman, Lord Grey of Ruthin. Both were descendants of the earls of Pembroke, and both called themselves lords of Wexford, of which Talbot was in actual possession (ib. iv. 312; Complete Peerage, iv. 180).

On the death of the Earl of March in January 1425 Talbot, who fought at Verneuil and was given the Garter in 1424, again became royal lieutenant in Ireland. He surprised and held to ransom a number of northern chiefs who had come to Trim for an interview with March, and obtained a promise from the O'Connors and O'Byrnes not to prey on the Anglo-Irish any longer. He gave place to Ormonde in the same year (, p. 320).

In March 1427 Talbot accompanied the regent Bedford to France, and helped the Earl of Warwick to take (8 May) Pontorson on the Breton border, of which he was made captain (, pp. 134, 148). He joined the force which laid siege to Montargis, and was driven off (September) by La Hire and Dunois (ib. p. 145). Capturing Laval in Maine in March 1428, he soon after recovered Le Mans, which La Hire had surprised, and Bedford made him (December) governor of Anjou and Maine and captain of Falaise (, i. 380). At the siege of Orleans Talbot was posted in the Bastille St. Loup (east of the town), stormed on 4 May 1429. His fame was already so widely spread that Joan of Arc seems to have thought at first that he commanded the besiegers (ib. i. 292; Procès, iii. 4–5). When they raised the siege and retired on Meung and Beaugency, Talbot proceeded to Janville to meet Sir John Fastolf [q. v.], who was bringing reinforcements from Paris ((, p. 170). Fastolf, hearing of the fall of Jargeau and siege of Beaugency, proposed to retreat; but Talbot swore that he would attempt to save the latter town if he had to go alone. Finding the French on the alert, they fell back to Meung (17 June), and the news which reached them next morning of the evacuation of Beaugency and advance of the French caused them to retreat northwards towards Patay and Janville. The enemy came up with them some two or three miles south of Patay. La Hire's impetuous charge threw the English into hopeless confusion before they could be drawn up in battle array. Talbot made some stand, but was surrounded and captured by the archers of Pothon de Saintrailles (ib. p. 171;, i. 397). In the parliament of the following September there was talk of Talbot's great services and the ‘unreasonable and importable’ ransom demanded, and the crown expressed an intention of contributing ‘right notably’ if an exchange could not be effected (Rot. Parl. iv. 338). A public subscription seems to have been started (, p. 63). But he did not recover his freedom until July 1433, when he was exchanged for Saintrailles himself, who had been taken in 1431 (Fœdera, x. 553; cf. , p. 63). He at once joined the Duke of Burgundy in his triumphant campaign in the north-east, and was subsequently appointed captain of Coutances and Pont de l'Arche (, ii. 47;, ii. 541). Bringing over a new army in the following summer (1434), he took Joigny on his way to Paris, and, penetrating up the Oise, captured Beaumont, Creil, Pont Ste.-Maxence, Crépy, and Clermont. He was rewarded with the county of Clermont (, p. 212). Before leaving England he had accepted 1,000l. in full acquittance of his claims on the government, describing himself as ‘in great necessity’ (Ord. Privy Council, iv. 202). In September he became captain of Gisors. Just a year later he helped to recover St.-Denis, and his reconquest of the revolted pays de Caux early in 1436 did much to save Normandy for the English (, iii. 6). Talbot was now captain of Rouen, lieutenant of the king between the Seine and the Somme, and marshal of France. With Lord Scales he dislodged La Hire and Saintrailles from Gisors, which had been lost shortly after Paris. In January 1437 Talbot, Salisbury, and Fauconberg captured Ivry, and on 12 Feb. effected a skilful night surprise of Pontoise, after which they menaced Beauvais. Talbot assured communications between Pontoise and Normandy by taking several places in the Vexin, and Paris itself was threatened (, pp. 266–8). He and Scales foiled an attempted diversion against Rouen (, iii. 11; cf. , p. 241). Later in the year he helped to recover Tancarville, and by a dash across the Somme saved Crotoy from the Burgundians. In 1438 he retook some posts in Caux, but failed to relieve Montargis. Early in 1439, being now governor and lieutenant-general of France and Normandy (, iii. 310), Talbot ‘rode’ with the Earl of Somerset into Santerre, and in the summer threw reinforcements into the ‘Market’ of Meaux. He assisted in driving off Richemont from before Avranches in December (, p. 300). The capture of Harfleur (October 1440) was largely his work, and he was appointed captain of that town with Lisieux and Montivilliers. In the summer of 1441 he five times ‘refreshed’ Pontoise, which Charles VII was besieging. Richemont offered battle, but Talbot thought