What was the greatest battle in French history?
Waterloo in 1815 tops our ranking of French battles: in one evening it ended Napoleon's rule and France's long bid to dominate Europe. Next come Austerlitz and Trafalgar in 1805, the Marne in 1914 and Agincourt in 1415. The fifteen battles, victories and defeats alike, run from Crécy in 1346 to Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
For six centuries, from Crécy in 1346 to Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the fate of France was decided on the battlefield, in victories that made it a great power of Europe and in defeats it barely survived. This list counts both: battles and decisive sieges fought by France, wherever they took place, ranked by score, with most weight on how well known each battle is and on what it decided; see how we chose them. Allied victories that decided another nation's war, such as Yorktown, and Caesar's Alesia are left to other guides, and the men who led France's armies are ranked in the greatest commanders of France.1
This page ranks the greatest battles. For the whole story, from the Franks to the twentieth century, with every French battle on this site grouped by era, see our guide to the military history of France; the long struggle with England from 1337 to 1453 has its own page on the Hundred Years' War.
1 Waterloo, 1815
- Where
- Ridge of Mont-Saint-Jean, south of Brussels, Belgium
- War
- Napoleonic Wars, the Hundred Days
- Sides
- Napoleon's French army vs Wellington's Anglo-allied army and Blücher's Prussians
- Strength
- 72,000 French vs 68,000 Anglo-allied troops and 48,000 Prussians
- Result
- Allied victory, 18 June 1815; nearly 40,000 French killed, wounded or captured and 22,000 Allied casualties (National Army Museum); Napoleon abdicated on 22 June
Napoleon escaped from exile and was back in power in March 1815, and in June he crossed into Belgium to beat the British and the Prussians before they could join. Having sent 33,000 men after the Prussians beaten at Ligny, he faced Wellington on 18 June with 72,000 men and 246 guns against 68,000 and 156, while 48,000 Prussians marched to help.2
All day the French made frontal attacks on Wellington's ridge, and from about four in the afternoon the Prussians began to arrive. At about 7 pm Napoleon sent in the Imperial Guard; it halted, wavered and broke, and panic ran through the army. The National Army Museum counts nearly 40,000 French killed, wounded or captured and 22,000 Allied casualties. Myth vs fact: “La Garde meurt mais ne se rend pas” was first printed in a French newspaper six days later; Cambronne denied saying it, and the Fondation Napoléon doubts he did.3
For France it ended more than a reign. Pressed by both chambers, Napoleon abdicated on 22 June. The second Treaty of Paris, signed on 20 November 1815, cut France back to its borders of 1790, imposed an indemnity of 700 million francs and left foreign troops in part of the country for up to five years. In the National Army Museum's words, Waterloo ended France's attempts, whether under Louis XIV or Napoleon, to dominate the continent.4
Why it ranks here: The only battle on the list with full marks on all five criteria, 50 points, which is why it is No. 1: in one evening it ended Napoleon's rule and France's bid to dominate Europe, its name is known everywhere, and no French battle is better documented.
2 Austerlitz, 1805
- Where
- Near Austerlitz (Slavkov u Brna), Moravia, Czech Republic
- War
- Napoleonic Wars, War of the Third Coalition
- Sides
- France vs Russia and Austria
- Strength
- About 73,000 French vs about 85,000 to 90,000 Russians and Austrians
- Result
- French victory, 2 December 1805; Allies lost about 27,000 including 12,000 prisoners; French 8,245 killed and wounded (WHE, our sum) to about 9,000 (Rickard)
After Ulm and the fall of Vienna, Napoleon was deep in enemy country in late November 1805, while a Russian and Austrian army of some 90,000 gathered at Olmütz. J. Rickard puts the Allies on the day at about 85,000 against some 73,000 French. Napoleon asked for an armistice and gave up the Pratzen Heights to look weak.5
On 2 December the Allies sent their weight against the French right, and at about 9 am Soult's divisions climbed the abandoned heights and cut their army in two. The Allies lost about 27,000 men, 12,000 of them prisoners; the French lost 1,305 killed and 6,940 wounded by World History Encyclopedia’s count, about 9,000 by Rickard’s. Myth vs fact: the 30th Bulletin claimed 20,000 Russians drowned in the frozen ponds, but when they were drained, Rickard writes, only two bodies were found.6
The Treaty of Pressburg on 26 December took Austria out of the war for wide lands and 40 million francs, in 1806 the Holy Roman Empire came to an end, and for most of a decade France held military supremacy on the continent. Napoleon promised his soldiers that at home it would be enough to say “I was at the Battle of Austerlitz” to hear “There goes a brave man”. The next day Vivant Denon proposed a column cast from captured cannon: the column in the Place Vendôme.7
Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, decisiveness, consequence and certainty: one winter's day made France master of the continent. Memory is 4, as France keeps it in a column and a proclamation rather than a national day; level with Trafalgar on 48 and on recognition, it goes ahead on consequence.
3 Trafalgar, 1805
- Where
- Off Cape Trafalgar, south-west Spain
- War
- Napoleonic Wars, War of the Third Coalition
- Fleets
- Combined French and Spanish fleet (Villeneuve) vs British fleet (Nelson)
- Strength
- 33 vs 27 ships of the line; nearly 30,000 vs about 18,000 men
- Result
- British victory, 21 October 1805; 17 allied ships captured and one burned; 3,499 French killed or drowned and 2,200 taken prisoner (Fondation Napoléon)
In 1805 Napoleon meant to invade Britain, and for that he needed control of the Channel. Vice-Admiral Villeneuve took the Toulon fleet to the West Indies and back to lure the Royal Navy away, then, instead of heading for the Channel, put into Cadiz and was blockaded there. By October Napoleon had turned his army against Austria. Guessing that he was about to be replaced, Villeneuve sailed with 33 French and Spanish ships of the line, and Nelson was waiting with 27.8
On 21 October the British came on in two columns, straight at the allied line. Victory raked Villeneuve's flagship Bucentaure with a broadside and then locked with the French Redoutable, while the ships behind her poured through the gap. When the firing stopped at 5.30 pm, 17 allied ships had been captured and another was a blazing wreck. By the Fondation Napoléon's count the French alone lost 3,499 killed or drowned, 1,138 wounded and 2,200 prisoners; Royal Museums Greenwich gives 4,408 French and Spanish dead in all, against 449 British, Nelson among them. Villeneuve was taken prisoner. Freed on parole in April 1806, he was found stabbed six times in an inn at Rennes on 22 April, a suicide in the Fondation Napoléon's account.9
For France the loss outlasted Napoleon: Trafalgar ended his hopes of invading Britain and began a century of British naval supremacy, though the war on land went on for another ten years.10
Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, decisiveness, memory and certainty: it settled for a century who ruled the sea. Consequence is 4, because it ended no war; level with Austerlitz on 48 and on recognition, it follows it on consequence.
4 The Marne, 1914
- Where
- The Marne valley between Paris and Verdun, France
- War
- World War I, Western Front
- Sides
- France and the British Expeditionary Force vs Germany
- Strength
- About two million men in all, roughly a million on each side
- Result
- Allied victory, 6 to 10 September 1914; the German armies fell back about 40 miles to the Aisne
Germany's plan was to sweep through neutral Belgium, take Paris and force France to surrender in about six weeks. By September it looked close: Kluck's First Army was within 30 miles of Paris, and on 2 September the ministries and Parliament left for Bordeaux with the Bank of France's gold. Then Kluck turned south-east after the retreating French instead of passing west of Paris, and French airmen saw him turn.11
Joffre, who had moved whole corps from Lorraine to Paris, struck back on 5 and 6 September. Maunoury's Sixth Army hit Kluck's flank on the Ourcq, a 30-mile gap opened between the German First and Second Armies, and the French Fifth Army and the British pushed into it. About two million men fought, roughly a million on each side. From 9 September the Germans fell back about 40 miles to the Aisne. Paris was saved: the miracle of the Marne. Myth vs fact: the taxis did not save it. The Musée de l'Armée, which keeps one, counts 630 cabs carrying four or five soldiers each, while most troops went by train; the taxis became a symbol of France's will to resist.12
The price was terrible. The French army published no casualty lists, but its official history records 213,445 losses for September 1914 alone, Holger Herwig writes, and the north-east that stayed in German hands had produced 64 percent of France's iron before the war.13
Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, decisiveness and consequence: it saved Paris and wrecked Germany's plan to beat France in six weeks. It loses a point on memory, as France remembers World War I above all at Verdun, and one on certainty, as losses are disputed.14
5 Agincourt, 1415
- Where
- Near the village of Azincourt, northern France
- War
- Hundred Years' War
- Sides
- The French army under the Constable, Charles d'Albret, vs Henry V of England
- Strength
- 12,000 to 30,000 French vs about 6,000 to 8,500 English (Britannica, Anne Curry; disputed)
- Result
- English victory, 25 October 1415; about 6,000 to 7,000 French dead
In 1415 France was divided: Charles VI suffered from bouts of mental illness, and the princes of his blood fought each other for control of the government. Henry V invaded Normandy in August 1415 to press his claim to the French crown. The siege of Harfleur took more than five weeks, and disease, death and desertion thinned his army; he was marching for English-held Calais when a French army barred his road near Azincourt on 24 October. Myth vs fact: the French did not have the vast superiority of legend; Anne Curry of the University of Southampton, working from muster rolls and pay records, puts the English at about 8,500 and the French at around 12,000, against the common estimate, in Britannica, of about 6,000 English and 20,000 to 30,000 French.15
On 25 October the French advanced over plowland soaked by rain, between two woods and into the arrows of Henry's archers, and the dead lay heaped in front of the English line. Britannica puts the French dead at about 6,000 and the Pas-de-Calais tourist board at 7,000, many of them nobles; late in the battle, fearing that his prisoners would take up arms again, Henry ordered them killed, and many were. The Dukes of Alençon and Brabant fell. Charles, Duke of Orléans, the king's nephew, spent twenty-five years a prisoner in England; Henry refused to ransom him. In France the day is remembered as a disaster that struck down the flower of the nobility.16
With its nobility weakened and divided, France could not meet the next English invasion: Henry conquered Normandy town by town, and in 1420 the Treaty of Troyes made him regent and heir of Charles VI. But he died in 1422, Joan of Arc helped raise the siege of Orléans in 1429, and by 1453 England held only Calais.17
Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, memory and certainty: few defeats are as famous or as well recorded. France still won the war, so decisiveness and consequence are 4; level with Verdun on 46, on recognition and on consequence, it goes first as the older battle.
6 Verdun, 1916
- Where
- The hills north of Verdun, on both banks of the Meuse, France
- War
- World War I, Western Front
- Sides
- France vs Germany
- Strength
- At the start about 150,000 Germans in ten divisions vs almost 25,000 French infantry on the right bank
- Result
- French defensive victory, 21 February to 18 December 1916; almost 700,000 killed and wounded on both sides
Erich von Falkenhayn chose Verdun, a ring of forts stripped of their big guns in 1915, for Germany's great attack of 1916. At 7.15 on the morning of 21 February the shelling began, and ten divisions, some 150,000 men, went in against almost 25,000 French infantry on the right bank of the Meuse. On 25 February Fort Douaumont, held by about 50 men, fell without a fight.18
Philippe Pétain took command and set up the noria, rotating division after division through the battle along the Sacred Way from Bar-le-Duc, where at the height of the fighting a truck passed every five seconds. In the end three quarters of the French army fought at Verdun. On 23 June Robert Nivelle, who had replaced Pétain, told his men “vous ne les laisserez pas passer”, you shall not let them pass, and the last great German push failed short of Fort Souville; in the autumn the French retook Douaumont and Vaux. The Mémorial de Verdun counts 163,000 French and 143,000 German dead, almost 700,000 casualties in all.19
For France, the Mémorial says, Verdun was not one battle among others but the battle. Nine villages destroyed and never rebuilt are said to have “died for France”, and the Douaumont Ossuary holds the remains of 130,000 soldiers. There, on 22 September 1984, François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl stood hand in hand, a symbol of Franco-German reconciliation.20
Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, memory and certainty: Verdun is the battle by which France remembers World War I. The front barely moved, so decisiveness and consequence are 4; level with Agincourt on 46, on recognition and on consequence, it follows as the younger battle.
7 Leipzig, 1813
- Where
- Around Leipzig, Saxony, Germany
- War
- Napoleonic Wars, War of the Sixth Coalition
- Sides
- Napoleon's France and its allies vs Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden
- Strength
- 180,000 to nearly 200,000 under Napoleon vs 320,000 to over 325,000 coalition soldiers
- Result
- Coalition victory, 16 to 19 October 1813; about 38,000 French casualties (HISTORY), some 30,000 captured; over 100,000 casualties in all (WHE)
Napoleon came back from Russia in December 1812 having lost nearly half a million men, and by March 1813 he had raised 150,000 more, mainly by forced conscription. Austria and Sweden joined Russia and Prussia, the German states of the Confederation of the Rhine began to waver, and in October the coalition closed on him at Leipzig.21
HISTORY puts Napoleon's army at about 180,000 against more than 320,000; World History Encyclopedia gives nearly 200,000 against over 325,000. The first day, 16 October, cost the French 25,000 casualties and the allies 30,000, and on that day Napoleon made Prince Józef Poniatowski a Marshal of France. Early on the 19th the French began to retreat across the Elster. The bridge was blown too early, some 30,000 men were left behind to be captured, and Poniatowski, covering the retreat, was shot and drowned in the river. HISTORY counts about 38,000 French casualties; World History Encyclopedia over 100,000 on both sides, in Europe's largest battle before 1914.22
For France, Leipzig lost Germany. By November the Confederation of the Rhine was gone and the French Empire no longer reached east of the Rhine. Then the war came home: for six months Napoleon fought the invasion of France, but Paris fell in March 1814, and in April he abdicated and went into exile on Elba.23
Why it ranks here: Full marks for decisiveness and consequence: it drove the French out of Germany and led straight to the invasion of France and the first abdication. Outside Germany it is less known than Waterloo, so recognition 4; memory is 4 too, and its strengths and losses differ from source to source, so certainty 4.
8 Quebec, 1759
- Where
- Plains of Abraham, outside the walls of Quebec, New France (now Quebec City, Canada)
- War
- Seven Years' War (French and Indian War)
- Sides
- France, Canadian militia and Indigenous allies (Marquis de Montcalm) vs Britain (Major General James Wolfe)
- Strength
- About 4,500 French in the battle vs about 4,000 British landed
- Result
- British victory, 13 September 1759; about 640 French and 650 British killed or wounded; Quebec surrendered on 18 September
Quebec was the main French settlement in North America, and in June 1759 James Wolfe appeared before it with a fleet of 150 vessels and an expedition of 5,000 men. About 13,000 French regulars, colonial militia and Indigenous allies under the Marquis de Montcalm held the city and its surroundings, and for three months British bombardment achieved nothing.24
On the night of 12 to 13 September some 4,000 British soldiers landed west of the city and climbed the cliff to the Plains of Abraham. Montcalm, ignoring colony-born soldiers who were counting on the winter to rid them of Wolfe, attacked at once with about 4,500 men. The battle lasted only twenty minutes, the City of Quebec says. Wolfe and Montcalm were both mortally wounded, about 640 French and 650 British were killed or wounded, and Quebec surrendered on 18 September.25
The French won again at Sainte-Foy in 1760, but British supply ships reached Quebec first, Montreal capitulated that September, and in 1763 France ceded most of its North American possessions east of the Mississippi. Voltaire's Candide, published while the war was still on, had mocked it as a fight over “a few acres of snow”. For French Canadians, the City of Quebec says, it began 200 years as a minority in the country they had founded.26
Why it ranks here: Consequence 5 and full marks for certainty: it cost France New France for good. Decisiveness is 4, as the French won again at Sainte-Foy, and recognition and memory 4, as Canada remembers it more than France; level on 43 with Jena-Auerstedt and the Battle of France, and on recognition and consequence, it goes first as the oldest.
9 Jena-Auerstedt, 1806
- Where
- Jena and Auerstedt, Thuringia, Germany
- War
- Napoleonic Wars, War of the Fourth Coalition
- Sides
- France vs Prussia and Saxony
- Strength
- Some 240,000 on both fields: about 96,000 French vs 54,000 at Jena; Davout’s corps of about 26,000 infantry with cavalry and guns vs 60,000 to 63,000 at Auerstedt
- Result
- French victory on both fields, 14 October 1806; 30,000 to 35,000 dead and wounded
On 26 August 1806 Prussia demanded that Napoleon pull his troops back behind the Rhine by 8 October. He marched instead, north through Thuringia toward Berlin, and on 13 October found a strong Prussian force at Jena that he took for the main army.27
At 6 a.m. on 14 October the French attacked out of thick fog. Napoleon built up some 96,000 men against 54,000 Prussians and Saxons and routed them: 11,000 dead and wounded and 15,000 prisoners, for 5,000 French. The real main army, with the king and the Duke of Brunswick, was further north at Auerstedt, where Marshal Davout’s single corps ran into it. Outnumbered more than two to one, Davout held and attacked; Brunswick was mortally wounded and the Prussians lost some 15,000 dead and wounded. Napoleon at first refused to believe the news, then made Davout Duke of Auerstedt and gave his corps the honor of entering Berlin first. Blücher, the last Prussian commander in the field, gave up on 6 November. On 21 November, in Berlin, Napoleon decreed the Continental Blockade against Britain, made possible, Michel Kérautret writes, by a victory that handed him Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck. In Paris the victory named the Pont d’Iéna, the bridge below today’s Eiffel Tower.28
Why it ranks here: Full marks for decisiveness, consequence and certainty: two battles on one day broke the Prussian army and the state collapsed within weeks. Recognition is 4 and memory only 3, since France remembers Austerlitz first. It ties Quebec and the Battle of France on 43, recognition and consequence included, so age decides: after Quebec, ahead of 1940.
10 The Battle of France, 1940
- Where
- France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg
- War
- World War II, Western Front
- Sides
- France, Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands vs Germany, joined by Italy on 10 June
- Strength
- About 3.3 million men on each side, by HistoryNet’s count
- Result
- German victory; armistice signed 22 June 1940; about 1.8 million French soldiers taken prisoner
France had built the Maginot Line along its border with Germany and waited for the German advance west. When it came on 10 May 1940, the attack on the Low Countries drew the main French and British forces, among them a British Expeditionary Force of 390,000, north into Belgium to meet it, as it was meant to. The main blow came through the wooded Ardennes, thought impassable to a large army: on 13 May German armor crossed the Meuse at Sedan and a week later reached the Channel near Abbeville, cutting the Allied armies in two.29
By 4 June, 338,226 British and Allied troops had been taken off the beaches at Dunkirk. The Germans struck south on 5 June, Italy declared war on 10 June, Paris fell on 14 June and on 22 June France signed an armistice at Compiègne. By Nina Wardleworth’s estimate 50,000 to 90,000 French soldiers had been killed, and about 1.8 million were prisoners; the Musée de l’Armée counts nearly 1,850,000 when the ceasefire took effect on 25 June. On 18 June Charles de Gaulle had called for resistance on the BBC, though, the museum notes, few heard him. On 10 July, in the casino at Vichy, 569 of the 649 members of parliament present voted full powers to Marshal Pétain, and the Third Republic was over.30
Why it ranks here: Six weeks that broke the French army and the Third Republic earn full marks for decisiveness, consequence and certainty. France remembers 1940 as a collapse rather than a battle, so memory is only 3. It ties Quebec and Jena-Auerstedt on 43 with the same recognition and consequence, and as the youngest of the three it comes last.
11 Dien Bien Phu, 1954
- Where
- Valley of Dien Bien Phu, northwest Vietnam, near the border with Laos
- War
- First Indochina War
- Besiegers
- Viet Minh under Vo Nguyen Giap: five divisions, about 35,000 combatants by French counts
- Defenders
- French Union garrison: 10,800 men on the eve of the battle, some 15,000 in all
- Outcome
- Fell 7 May 1954; 3,000 to 3,500 French Union dead and missing, 10,000 to 11,721 captured (sources differ)
By 1953 France and its allies kept more than 450,000 men in Indochina, and General Henri Navarre had to stop a Viet Minh drive into Laos. In November he dropped paratroopers into the plain of Dien Bien Phu, about 17 km by 8 km and the only ground in the region that could hold an air-supplied base. By March 10,800 men held a ring of strongpoints named after women, from Béatrice to Éliane. Around them Giap massed five divisions, some 35,000 combatants; by Herodote’s count 260,000 porters and 20,000 bicycles carried in his supplies.31
At 17:10 on 13 March the Viet Minh guns opened fire and went first for the airstrip, the base’s lifeline. The battle lasted 57 days. In the general assault of 5 to 7 May the last positions fell one after another, and at 17:30 on 7 May the guns went silent. France’s armed forces ministry counts about 3,500 dead and missing and 10,300 prisoners; the government’s answer to a question in the National Assembly gives 11,721 captured, of whom only 3,290 came home. The garrison was only 3.3 percent of the forces France and its allies kept in Indochina, yet its fall decided the whole war. The day after it, the Geneva conference turned to Indochina; in July it divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel, and the French left.32
Why it ranks here: Decisiveness and consequence take full marks, because the loss of one valley ended France’s war in Indochina and its rule there. Memory is 3, and the death and prisoner counts still differ, so certainty 4. It ties Orléans on 42 and on recognition, and goes ahead of it on consequence.
12 Orléans, 1428 to 1429
- Where
- Orléans on the Loire, France
- War
- Hundred Years’ War
- Besiegers
- English and Burgundian troops under the Earl of Salisbury, then the Earl of Suffolk; numbers uncertain
- Defenders
- About 2,400 soldiers and 3,000 armed citizens under Dunois, by BritishBattles.com’s count; relieved by Joan of Arc
- Outcome
- Siege lifted 8 May 1429
Under the Treaty of Troyes of 1420 the English king had a claim to the French throne, and the Dauphin Charles, still uncrowned, ruled only south of the Loire, from Bourges. Orléans held the Loire crossing between Paris and Bourges. On 12 October 1428 the Earl of Salisbury laid siege to it; hit by a cannonball from the city, he died on 3 November, but the siege went on. The English could never ring walls nearly a mile and a quarter long, though a French attack on their supply convoy, the Battle of the Herrings, failed in February 1429.33
Joan of Arc arrived on 29 April 1429 with a supply convoy; by then the Burgundians had left the besiegers. On 4 May she joined what was meant as a feint against the English fort of Saint-Loup and carried it; on 6 May the French, over 4,000 by BritishBattles.com’s figure, attacked the Tourelles, the fort at the bridge, and two days later its garrison surrendered. On 8 May the English offered battle outside the walls, found no taker, and marched away. The siege had been lifted nine days after Joan came, and in July Charles was crowned at Reims. Orléans marks its relief from 29 April to 8 May each year in a festival first held in 1430, which France’s Ministry of Culture lists among the oldest commemorative festivals in the country.34
Why it ranks here: Memory takes full marks for nearly six centuries of celebration, and the relief turned the war toward Reims, so decisiveness and consequence 4. The besiegers’ numbers are unknown, so certainty 4. It ties Dien Bien Phu on 42 and on recognition, and comes after it on consequence.
13 Crécy, 1346
- Where
- Near Crécy-en-Ponthieu, northern France, south of Calais
- War
- Hundred Years’ War
- Sides
- Philip VI of France vs Edward III of England and the Black Prince
- Strength
- About 20,000 to 35,000 French vs about 14,000 English (estimates; disputed)
- Result
- English victory, 26 August 1346; French dead from over 11,500 (EBSCO’s figures, our sum) to 14,000 (WHE), English 100 to 300
Edward III landed in Normandy in July 1346 and marched across northern France with the army of Philip VI on his heels. On 26 August he drew up his men on foot in three divisions near Crécy-en-Ponthieu, the dismounted men-at-arms in the center and the archers on the flanks. The numbers are disputed, but the French were far more: Britannica puts the English at some 4,000 men-at-arms and 10,000 archers, about 14,000 in all, and the French at some 35,000.35
Philip’s Genoese crossbowmen went in first and broke, since the longbow shot about three times as fast as the crossbow. The French men-at-arms rode straight through them, and wave after wave of cavalry charged uphill and was driven back. Among the dead were the blind King John of Bohemia, the Duke of Lorraine and the counts of Alençon, Flanders and Blois; Philip had a horse killed under him and was wounded by an arrow before he was led away. Tradition counts 1,542 French knights dead. EBSCO gives more than 1,500 nobles and at least 10,000 others against fewer than 100 English, Britannica some 14,000 French dead out of 35,000 against about 200 English, and Rickard as many as 4,000 nobles. Edward then besieged Calais and took it in 1347, and it was still English when the war ended in 1453.36
Why it ranks here: Recognition takes full marks: Crécy is the longbow’s most famous day and the first of France’s great disasters in the Hundred Years’ War. It won Edward Calais but decided nothing else, so decisiveness only 3. It shares 41 points with Sedan and Blenheim and goes ahead of both on recognition.
14 Sedan, 1870
- Where
- Sedan, on the Meuse, in the French Ardennes
- War
- Franco-Prussian War
- Sides
- French Army of Châlons (MacMahon, with Napoleon III) vs German armies under Moltke (Prussia and its allies)
- Strength
- 120,000 to 130,000 French with 400 to 600 guns vs 200,000 to 240,000 Germans with 800 guns
- Result
- German victory, 1 to 2 September 1870; Napoleon III captured; 83,000 French surrendered, about 100,000 taken in all
Weeks after declaring war on Prussia in July 1870, France had been beaten on the frontier and Bazaine’s army was shut up in Metz. MacMahon’s Army of Châlons, with Napoleon III himself, marched to relieve Metz; Moltke turned north to meet it, and after a defeat at Beaumont on 30 August the French fell back on the fortress of Sedan, 120,000 to 130,000 men with 400 to 600 guns. On 31 August the Germans, 200,000 by the Fondation Napoléon’s count or 240,000 by Larousse’s, held the heights around it.37
On 1 September the French went through three commanders: MacMahon was wounded, Ducrot ordered a retreat, and Wimpffen, arrived from Paris the day before, took over and canceled it. In Bazeilles the marines made the stand France remembers as the Last Cartridges, and on the plateau of Illy Margueritte’s chasseurs d’Afrique charged again and again to break the ring; watching them, King William reportedly exclaimed, “Oh, the brave men!” On 2 September 83,000 men capitulated, on top of more than 17,000 dead and wounded and 21,000 taken in the fighting, and the emperor was a prisoner. Two days later Paris proclaimed the Republic. On 18 January 1871 the King of Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor at Versailles, and France lost Alsace and part of Lorraine.38
Why it ranks here: Consequence takes full marks: an emperor captured, the Second Empire gone in two days and a German Empire proclaimed at Versailles. The Republic fought on into 1871, so decisiveness 4, and France remembers 1870 more through the siege of Paris and the lost provinces, so memory 3. It ties Crécy and Blenheim on 41, follows Crécy on recognition and leads Blenheim on consequence.
15 Blenheim, 1704
- Where
- Blindheim (Blenheim) and Höchstädt on the Danube, Bavaria, Germany
- War
- War of the Spanish Succession
- Sides
- France and Bavaria (Tallard, Marsin and the Elector of Bavaria) vs England, the Dutch Republic and the Empire (Marlborough and Prince Eugene)
- Strength
- 56,000 to over 60,000 French and Bavarians vs 52,000 to 56,000 Allies (sources differ)
- Result
- Allied victory, 13 August 1704; 13,000 to 14,000 French and Bavarians captured, Marshal Tallard among them
Louis XIV had put his grandson Philip of Anjou on the throne of Spain, and by 1704 his armies and their Bavarian allies threatened Vienna; a blow there, he reckoned, would break the Grand Alliance. But Marlborough marched from the Low Countries to the Danube and joined Prince Eugene of Savoy. On 13 August they fell on Marshal Tallard’s army around the village of Blindheim, which the English called Blenheim; the French name the battle after the nearby town of Höchstädt.39
Marlborough’s assaults on Blenheim drew Tallard’s reserves into the village and thinned his center, while Eugene pinned Marsin and the Elector on the other wing. Then the allied cavalry broke the center. Tallard’s men were driven into the Danube, where over 3,000 drowned; Tallard was taken and the infantry in Blenheim surrendered. Universalis counts 18,000 French and Bavarians out of action and 13,000 captured, the National Army Museum at least 20,000 casualties and 14,000 prisoners, for about 12,000 Allied killed and wounded. Universalis calls it the first major defeat of Louis XIV’s armies in over fifty years, and the museum says it destroyed the myth of French invincibility; Bavaria left the war and France turned to the defensive. Yet Louis kept Spain for his grandson: at Utrecht in 1713 Philip V was recognized as King of Spain, though he had to give up any claim to the French crown.40
Why it ranks here: Certainty takes full marks and every other criterion 4: Blenheim ended Louis XIV’s long run of victories, but he still won Spain for his grandson. It ties the Nile on 41 with the same recognition and consequence, and takes the last place as the older battle.
How we chose and ranked these French battles
We counted every battle France fought, won or lost, from the Franks at Tours in 732 to Dien Bien Phu in 1954, and we let in sieges when they decided the fate of France, which is why Orléans and Dien Bien Phu are here. Alesia, fought centuries before there was a France, is left to our guide to the greatest sieges in history, Yorktown, which decided America's war rather than France's, to the greatest battles in American history, and the men who led France's armies to the greatest commanders of France. Napoleon's wars as a whole are ranked in the greatest Napoleonic battles.41 › Battle of Vĩnh Yên, 1951
We considered 25 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Recognition counts three times, because this page answers the question of which battles, triumphs and disasters alike, are the greatest and best known in the history of France; decisiveness, consequence and memory count twice and certainty once:
- Recognition (×3). 5 if the name is known far beyond military history and appears on most published lists of its kind, 1 if only specialists know it.
- Decisiveness (×2). 5 if it decided a war or the fate of a state, 1 if it settled nothing beyond the day itself.
- Consequence (×2). 5 if it changed borders, dynasties or the balance of power for generations, 1 if the map looked the same a few years later.
- Memory (×2). 5 if it is still a living tradition (a national day, a monument, a proverb, a song), 1 if it is forgotten.
- Certainty (×1). 5 if the numbers and events are confirmed by independent sources, 1 if they rest on one source or are disputed.
The list is ranked by total score, not by date. Ties go to the better known battle, then to the one with the greater consequence, then to the older one. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them, so you can see exactly why Waterloo is first and why Tours, the battle that opened the old version of this page, now sits just outside the fifteen: modern historians doubt it was the turning point it was long made out to be, and its numbers rest on medieval chronicles (see Close calls).
| Rank | Name | Recognition ×3 | Decisiveness ×2 | Consequence ×2 | Memory ×2 | Certainty ×1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Waterloo | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 50 |
| 2 | Austerlitz | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 48 |
| 3 | Trafalgar | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 48 |
| 4 | The Marne | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 47 |
| 5 | Agincourt | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 46 |
| 6 | Verdun | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 46 |
| 7 | Leipzig | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 44 |
| 8 | Quebec | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 43 |
| 9 | Jena-Auerstedt | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 43 |
| 10 | The Battle of France | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 43 |
| 11 | Dien Bien Phu | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 42 |
| 12 | Orléans | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 42 |
| 13 | Crécy | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 41 |
| 14 | Sedan | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 41 |
| 15 | Blenheim | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 41 |
Close calls
Four battles came close and did not make the fifteen:
The Nile, 1798. Nelson attacked the French fleet at anchor in Aboukir Bay on 1 August 1798 and destroyed it; World History Encyclopedia says the victory stranded Bonaparte’s army in Egypt and helped bring a second coalition together against France. It has 41 points, as many as Blenheim, with the same recognition and consequence, and misses the fifteen only as the younger battle; it also remains less famous than Trafalgar.42
Valmy, 1792. Little more than an artillery duel: Rickard puts the losses at 164 Prussians and about 300 French. Yet Brunswick called off his attack, France officially became a Republic the next day, and the invaders were out of France by 23 October. Full marks for consequence and memory give it 41 points, but it is little known outside France, and recognition 3 puts it behind Crécy, Sedan, Blenheim and the Nile.43 › Battle of Valmy, 1792
Tours, 732. The battle that opened the old version of this page. Charles Martel’s Franks beat an Umayyad army between Tours and Poitiers, and the Chronicle of Saint-Denis credits him with 300,000 slain. Myth vs fact: it did not stop the raids. World History Encyclopedia notes Arab raids in 734 and 736 and a larger invasion in 739, and puts the battle’s weight mainly in the prestige it gave Charles. Recognition 5, but decisiveness 3 and certainty 2 leave it on 39; it is ranked in our greatest medieval battles.44
Borodino, 1812. The bloodiest single day of the Napoleonic Wars, in World History Encyclopedia’s words, but Napoleon could not destroy the Russian army, which Kutuzov pulled back in the night, and the campaign was lost anyway. Russians remember it as a symbol of national courage, NPR reports, so its living memory is Russian rather than French: memory 3 and decisiveness 3 leave it on 39.45
Why are Tours and Rocroi no longer among the greatest battles of France?
Both were on the old version of this page, and both fell short when we scored them on the same five criteria as every other battle: Tours in 732 reached 39 points and sits just outside the fifteen, while Rocroi in 1643 reached only 31, because neither decided as much as its fame suggests.46
Tours keeps full marks for recognition, but World History Encyclopedia points out that Arab raids went on in 734 and 736 and that a larger invasion came in 739, and its numbers come from chronicles such as that of Saint-Denis, with its 300,000 slain. Rocroi, the Duke of Enghien's victory over the Spanish army in May 1643, cost Philip IV's infantry its reputation for invincibility, in Larousse's words, yet France and Spain fought on until the Peace of the Pyrenees of 7 November 1659, which ended 24 years of war between them. Both still have their own full stories: the Battle of Tours and the Battle of Rocroi.47
Why are Yorktown and Alesia not on the list?
Both are left out by scope, not by score: Yorktown in 1781 decided America's war rather than France's, and Alesia in 52 BC was a Roman conquest of Gaul, fought centuries before the Frankish kingdom from which France grew, so each is ranked in another of our guides instead.48
Before Yorktown, Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau marched south on the promise of naval support from the Comte de Grasse's French fleet, and the British surrendered to the Continental Army and its French allies; the American Battlefield Trust calls the siege the decisive engagement of the American Revolution. On our criteria it would score 48 points, but it belongs to the greatest battles in American history. Alesia, where Julius Caesar besieged Vercingetorix in September 52 BC, marks in World History Encyclopedia's words the end of Gallic independence; it is ranked in the greatest sieges in history.49
Meet the commanders who led France's armies in the greatest commanders of France, or test yourself with the French battles quiz.
Notes
A number in the text points to a note; each note names the works that paragraph draws on, listed in full under Sources.
- EBSCO Research Starters, “Battle of Crécy”; U.S. Department of State, “Dien Bien Phu and the Fall of French Indochina, 1954”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Battle of Waterloo”. ↩
- HistoryOfWar.org, “Battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815”; National Army Museum, “Battle of Waterloo”; Herodote.net, “Cambronne (citations)”; Fondation Napoléon, “CAMBRONNE (Pierre-Jacques-Étienne), officier général et législateur”. ↩
- Fondation Napoléon, “22 juin 1815”; Herodote.net, “22 juin 1815”; EBSCO Research Starters, “Second Peace of Paris”; Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, “Paris, traités de”; National Army Museum, “Battle of Waterloo”. ↩
- World History Encyclopedia, “Battle of Austerlitz”; HistoryOfWar.org, “Battle of Austerlitz, 2 December 1805”. ↩
- HistoryOfWar.org, “Battle of Austerlitz, 2 December 1805”; World History Encyclopedia, “Battle of Austerlitz”. ↩
- World History Encyclopedia, “War of the Third Coalition”; World History Encyclopedia, “Battle of Austerlitz”; Fondation Napoléon, “Proclamation after Austerlitz, 12 Frimaire, An XIV (3 December, 1805)”; Fondation Napoléon, “Vendôme Column”. ↩
- National Museum of the Royal Navy, “Trafalgar Day”; Fondation Napoléon, “VILLENEUVE, Pierre-Charles de, (1763-1806), vice-admiral”; Royal Museums Greenwich, “The background to Trafalgar”. ↩
- Royal Museums Greenwich, “Battle of Trafalgar timeline”; National Museum of the Royal Navy, “Trafalgar Day”; Fondation Napoléon, “A close-up on”; Fondation Napoléon, “VILLENEUVE, Pierre-Charles de, (1763-1806), vice-admiral”. ↩
- National Museum of the Royal Navy, “Trafalgar Day”. ↩
- World History Encyclopedia, “First Battle of the Marne”; HISTORY, “The First Battle of the Marne”; Conseil d’État, “Le Conseil d’État pendant la Première Guerre mondiale”. ↩
- HistoryNet, “1914”; HISTORY, “The First Battle of the Marne”; Musée de l’Armée, “Marne taxi”. ↩
- HistoryNet, “1914”. ↩
- Mémorial de Verdun, “The Battle of Verdun”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Battle of Agincourt”; Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Henry V”; University of Southampton, “The truth about Agincourt”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Battle of Agincourt”; Visit Pas-de-Calais, “Relive 1415 and the Battle of Agincourt”; EBSCO Research Starters, “Charles d’Orléans”; Poetry in Translation, “Charles d’Orléans”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Battle of Agincourt”; Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Henry V”; Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Hundred Years’ War”. ↩
- Mémorial de Verdun, “The Battle of Verdun”. ↩
- Mémorial de Verdun, “The Battle of Verdun”; National WWI Museum and Memorial, “They Shall Not Pass | 1916”. ↩
- Mémorial de Verdun, “The Battle of Verdun”; CVCE, “François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl (Verdun, 22 September 1984)”; Musée de l’Armée, “The hyperbattle of Verdun”. ↩
- World History Encyclopedia, “Battle of Leipzig”; HISTORY, “Battle of Leipzig”. ↩
- HISTORY, “Battle of Leipzig”; World History Encyclopedia, “Battle of Leipzig”; Fondation Napoléon, “PONIATOWSKI, Józef”. ↩
- World History Encyclopedia, “Battle of Leipzig”; HISTORY, “Battle of Leipzig”. ↩
- Ville de Québec, “Plains of Abraham”; National Army Museum, “Battle of Quebec”. ↩
- Ville de Québec, “Plains of Abraham”; National Army Museum, “Battle of Quebec”. ↩
- Ville de Québec, “Plains of Abraham”; National Army Museum, “Battle of Quebec”; Voltaire, Project Gutenberg; Acres of Snow, “Why ‘Acres of Snow’”. ↩
- Fondation Napoléon, “Jena-Auerstedt 14 October, 1806”; HistoryOfWar.org, “Battle of Jena, 14 October 1806”. ↩
- Fondation Napoléon, “Jena-Auerstedt 14 October, 1806”; HistoryOfWar.org, “Battle of Jena, 14 October 1806”; HistoryOfWar.org, “Battle of Auerstadt, 14 October 1806”; Fondation Napoléon, “Le blocus continental, ancêtre du marché commun européen ?”; Fondation Napoléon, “Les ponts de Paris construits par Napoléon Bonaparte”. ↩
- English Heritage, “The Fall of France in 1940”; The Second World War, “The fall of France”. ↩
- English Heritage, “The Fall of France in 1940”; The Second World War, “The fall of France”; The Conversation, “What happened to the French army after Dunkirk”; Musée de l’Armée, “Comme en 40…”; Herodote.net, “10 juillet 1940”; HistoryNet, “Fall Of France”. ↩
- Ministère des Armées, “1954, la fin de l’Indochine française”; French Senate, “Indochine”; Herodote.net, “3 février-7 mai 1954”. ↩
- Ministère des Armées, “1954, la fin de l’Indochine française”; Assemblée nationale, “Soldats français morts à Diên Bien Phu dont les corps sont restés sur place”; French Senate, “Indochine”; U.S. Department of State, “Dien Bien Phu and the Fall of French Indochina, 1954”. ↩
- BritishBattles.com, “Siege of Orléans”; Anne Curry, “Battle of the Herrings”. ↩
- Anne Curry, “Battle of the Herrings”; BritishBattles.com, “Siege of Orléans”; World History Encyclopedia, “Joan of Arc”; French Ministry of Culture, “Les fêtes de Jeanne d’Arc à Orléans”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Battle of Crécy”; HistoryOfWar.org, “Battle of Crecy, 26 August 1346”. ↩
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Battle of Crécy”; EBSCO Research Starters, “Battle of Crécy”; HistoryOfWar.org, “Battle of Crecy, 26 August 1346”; Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Hundred Years’ War”. ↩
- Herodote.net, “2 septembre 1870”; EBSCO Research Starters, “Battle of Sedan”; Encyclopédie Larousse, “bataille de Sedan (1er septembre 1870)”; Fondation Napoléon, “La bataille de Sedan”; Deutsches Historisches Museum, “Die Schlacht bei Sedan 1870”. ↩
- Encyclopédie Larousse, “bataille de Sedan (1er septembre 1870)”; Fondation Napoléon, “La bataille de Sedan”; Herodote.net, “2 septembre 1870”; EBSCO Research Starters, “Battle of Sedan”; Deutsches Historisches Museum, “1871”; Deutsches Historisches Museum, “Die Schlacht bei Sedan 1870”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Battle of Blenheim”; EBSCO Research Starters, “Battle of Blenheim”; Encyclopædia Universalis, “Bataille d’Höchstädt-Blenheim (13 août 1704)”; Herodote.net, “13 août 1704”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Battle of Blenheim”; Encyclopædia Universalis, “Bataille d’Höchstädt-Blenheim (13 août 1704)”; EBSCO Research Starters, “Battle of Blenheim”; Encyclopédie Larousse, “traités d’Utrecht (1713-1715)”; EBSCO Research Starters, “War of the Spanish Succession”. ↩
- World History Encyclopedia, “The Legacy of Charles Martel & the Battle of Tours”; U.S. Department of State, “Dien Bien Phu and the Fall of French Indochina, 1954”. ↩
- World History Encyclopedia, “Battle of the Nile”. ↩
- HistoryOfWar.org, “Battle of Valmy, 20 September 1792”. ↩
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook, “Arabs, Franks, and the Battle of Tours, 732”; World History Encyclopedia, “The Legacy of Charles Martel & the Battle of Tours”. ↩
- World History Encyclopedia, “Battle of Borodino”; NPR, “In Russia, 200-Year-Old Battle A Day To Remember”. ↩
- World History Encyclopedia, “The Legacy of Charles Martel & the Battle of Tours”; Encyclopédie Larousse, “Rocroi”. ↩
- World History Encyclopedia, “The Legacy of Charles Martel & the Battle of Tours”; Internet Medieval Sourcebook, “Arabs, Franks, and the Battle of Tours, 732”; Encyclopédie Larousse, “Rocroi”; Encyclopédie Larousse, “traité des Pyrénées (7 novembre 1659)”. ↩
- American Battlefield Trust, “Yorktown”; World History Encyclopedia, “Battle of Alesia”. ↩
- American Battlefield Trust, “Yorktown”; World History Encyclopedia, “Battle of Alesia”. ↩
Sources
- EBSCO Research Starters (Philip Dwight Jones), “Battle of Crécy”
- U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, “Dien Bien Phu and the Fall of French Indochina, 1954”
- National Army Museum, London, “Battle of Waterloo”
- HistoryOfWar.org (T. Dugdale-Pointon), “Battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815”
- Herodote.net, “Cambronne (citations)” (in French)
- Fondation Napoléon, napoleon.org, “CAMBRONNE (Pierre-Jacques-Étienne), officier général et législateur” (in French)
- Fondation Napoléon, napoleon.org, “22 juin 1815 : l’avènement de Napoléon II ?” (in French)
- Herodote.net, “22 juin 1815: Seconde abdication de Napoléon Ier” (in French)
- EBSCO Research Starters, “Second Peace of Paris”
- Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse (Rita Stöckli), “Paris, traités de” (in French)
- World History Encyclopedia (Harrison W. Mark), “Battle of Austerlitz”
- HistoryOfWar.org (J. Rickard), “Battle of Austerlitz, 2 December 1805”
- World History Encyclopedia (Harrison W. Mark), “War of the Third Coalition”
- Fondation Napoléon, napoleon.org, “Proclamation after Austerlitz, 12 Frimaire, An XIV (3 December, 1805)”
- Fondation Napoléon, napoleon.org, “Vendôme Column”
- National Museum of the Royal Navy, “Trafalgar Day: The Battle of Trafalgar”
- Fondation Napoléon, napoleon.org (after J. Tulard, Dictionnaire Napoléon), “VILLENEUVE, Pierre-Charles de, (1763-1806), vice-admiral”
- Royal Museums Greenwich, “The background to Trafalgar”
- Royal Museums Greenwich, “Battle of Trafalgar timeline”
- Fondation Napoléon, napoleon.org, “A close-up on: Trafalgar, 21 October, 1805”
- World History Encyclopedia (Mark Cartwright), “First Battle of the Marne: How Paris was Saved in World War I”
- HISTORY (A&E Television Networks, Christopher Klein), “The First Battle of the Marne”
- Conseil d’État, “Le Conseil d’État pendant la Première Guerre mondiale” (in French)
- HistoryNet (Holger H. Herwig), “1914: Marne in the Balance”
- Musée de l’Armée, “Marne taxi”
- Mémorial de Verdun, “The Battle of Verdun”
- Encyclopaedia Britannica (Julia Martinez), “Battle of Agincourt”
- Encyclopaedia Britannica (C. D. Ross), “Henry V”
- University of Southampton, “The truth about Agincourt”
- Visit Pas-de-Calais (Pas-de-Calais Tourisme), “Relive 1415 and the Battle of Agincourt”
- EBSCO Research Starters, “Charles d’Orléans”
- Poetry in Translation (A. S. Kline), “Charles d’Orléans: Selected Poems”
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Hundred Years’ War”
- National WWI Museum and Memorial, “They Shall Not Pass | 1916”
- CVCE, University of Luxembourg, “François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl (Verdun, 22 September 1984)”
- Musée de l’Armée, “The hyperbattle of Verdun: Verdun and the Franco-German reconciliation”
- World History Encyclopedia (Harrison W. Mark), “Battle of Leipzig”
- HISTORY (A&E Television Networks), “Battle of Leipzig”
- Fondation Napoléon, napoleon.org, “PONIATOWSKI, Józef”
- Ville de Québec (City of Quebec), heritage pages, “Plains of Abraham: the unforgettable battle of 1759”
- National Army Museum, London, “Battle of Quebec”
- Voltaire, Candide, ou l’optimisme, chapter 23, Project Gutenberg (in French)
- Acres of Snow, “Why ‘Acres of Snow’”
- Fondation Napoléon, napoleon.org, “Jena-Auerstedt 14 October, 1806”
- HistoryOfWar.org (J. Rickard), “Battle of Jena, 14 October 1806”
- HistoryOfWar.org (J. Rickard), “Battle of Auerstadt, 14 October 1806”
- Fondation Napoléon, napoleon.org (Michel Kérautret), “Le blocus continental, ancêtre du marché commun européen ?” (in French)
- Fondation Napoléon, napoleon.org (Irène Delage), “Les ponts de Paris construits par Napoléon Bonaparte” (in French)
- English Heritage, “The Fall of France in 1940”
- The Second World War (thesecondworldwar.org), “The fall of France”
- The Conversation (Nina Wardleworth, University of Leeds), “What happened to the French army after Dunkirk”
- Musée de l’Armée (Christophe Bertrand, Jordan Gaspin, Vincent Giraudier, Carine Lachèvre), “Comme en 40…” (PDF, in French)
- Herodote.net (Alban Dignat), “10 juillet 1940: pleins pouvoirs au maréchal Pétain” (in French)
- HistoryNet, “Fall Of France”
- Ministère des Armées, Les Chemins de la mémoire no. 286 (spring 2024), “1954, la fin de l’Indochine française” (PDF, in French)
- French Senate, bill no. 382 (2003 to 2004), “Indochine” (in French)
- Herodote.net, “3 février-7 mai 1954: siège de Diên Biên Phu” (in French)
- Assemblée nationale, written question no. 6662 (16th legislature) and the government’s answer, “Soldats français morts à Diên Bien Phu dont les corps sont restés sur place” (PDF, in French)
- BritishBattles.com, “Siege of Orléans”
- Anne Curry, “Orléans, siege of”, The Oxford Companion to British History, via Encyclopedia.com, “Battle of the Herrings”
- World History Encyclopedia (Joshua J. Mark), “Joan of Arc”
- French Ministry of Culture, Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage, “Les fêtes de Jeanne d’Arc à Orléans” (PDF, in French)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Battle of Crécy”
- HistoryOfWar.org (J. Rickard), “Battle of Crecy, 26 August 1346”
- Herodote.net (André Larané), “2 septembre 1870: Napoléon III est fait prisonnier à Sedan” (in French)
- EBSCO Research Starters, “Battle of Sedan”
- Encyclopédie Larousse, “bataille de Sedan (1er septembre 1870)” (in French)
- Fondation Napoléon, napoleon.org (Eymeric Job), “La bataille de Sedan” (in French)
- Deutsches Historisches Museum, LeMO (Arnulf Scriba), “Die Schlacht bei Sedan 1870” (in German)
- Deutsches Historisches Museum, LeMO, “1871: Reichsgründung im Krieg” (in German)
- National Army Museum, “Battle of Blenheim”
- EBSCO Research Starters (Paul A. Whelan and M. Casey Diana), “Battle of Blenheim”
- Encyclopædia Universalis, “Bataille d’Höchstädt-Blenheim (13 août 1704)” (in French)
- Herodote.net, “13 août 1704: les Français défaits par Marlborough à Hoechstaedt” (in French)
- Encyclopédie Larousse, “traités d’Utrecht (1713-1715)” (in French)
- EBSCO Research Starters (Mark C. Herman), “War of the Spanish Succession”
- World History Encyclopedia (Christopher L. Serafin), “The Legacy of Charles Martel & the Battle of Tours”
- World History Encyclopedia (Harrison W. Mark), “Battle of the Nile”
- HistoryOfWar.org (J. Rickard), “Battle of Valmy, 20 September 1792”
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University (Paul Halsall), “Arabs, Franks, and the Battle of Tours, 732: Three Accounts”
- World History Encyclopedia (Harrison W. Mark), “Battle of Borodino”
- NPR (Corey Flintoff), via KCUR, “In Russia, 200-Year-Old Battle A Day To Remember”
- Encyclopédie Larousse, “Rocroi” (in French)
- Encyclopédie Larousse, “traité des Pyrénées (7 novembre 1659)” (in French)
- American Battlefield Trust, “Yorktown”
- World History Encyclopedia (Donald L. Wasson), “Battle of Alesia”
