Siege of La Charité

La Charité was indeed highly fortified and provisioned.
Jeanne lifted the siege a month after beginning it.

Date: 24 November to 25 December 1429
Location: La Charité-sur-Loire, France
Outcome: Impasse, the city delivered to Charles VII against a huge ransom

 
Principal Combatants.

Burgundians Leadership: Perrinet Gressard
Burgundians Strength: –
Burgundians Casualties: –
Armagnacs Leadership: Jeanne d’Arc
Armagnacs Strength: –
Armagnacs Casualties:

La Charité was indeed highly fortified and provisioned, and the winter weather was extraordinarily bad; attempts to force surrender by assault failed. Jeanne lifted the siege a month after beginning it. We do not know exactly why; it could be anything from the difficulty of provisioning due to the winter weather to the impossibility of assault with the resources at hand to the fact that her troops, mostly mercenaries, were not responding well to her command.

The Siege of La Charité was incited by the order of Charles VII to Jeanne d’Arc after the warlord Perrinet Gressard seized the town in 1423.

La Charité was not only strongly fortified, but fully victualled for a prolonged siege. Jeanne’s forces were known to be poorly equipped with artillery. On November 7, 1429 the people of Clermont were addressed with a letter asking the town to send supplies to Jeanne’s army for the siege.

On November 9 Jeanne made another request for supplies in preparation. Charles II d’Albret, of Jeanne’s army, sent a letter to Riom on the same day. The assistance came from Bourges and Orléans, which sent soldiers and artillerymen. However, after a month-long struggle in bad weather, the siege was abandoned.