Battle of Jargeau The Battle of Jargeau took place on 11 – 12 June 1429 . It was Joan of Arc ' s first offensive battle . Shortly after relieving the siege at Orléans , French forces recaptured the neighboring district along the Loire river . This campaign was the first sustained French offensive in a generation in the Hundred Years ' War . Background . By the end of 1428 , during the later years of the Hundred Years ' War , the English and their Burgundian allies had occupied almost all of France north of the Loire River . Many strategic points along the Loire had also been seized , and Orléans , the last major city on the river , had been under siege since October of that year ( 1428 ) . Were the English able to secure complete control of the Loire valley , the southern part of France , the last remaining position of the Dauphin would be open to invasion . In early March 1429 , Joan of Arc arrived at Chinon to meet with the Dauphin and , after being examined by church officials in Poitiers , joined a large French force which set out to relieve the siege at Orléans . This operation proved successful as the siege was lifted by 9 May . The bridge at Orléans had been destroyed shortly before the siege lifted . The French had lost control of all other river crossings . Three swift and numerically small battles at Jargeau , Meung - sur - Loire , and Beaugency demonstrated renewed French confidence and laid the groundwork for subsequent French offenses on Rheims and Paris . The Loire campaign killed , captured , or disgraced a majority of the top tier of English commanders and decimated the numbers of the highly skilled English longbow men . The French Loire Campaign of 1429 consisted of five actions : From Orléans to Jargeau . Following the lifting of the siege of Orléans , the French forces spent the next month or so recruiting and growing in strength for the next phase of military operations . In early June , at a meeting of French military leaders in the presence of the Dauphin , it was decided to pursue a strategy of clearing the Loire River valley of English troops . The army was assembled at Orléans where Joan rejoined them on 9 June . That same day the army departed for Jargeau , the first stop on the Loire Valley Campaign . Meanwhile , on 8 June , Sir John Fastolf finally left Paris with a reinforcing army of several thousand , headed for the Loire River valley . Jargeau . Jargeau was a small town on the southern bank of the Loire river in central France , about ten miles east of Orléans . Conquered by the English a few years earlier as a staging point for a planned invasion of southern France , the city was defended by a wall with several towers and fortified gates . A ditch just on the outside of the walls further enhanced the defenses . Outside the walls , suburbs had grown . There was a single fortified bridge , of strategic significance during the latter part of the war , crossing the Loire River to the north bank . The city was defended by approximately 700 troops armed with gunpowder weaponry . Tactics . Joan of Arc and Duke John II of Alençon controlled a force that included captains Jean d ' Orléans , Gilles de Rais , Jean Poton de Xaintrailles , and La Hire . The duke of Suffolk William de la Pole led the English defense . The battle began with a French assault on the suburbs . English defenders left the city walls and the French fell back . Joan of Arc used her standard to begin a French rally . The English retreated to the city walls and the French lodged in the suburbs for the night . The following morning Joan of Arc called upon the defenders to surrender . They refused . The French followed with heavy artillery bombardment using primitive cannons and siege engines . One of the town ' s towers fell . Suffolk entered surrender nominations with a minor French captain , La Hire . This breach of protocol antagonized the French command . Joan of Arc initiated an assault on the town walls , surviving a stone projectile that split in two against her helmet as she climbed a scaling ladder . The English suffered heavy losses .