Siege of Orleans and Today's Lesson

      Since we were talking about how we would build, and prepare our defenses if Burnham were to be under attack from the rugrats at Central High School, I wondered what defenses had to be overcome at the Siege of Orleans. First off Orleans was on a river which included a large bridge that crossed the river and led in to the city. At the end of the bridge was a two towered gate. There were plenty of fortified towers in Orleans. It was estimated there were around 34. Before the English took control of Orleans, the residents began to lightly fortify Orleans. This mainly included the building of walls around the perimeter.
      Once English had control of Orleans, they heavily fortified different parts of Orleans. This included building large forts in places like the Church of St. Laurent, Ile de Charlemagne, and the Church of St. Prive. These and other forts were spread around Orleans close to the borders. Many were connected by trenches so their troops could move between the forts. Despite the numerous amount of fortification, Orleans was not fully covered. The gaps between the forts were covered by English and Burgundian troops. Men power however was certainly weekend for the English side thanks to a disagreement between the Burgundians and English, that caused the Burgundian troops to withdraw from Orleans.
      The French were successful in the siege because of their strategy. They simply went to one fort, drove out the English, chased them to the next, and repeated until the English were driven out of Orleans. I'd imagine the use of rams, ladders, and portable towers were required to take each fort, along with the troops and defenses to counter the ground troops and archers in the towers. In the end, the French and Joan overcame the English and took the heavily fortified Orleans.

Sources:

 http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/battleswars14011600/p/siege-of-orleans.htm
http://xenophongroup.com/montjoie/orleans.htm