Their son Sir Richard Talbot, who signed the Barons' Letter of 1301, held the manor of Eccleswall in Herefordshire in right of his wife Sarah, sister of William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick.

[9] His birthplace was Black Mere Castle (the caput of his mother's estates) near Whitchurch, Shropshire, which is now a scheduled monument listed as Blakemere Moat, site of the demolished fortified manor house.

His father died in 1396 when Talbot was around nine years old, and so it was Ankaret's second husband, Thomas Neville, 5th Baron Furnivall, who became the major influence in his early life.

[17] Complaints were made against him both for his harsh government in Ireland and for acts of violence in Herefordshire, where he was a friend of the Lollard Sir John Oldcastle, and for land disputes with retainers of the Earl of Arundel.

[16] The dispute with the Earl of Ormond escalated into a long-running feud between Talbot and his brother, the Archbishop of Dublin, on the one hand, and the Butler family and their allies the Berkeleys on the other.

Friendly relations were finally achieved by the marriage of Talbot's son and heir to Ormond's daughter, Lady Elizabeth Butler.

Gilbert died on 19 October 1418 at the siege of Rouen, and his lands were inherited by his only daughter and heiress Ankaret Talbot, John's niece.

Later that year, he did much to recover large portions of land on the Pays de Caux in eastern Normandy which had been lost to the French a few months earlier.

On the dawn of 13 February 1437, in spectacular fashion, he took the town of Pontoise north of Paris by surprise, threatening the capital itself for a time.

At night on 22–23 December 1439, following a surprise flank attack on their camp, he dispersed the 6000-strong army of the Constable Richemont, and on 7 July 1440 he retook Harfleur.

[26] In June 1443, Talbot again returned to England on behalf of the Duke of York to plead for reinforcements, but this time the English Council refused, instead sending a separate force under Shrewsbury's brother-in-law, Edmund Beaufort.

His son, Sir Christopher, stayed in England where shortly afterwards he was murdered with a lance at the age of 23 by one of his own men, Griffin Vachan of Treflidian on 10 August at "Cawce, County Salop" (Caus Castle).

He repaired castle garrisons facing mounting pressure from France, when some reinforcements arrived with his son John, Viscount Lisle in spring 1453, and he captured Fronsac.

[28] Talbot was decisively defeated and killed on 17 July 1453 at the Battle of Castillon near Bordeaux, which effectively ended English rule in Aquitaine, a principal cause of the Hundred Years' War.

It was reported at the time that when his horse was fatally struck by enemy ordnance, it fell on top of Talbot and pinned him down, enabling a French soldier to finish him off with a battleaxe.

Speed and aggression were key elements in granting success in medieval war, and Talbot's numerical inferiority necessitated surprise.

He is portrayed heroically in Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 1: "Valiant Lord Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, Created, for his rare success in arms".

Thomas Nashe, commenting on the play in his booklet Pierce Penniless, stated that Talbot's example was inspiring Englishmen anew, two centuries after his death, How would it have joyed brave Talbot, the terror of the French, to think that after he had lain two hundred years in his tomb, he should triumph again on the stage, and have his bones new embalmed with the tears of ten thousand spectators at least (at several times) who in the tragedian that represents his person imagine they behold him fresh bleeding.

I will defend it against any collian or clubfisted usurer of them all, there is no immortality can be given a man on earth like unto plays.John Talbot is shown as a featured character in Koei's video game Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War, appearing as the left-arm of Edward, the Black Prince, in which he assists the former[clarification needed] and the respective flag of England throughout his many portrayals.