Battle of Crecy, 1346 – Triumph of the Longbow

Battle of Crecy, 1346 – Triumph of the Longbow

It’s a late August day in the year of 1346, the  men of Edward III, formed up across a low ridge,   spy the disciplined ranks of Genoese  crossbowmen moving purposely towards them.   After them the massed ranks of hot-headed  cavalry, under the leadership of King Philip  

Of France’s brother the Duke of Alencon.  The English stand poised (if nervous) as   the first bolts are loosed, answering with  a hail of arrows from their longbowmen.   For Edward, he held a strong position, but  could not help balk slightly at the sheer  

Numbers of men-at-arms against him. For Philip,  he had finally cornered his presumptuous vassal,   his mind set on humbling Edward  to the greatest extremity.   It had been a long march for both  sides and now both armies resolved   to do battle near a place called Crécy.

By early 1345 nearly half a decade had lapsed since the failure of King Edward’s Tournai campaign in which his army,   under Robert of Artois, was decisively defeated  at Saint-Omer and the citizens and garrison   of Tournai had outlasted Edward’s siege. The focus had shifted to the succession war  

In Brittany in the intervening years, however, by  the middle of the decade King Edward resolved to   attack the French kingdom on three fronts. In  the north-west, the earl of Northampton would   enter Brittany, while Edward himself would  similarly strike into northern France.  

The third army, which we shall focus on for the  time being, would earn a golden reputation in   the Gascon theatre under the talented command  of Henry of Lancaster, then Earl of Derby.   For King Edward, his lands in south-western  France were undoubtedly the jewel of his  

Domains. In previous times, of course, the sway of  the English monarchs had extended across much of   France, yet with the collapse of the Angevin  Empire under the inauspicious reign of John,   the French monarchs had mostly cut down major  English possessions to these rich lands.  

Culturally and linguistically, Edward’s  vassal Gascons had little in common   with their king based in the north and were  happy under the direct suzerainty of Edward,   rather than Philip. A remote English monarch  certainly trumped an interfering French one,   though the French kings for their  part always eyed Gascony hungrily.  

For Edward, Gascony was a matter of  financial life or death. Pre-war,   around a thousand vessels per year set sail from  Gascony, their holds crammed with – among other   things – some 80,000 tuns of wine. Perhaps more impressively still,   Bordeaux’s population outshone London’s, the  income gleaned from duties imposed on the wine  

Flowing from the Gascon capital easily  comprising the greatest state income.   Rich as it was though, French incursions into  Gascony had eroded its ability to feed itself   effectively and the province was required to  import much of its food, chiefly from England.  

Thus, Edward sought to maintain and even expand  on this symbiotic and fruitful arrangement in   south-western France, while Philip naturally  sought to destroy it for his own gain.   Edward had replaced the uninspiring and  ineffective Nicholas Beche as Senechal,  

Sending Ralph, Lord Stafford, ahead of Derby with  a small force to pave the way, while Derby himself   was to make his own voyage to Gascony in May. With a length of service of eighteen months   and free rein to define his own mission,  Derby was given sufficient force to make  

A dent in the region, when his Englishmen were  combined with Gascon reinforcements. However,   having assembled his force by 22nd May, Derby  was delayed some weeks by contrary winds.   Meanwhile, the Gascons had already moved to  strike their French foes and Stafford moved to  

Besiege the French-garrisoned Blaye and Langon.  The effect of the small-scale Gascon attacks   was to pin down those smaller French garrisons  and to force their call for reinforcements.  Those fighting Frenchmen not engaged thus  were prosecuting sieges of their own; however,  

August 9th would finally see the Earl of Derby  disembark to shake up this stagnant series of   sieges into an outright offensive campaign. Wanting to make as big a political impact as   possible in the reduced time he had, Derby  immediately recalled the men prosecuting the  

Siege of Blaye and after combining forces  with Stafford at Langon decided to take   on the largest French force at Bergerac. So in a  quick march he surprised and fell upon the enemy,   driving them from their siege of Montcuq and  in a running battle slaughtered or drove them  

Across the river; the rout was so successful that  Derby’s army swept into Bergerac by storm. The battle and Bergerac’s fall sounded alarm  bells for the French leadership and now the   region was firmly under the gaze of  Philip. The duke of Normandy, Jean, 

Was given overall command of the response; Derby remained in the looted Bergerac for around   a fortnight before marching on Périgueux  itself; however, though its defences were   poor the large garrison made a direct  assault inadvisable, and Derby instead   took surrounding settlements and blockaded it  only to be driven away by a large detachment  

Of Jean’s army under Louis of Poitiers. The French may have felt assured at Derby’s   withdrawal in early October, and set about  the reconquest of the surrounding settlements;   to this end, Auberoche was put to siege;  not before word was sent west to Derby at  

St Emilion. Again doing the unexpected, Derby  and his small force once more rapidly advanced,   this time catching the besieging French  army at dinner on October 21st.  A ferocious melee broke out and with the decisive  attack of the castle’s garrison to the rear, the  

Army of Louis was broken, suffering heavy losses. The battle of Auberoche crowned a brilliant   campaign for Henry of Lancaster. The nominal  commander-in-chief of local forces – Jean,   duke of Normandy – had no stomach for the fight  and upon learning of the defeat marched his  

Army back to Angoulême, disbanding it and  heading north to Châtillon-sur-Indre.  With his stunning campaign, Derby was effectively  unchallenged in the region until March of the   following year. Jean resumed hostilities with  an army of around twenty thousand and moved  

To besiege Aiguillon on April 1st. Unable to  directly contest such a superior force, Henry of   Lancaster – now Earl of Lancaster after the death  of his father – called on aid from Edward.  Edward was indeed both morally and  contractually constrained to oblige,  

Though the manner in which he provided  that aid was sufficiently ambiguous.   Edward’s army assembled around Portsmouth  in the May and June of 1346, though exactly   where it would strike was unknown to Philip. Edward himself came to Porchester castle on June  

1st to oversee further preparations,  so that by the time of departure,   the king had anywhere between ten and  fifteen thousand men under his command.  Philip was not the only man in the dark, as even  many of Edward’s leading men were unsure of their  

Destination. At a council session on 20th June,  the assumed journey to Gascony was scrapped, with   the king either revealing his true intentions or  amending his original plan: the real landing point   would be the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy. Philip did attempt to cover all his bases,  

Expecting an invasion in either Brittany  or Gascony. Charles of Blois was active in   the former, but had been defeated by a smaller  Anglo-Breton force under Sir Thomas Dagworth.   The Duke of Normandy remained fixed in place  at Aiguillon. Aware of the threat to the north,  

Philip order reinforcements to be drawn from  Jean’s army under the Constable of France.  Edward himself finally set sail from Portsmouth  on the 11th July, arriving at the Cotentin   before sunrise on the 12th. With his army  fully disembarked by the 18th, an orbit of  

Destruction of around 35 kilometers drove many  refuges into the woods or to the south.   Though Edward declared that no life or property  be taken, this declaration was not taken very   seriously. The invaders cut a swathe through the  Norman land, while two hundred of the original  

Fleet of ships traced the coastline  seizing or destroying enemy ships.   By the 24th the city of Caen was firmly  within sight of the invaders. Caen was   the largest Norman city west of Rouen, based on  the Orne, which was itself a decent barrier to  

Incursion. The Constable Raoul II gathered  all available men and concentrated there,   determined to delay Edward long enough for a  larger French force to muster under Philip.  The city was divided into an ‘Old’ and ‘New’ town,  the former surrounded by decaying walls, that even  

With repairs stood little chance of effectively  holding back the invaders. An indomitable castle   was present in the north; however, the ‘New’  town was actually ostensibly more defensible,   as it was surrounded by water. The defending  force of around four thousand, as well as the  

Citizens of Caen, bunched into this area. On the morning of the 26th July, the English   army quickly overrun the two walled abbeys  which were not defended and quickly overrun   ‘Old Town’ on discovering that the Constable  and his men had concentrated to the south.  

The castle was still held by the French,  and a number of ships blocked the passage   between the Odon, the entrance to the island also  heavily-defended within the Porte St-Pierre.  Unfortunately, the river surrounding the  defenders was low due to summer weather  

And though the defenders at the bridges initially  checked the rash charge of many of Edward’s men,   many other Welsh spearmen and longbowman waded  across to assault the defences elsewhere. Though   harassed by crossbow fire the latter assault  broke through the line of ships, firing two  

And causing the others to withdraw. Smashing  through the thin defenders they then attacked   the defenders at the bridge from behind. Two thousand five hundred citizens of Caen were   then butchered, while some defenders managed to  beat their way towards the refuge of the castle,  

While others (including Raoul) took refuge  in the towers only be captured later on.   Remaining at Caen for five days while his  army devastated the surrounding country,   Edward then steadily moved towards Paris, halting  at Lisieux. Meanwhile, Philip was still amassing  

An army at Saint-Denis. Edward spent two days  in fruitless peace negotiations with some Papal   emissaries before pressing on towards Rouen. Finding Normandy’s capital occupied by a   substantial if disorganised force, and  the nearby bridge broken, the English  

Army snaked its way along the Seine, shadowed all  the way by Philip. By the 12th August, Edward was   dangerously close to Paris itself, the citizens  of which were in a state of near-hysteria.   Philip moved to the capital itself while  Edward partially crossed the Seine at Poissy,  

Having rebuilt the broken bridge. Unwilling  to indicate his true direction of march,   Edward used a formal challenge to battle given  by Philip to deceive the French monarch. Having   specified a location south of the river, Edward  sent a raiding party south in the direction of  

Chartres and is generally believed to have fooled  Philip into believing his acceptance of this.  Philip amassed his army near the southern wall by  the abbey of St Germain and then marched some four   miles south to await his enemies. Instead,  Edward made a proverbial ‘run for it’.  

Perhaps feeling a little foolish, Philip  hotly pursued covering an impressive 25   miles per day. Meanwhile, the English army  moved slower, the abandonment of some wagons   to increase speed not as effective as hoped and  the pillaging and break-away engagements slowing   the advance further. In addition, the French  had deprived the English of much sustenance  

And so necessitated wide-ranging foraging  parties for the army to feed itself.   The result was that the leading elements of  Philip’s army reached the Somme first. While   Edward’s army was at Airaines, Philip’s main  body was encamped at Amiens by nightfall of  

The day and boasted larger numbers. With Philip having had either all the   bridges destroyed or garrisoned, Edward  and his tired army had few courses open   to them. Rejecting either fighting where he  was or taking ship at Saint-Valery, Edward   pressed towards the crossing at Blanchetaque. As with the other crossings, Blanchetaque too was  

Heavily defended. Having arrived there before  dawn, Edward’s men found the tide was still up,   and so a long, tense wait progressed as the  enemy commander Godemar du Faye neatly lined   his three and a half thousand men on  the far bank to oppose their foes.  

At the forefront were five hundred men-at-arms  and shooting mercilessly at the advancing   English vanguard of one hundred longbowmen and  as many men-at-arms were crossbowmen. However,   though taking some losses, the longbowmen returned  fire in kind while the men-at-arms charged ahead  

To hold a beachhead. As Englishmen continued  to pour in from behind, Godemar had no choice   but to give ground, falter and then flee towards  Abbeville, pursued all the way to the gates.  Philip was not in Abbeville to greet them as he  had moved south in hopes of pinning Edward’s army  

Between the river and the coast. While his  vanguard under John of Bohemia did manage to   seize some wagons, it was too little too late  as Edward’s rearguard completed the crossing,   taking all of an hour to accomplish  this. With the tide rising once again,  

Philip was prevented from immediately pursuing. While Edward’s destructive march through the   Norman countryside had progressed, a separate  force under Sir Hugh Hastings had been active   further east, however, on the same day Edward  crossed the ford this army – comprised mostly  

Of Flemish allies – dispersed. With no hope of  linking up with Hastings or outrunning Philip,   Edward’s army headed for high ground  adjacent to the village of Crécy. Though facing a larger host, Edward had chosen his  ground well. His army was positioned on a gentle  

Ridge between the villages of Crécy and Wadicourt.  Crécy itself hugged the Maye river, with the   forest south of that. Edward’s rear was partially  covered by wooded terrain and nearby he had   ordered a fortified camp built which enabled swift  retreat of wounded and storage of thousands of the  

Arrows utilised by his crucial longbowmen. Philip’s scouts reported that Edward’s army   was deployed across the ridge: the entire  force was dismounted; to the right were the   men-at-arms and longbowmen under the nominal  command of the sixteen-year-old Edward of   Woodstock – later immortalised as the Black  Prince. Though small in number, it was likely  

Here too that some field guns were placed. To the left, stood the mixed men-at-arms and   longbowmen of the earls of Northampton and  Arundel, while King Edward himself held his   own contingent in reserve, the king stationed  near a raised windmill that gave a good view of  

The battlefield. In all, Edward’s army likely  numbered upwards of fifteen thousand men,   though the exact numbers are debatable. The French army had many more men-at-arms,   some twelve thousand, who were mounted. In  addition, six thousand Genoese crossbowmen   were also located close enough to play a role  in the action. Finally, the chroniclers inform  

Us of an ‘unnumerable’ number of infantry,  most of which were following on the road   from Abbeville along with the baggage. Initially, Philip had been advised to not   engage the battle-ready English, but to march  north of them to rest at Labroye. His mounted  

Units and the Genoese crossbowmen were indeed  at hand but tired from the hours-long march;   without his army fully concentrated he  would also be attacking understrength.   At first, Philip agreed that hostilities  should be postponed, however, perhaps he   also felt that another stalemate in the  vain of Bouvines in 1340 was unacceptable,  

Both as a stain on his own honour and practically  too given it was already difficult to keep his   over-eager men-at-arms on a leash; these  proud Frenchmen were eager to deal death   and punishment to Edward’s invaders. Philip’s  younger brother the Count of Alençon insisted  

He would attack as soon as he was able. Since matters were already out of his hands,   Philip decided to initiate hostilities with  his more disciplined division of Genoese   crossbowmen. Philip ordered these to form the  first of three broad groups for the attack.  

Behind these were formed the mounted men-at-arms  of the hot-headed Count of Alençon, along with   the cream of the nobility. Finally, Philip  himself directly commanded the third group   with the rest of the mounted men-at-arms. Though we can speak of this ‘organisation’  

In a broad sense, in reality the attack had no  defined plan, but was essentially the collective   rage of the amassed French warrior elite hell  bent on making their English tormentors pay a   bloody price for their deprivations. In contrast, Edward’s men awoke and took  

Their places that morning at an almost lazy pace.  Their position was already strong, but Edward had   also ordered thousands of small potholes to be dug  to impede the charge of Philip’s cavalry. These   dotted the approach to the English lines. Before any such show of chivalric bravado,  

However, the Genoese crossbowmen were ordered  forward to soften up the English ranks. This   proved to be unwise, given the shields that  usually guarded the mercenaries as they reloaded   were still coming up with the baggage. Fate  further frowned upon the ill-starred attackers,  

As a sudden storm broke out as they advanced.  This had the effect of both muddying the ground,   as well as soaking the strings of the attackers,  rendering their shots less powerful.   In contrast, the longbowmen found it much easier  to unstring their bows and keep them dry under  

Their helms. Once the weather brightened  and the enemy were within sufficient range,   Edward’s longbowmen loosed a series of volleys  that shredded the unprotected Genoese.   Though ineffectually responding in kind, the  Genoese faced grave odds in this projectile dual,   their weapons’ effective range already  blunted and shooting with the sun in their  

Faces. Unsurprisingly, they fragmented and ran.  What they probably did not expect was death to   be dealt from their very own allies. Moving from behind was the massed ranks   of the French cavalry – under the abrasive  Count of Alençon. Angered at their flight,   while eager to bleed their English  counterparts beyond, Alençon yelled:  

“…ride down this rabble who block our advance!”  This chapter of the battle was just as chaotic as   the subsequent attacks, Alençon’s units cutting  through or hampered by the retreating Genoese.   This, of course, dulled the power of the French  charge itself, along with the churned-up ground  

The aforementioned potholes. Worst of all the  devastating arrows of the despised longbowmen   obliterated this first charge before it even  reached the men-at-arms. Indeed, with several   thousand longbowmen and a rate of around one shot  per five seconds, the sky must have blackened with  

These volleys, the horses of Alençon’s men-at-arms  hopelessly vulnerable, throwing their riders as   they fell or broke their legs via the potholes. Only a few of the four thousand or so cavalry   group made it through to their intended victims  and were easily dispatched. King Philip had  

Ominously raised the Oriflamme banner to signal  no quarter to his enemy; similarly Edward declared   no captives would be taken, a sound decision  given the brutal math of the situation – even   if he had desired to do so, he could not  spare the men to guard such prisoners.  

Now the once brazen survivors of the arrow storm  were unceremoniously ripped from their horses,   many English and Welshmen perhaps taking  grim pleasure in dispatching their French   ‘betters’ with a stab through the visor or in  an opening at the joint. Among the dead was  

King Philip’s reckless brother Alençon. Yet the destruction of this first wave of   French cavalry only seems to have encouraged  further charges. Philip must have painfully   realised the extent of the disaster and  his own impotence to stop it. The momentum  

Of battle was simply too irresistible. As  more units entered the field, it fed into   the general advance towards the English. One particularly famous (if sad) attempt to   break the English ranks was made by the blind king  of Bohemia. Aged, but eager to strike at least one  

Blow, he had two of his knights tie their horses  bridles to his and charging fearlessly at the   head of his two thousand Czech men-at-arms, this  charge largely mirrored the fate of Alençon’s,   though some men did smash through the Black  Prince’s lines, emerging in his rear.  

The young Edward was now pressed  hard, Geoffrey le Baker writing:   “The young prince displayed marvellous courage…  running through horses, felling knights, crushing   helmets under his blows – and all the while he  encouraged his men, pulling fallen friends to   their feet and setting everyone an example.” Despite this evident skill and courage, however,  

A knight tore through the press of enemies  to request aid from King Edward himself. Yet,   after being assured his son was neither  wounded or dead, the king famously replied:   “…let the boy win his spurs, for I wish the day  to be his, if God wills it, and that he and his  

Companions should have the glory of it.” The attack on the prince was so fierce as to   see his banner fall; either the fighting  was so fierce that Edward’s banner-bearer   dropped it to assist his stunned master  or it was ripped away by the Count of  

Hainault. Either way it was soon recovered  by Sir Thomas Daniel to the likely relief of   both the king and the prince’s men nearby. Apparently worried enough after all to send   some knights to reinforce his son, they found  the situation had stabilised, with the prince  

Having regained his feet and fighting on. With  each charge more and more dead or dying horses   and men piled up to impede the next. At some stage – perhaps unable to stand   the sight of his dying army anymore – King Philip  himself led his own force into the fray. Philip  

Fought bravely, the French monarch having two  horses slain from under him and was also wounded   by an arrow to his throat or face. Despite his  courage, however, it was apparent to all that this   latest assault was doomed to failure too. As darkness creeped in, John of Hainault,  

Along with the king’s retainers, escorted the  reluctant Philip from the field. What remained   of the French in arms below Edward’s position  was possibly charged by remounted men-at-arms,   though given the aforementioned state of the  ground this seems unlikely. As the night endured,  

Edward was likely assured he had the victory. The next morning the true extent of the French   casualties were realised. Both Edwards surveyed  the dead and, on seeing the body of the brave   blind king of Bohemia, the Black Prince was so  moved as to adopt John’s Ostrich feather badge  

As his own – this in tribute to his courage. The  princes of Wales use the badge to this day.   With the threat of the French army removed,  Edward could now move north at his leisure.   The Crécy campaign had undoubtedly been a  blinding success, but now Edward resolved  

To secure a permanent foothold in the north and  headed first to Boulogne, before finally setting   sights on heavily-fortified Calais. Crécy was  won, but a much longer battle was about to begin.

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📢 Narrated by David McCallion

🎼 Music:
Epidemic Sounds
Filmstro

📚 Sources:
Crécy 1346: Triumph of the longbow, Nicolle, David. ISBN: 978-1855329669.
Trial by Battle: The Hundred Years War, Vol. 1, Sumpton, Jonathan. ISBN: 978-0571200955.
The Black Prince, Jones, Michael. ISBN: 978178497936.
The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III, Father of the English Nation, Mortimer, Ian. ISBN: 9780224073011.

#documentary #history #crecy