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The 'Battle of Crécy' took place on 26 August, 1346 near Crécy in northern France, and was one of the most important battles of the Hundred Years' War. The combination of new weapons and tactics have caused many historians to consider this battle the beginning of the end of chivalry.

Contents

Significance

Background

English dispositions

The battle

Casualties

Aftermath

Footnotes

Further reading

External links

Significance

Crécy was a battle in which a much smaller English army of between 8,000 to 12,000 men, commanded by Edward III of England and heavily outnumbered by Philip VI of France's force of between 30,000 and 40,000, was victorious as a result of superior weaponry and tactics, demonstrating the importance of the modern military concept of fire power. The effectiveness of the English longbow, used en masse, was proven against armoured knights, contrary to the conventional wisdom of the day which held that archers would be ineffective and be butchered when the armoured units closed.
In the battle, the French knights, protected by mail reinforced with plate, nearly exhausted by having to walk through a quagmire of mud to charge uphill into Welsh arrow storms, were cut down. The result was that much of the French nobility died, perhaps as many as a third (estimates of the actual numbers in each army vary considerably, depending on the source).
Knights' armour had not yet evolved to the stage where longbows could not penetrate, and the knights' horses were barely protected at all. The storm of arrows killed or disabled the knights' mounts, and left the knights floundering about in the mud on foot beneath a withering fire.
The battle is seen by many historians as the beginning of the end of chivalry; during the course of the battle, many of the prisoners and wounded were killed. This was against the chivalric codes of warfare; and knights on horseback were no longer "undefeatable" by infantry.
It also saw the first real use of cannon on the European battlefield, which were used only in small numbers by a few states during the 1340s. "Ribaldis" were first mentioned in the English Privy Wardrobe accounts during preparations for the battle between 1345 and 1346, and they proved their effectiveness against both the Genoese and the cavalry.^[1] Similar cannon would appear also at the Siege of Calais in the same year, although it would not be until the 1380s that the "ribaudekin" became mounted on wheels.
The political consequences of the battle were significant for Edward III especially, who had financed and supplied his expedition to Normandy with increasingly unpopular policies. The widespread use of purveyance and the arresting of ships to provide transport for his armies had left the King with potential sources of discontent in his kingdom. Likewise, the bold and unprecedented move to expand compulsory service, usually only required for defense of the coasts, to overseas service in France proved to be deeply unpopular with many of his subjects. However, the successes of the campaign did much to mute opposition when English Parliament was called at 11th – 20th September 1346.

Background

Following the outbreak of war in 1337, the Battle of Sluys was the first great battle of the Hundred Years' War, on 23 June, 1340. In the years following this battle, Edward attempted to invade France through Flanders, but failed due to financial difficulties and unstable alliances. Six years later, Edward planned a different route, and attacked Normandy, winning victories at Caen on 26 July and later the Battle of Blanchetaque on 24 August. A French plan to trap the English force between the Seine and the Somme Rivers failed, and the English escape led to the Battle of Crécy, the second of the great battles of the war.

English dispositions

As in previous battles against the Scots, Edward III disposed his forces in an area of flat agricultural land surrounded by natural obstacles on the flanks. The king installed himself and his staff in a windmill on a small hill that protected the rear, where he could control the course of the battle.
In a strong defensive position, Edward III ordered that everybody fight on foot, and distributed the army in three divisions, one commanded by his sixteen-year-old son, Edward, the Black Prince. The longbowmen were deployed in a "V-formation" along the crest of the hill. In the period of waiting that followed, the English built a system of ditches, pits and caltrops to maim and bring down the enemy cavalry.

The battle

Map of the Battle of Crécy

The French army, commanded by Philip VI, was much more disorganized, due to overconfidence on the part of his knights. Philip stationed his Genoese mercenary crossbowmen, under Ottone Doria, in the front line, with the cavalry in the back. French chronicler Froissart gives an account of the action:

Battle of Crécy (19th century engraving)

The first attack was from the crossbowmen, who launched a shower of volleys with the purpose of disorganizing and frightening the English infantry. This first move was accompanied by the sound of musical instruments, brought by Philip VI to scare the enemy. But the crossbowmen would prove completely useless. With a firing rate of three to five volleys a minute, they were no match for the longbowmen, who could fire ten to twelve arrows in the same amount of time. Furthermore, their weapons were damaged by the rain that had preceded the battle, while the longbowmen were able to simply unstring their bows until the weather improved. The crossbowmen did not have their pavises (shields), which were needed to cover them during the long reloading procedure and had remained in the baggage train. Frightened and confused, the Genoese crossbowmen retreated after heavy losses. About this time the French knights decided it was time to charge, and they ran right over the retreating Genoans. The English continued firing as the infantry advanced and many French knights fell.^[2]
Froissart writes that English cannon had made "two or three discharges on the Genoese", which is taken to mean individual shots by two or three guns because of the time taken to reload such primitive artillery.^[3] These were believed to have shot large arrows and simplistic grapeshot. The Florentine Giovanni Villani agreed that they were destructive on the field, though he also indicated that the guns continued to fire upon French cavalry later in the battle:
Seeing the poor performance of the crossbowmen, the French cavalry charged, organized in rows. However, the slope and man-made obstacles disrupted the charge. At the same time, the longbowmen continued firing volleys of arrows upon the knights. The French attack could not break the English formation, even after 16 attempts, and they took frightful casualties. Edward III's son, The Black Prince, came under attack, but his father refused to send help. The latter claimed that he wanted him to "win his spurs". The prince subsequently proved himself to be an outstanding soldier.
At nightfall, Philip VI, himself wounded, ordered the retreat. It was a disastrous and humiliating defeat for France.

Casualties

Reconstruction of a "vase cannon" that fired arrows.

The losses were enormous:

★ French and Genoese casualties are estimated to have been from 10,000 to 30,000. The most likely figure is 12,000, including eleven princes and 1200 knights.

★ The English lost from 150 to 250 men. (This is probably a low estimate and quite unreliable.)
Among the dead were such important nobles as:

★ Charles II, Count of Alençon, Philip VI's brother (b.1297)

★ John I, King of Bohemia and Count of Luxemburg; who was blind, and went into battle strapped to two other knights. (b.1296)

★ Louis I, Count of Flanders (b.1304)

★ Rudolph, Duke of Lorraine (b.1320)

★ Enguerrand VI, Lord of Coucy

Aftermath

The ridge between Crecy-en-Ponthieu and Wadicourt that was the site of the battle.

After the French left the field, the English checked the wounded French, to see who was worth taking prisoner for ransom. Those knights who were too severely wounded to be easily carried off the field were dispatched with ''misericordias'' (mercy-givers). These were long daggers which were inserted through the unprotected underarms and into the heart, or through vision slits to the brain. This was against the chivalric codes of warfare since peasants were killing knights; knights were also dying from anonymous arrows.
This battle established the military supremacy of the Welsh longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights (due to a significantly greater rate of shooting, and a longer range than the crossbows of the time in the hands of a skilled yeoman archer), and was to alter significantly the way in which war was conducted for a considerable period of time thereafter. After the Battle of Crécy, Edward III went on to besiege the city of Calais, which surrendered to him after eleven months, giving the English a base in northern France. The next major battle in the Hundred Years War, the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, would see another defeat for the French, under very similar conditions.
At this stage in history the longbow was capable of penetrating the armour in use (particularly the parts not yet covered by plates), but not all the arrows shot by the longbowmen would have found a target, or penetrated the armour of the advancing French knights if they did, partly due to the angles involved. However they would have had their horses shot out from under them, and it is worth remembering that even a non-piercing impact would still be substantial enough to bruise, wind and knock down the walking knights as they attempted to reach the English position. Froissart claimed the barrages of arrows were so heavy and frequent that they blotted out the sun when shot, and even allowing for some poetic exaggeration, not every arrow would have needed to find a target. By the time the survivors of the volleys reached the English formation, they were cut down with relative ease by the defensive arrangement of dismounted English men-at-arms. The overall effect was devastating.
When the battle had ended, and the Welsh longbowmen had returned to their home in Llantrisant, South Wales, they were given an acre of land for their bravery. They were awarded "Freemen" and were exempted from paying the taxes for letting their cattle graze. Anyone who can prove their descendence from the original Freemen can become one themselves.

Footnotes

1. ''Crécy 1346: Triumph of the longbow'', David Nicolle, Osprey Publishing Paperback; June 25 2000; ISBN-13: 9781855329669
2. Amt, p. 331.
3. ''Crécy 1346: Triumph of the longbow'', David Nicolle, Osprey Publishing Paperback; June 25 2000; ISBN: 9781855329669

Further reading

★ Andrew Ayton, Philip Preston, et al., ''The Battle of Crecy, 1346'' (Boydell Press, 2005)

★ Amt, Emilie, Ed., ''Medieval England 1000–1500: A Reader'' (Broadview Press: Peterborough, Ontario, 2001). ISBN 1-55111-244-2

★ Cornwell, Bernard, ''Harlequin'' (Harper Collins, 2000) ISBN 0-00-651384-D

External links

★ Great Battles: The Battle of Crécy (myArmoury.com article)