The Beginning of the Hundred Year War
The Hundred Years' War is the name modern historians have given to what was a series of related conflicts, fought over a 116-year period, between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of France, and later Burgundy; beginning in 1337, and ending in 1453. Historians group these conflicts under the same label. In the early years of the war, Edward III allied with the nobles of the Low Countries and the burghers of Flanders, but after two campaigns where nothing was achieved, the alliance fell apart in 1340.
The payments of subsidies to the German princes and the costs of maintaining an army abroad dragged the English government into bankruptcy, with huge damages to Edward III’s prestige. At sea, France enjoyed supremacy for some time, through the use of Geneose ships and crews. Several towns on the English coast were sacked, some repeatedly. This was a cause of fear and disruption along the English coastline. There was a constant fear through this part of the war that the French would invade. France's sea power led to economic disruptions in England as it cut down on the wool trade to Flanders and the wine trade from Gascony. However, in 1340, while attempting to hinder the English army from landing, the French fleet was almost completely destroyed in the Battle of Sluys. After this, England was able to dominate the English Channel for the rest of the war, preventing French invasions. In the years following this battle, Edward III attempted to invade France through Flanders, but failed due to financial difficulties and unstable alliances. Six years later, in July 1346, Edward III mounted a major invasion across the Channel.
The English Army Before The Battle
He landed at St. Vaast, near Cherbourg, on July 12, 1346 and marched inland. He seized the city of Caen and proceeded to Rouen. He soon realized that the bridge over the Seine had been broken down, and that King Philip of France was on the opposite bank with a large army. Edward then marched towards Paris, as if he were going to attack it, and when the French king followed him, suddenly turned back, and got across the Seine. He then marched on and came to the river Somme. Here again all the bridges had been broken down. Three times he tried to cross the river, but in vain. At last a peasant told him of a ford over the river known as Blanchetaque (from the white stones in the bed of the river). He crossed by this, but not without a fight. Marching a few miles further on he came to a place called Crécy, about ten miles from the ford of Blanchetaque. He transferred his army to the nearby woods as a defensive measure against the anticipated French attack.
Edward and his army were intensely convinced of the narrowness of their deliverance. That night they rejoiced; the countryside was full of food; the King gathered his chiefs to supper and afterwards to prayer. But it was certain they could not gain the coast without a battle. No other resolve was open than to fight at enormous odds. The King and the Prince of Wales, afterwards famous as the Black Prince, received all the offices of religion, and Edward prayed that the impending battle should at least leave him un-stripped of honour.
The army of Edward III (comprising 12,000 men, out of which two thirds were archers), took up a good position on a gentle slope with both wings protected.
The right wing, closest to Crécy, was commanded by Edward’s son, the sixteen-year-old Black Prince, who was accompanied by the counts of Warwick and Oxford, Sir Godfrey of Harcourt, and four knights from the Order of the Garter: Sir Thomas Holland, Sir John Chandos, Lord Stafford, and Lord Burghersh. With them were 1,000 armour-clad cavalrymen, 1,000 Welsh light-armed cavalrymen, and about 3,000 archers.
The right wing, closest to Crécy, was commanded by Edward’s son, the sixteen-year-old Black Prince, who was accompanied by the counts of Warwick and Oxford, Sir Godfrey of Harcourt, and four knights from the Order of the Garter: Sir Thomas Holland, Sir John Chandos, Lord Stafford, and Lord Burghersh. With them were 1,000 armour-clad cavalrymen, 1,000 Welsh light-armed cavalrymen, and about 3,000 archers.
On the left, not far from the village of Wadicourt, were positioned the Count of Northampton, Count Arundel, and the Bishop of Durham, with 1,000 armour-clad cavalrymen, 3,000 archers, and Welsh infantrymen.
The royal reserve was placed up the slope, and covered the gap between the two spearheads. It consisted of 700 dismounted armour-clad knights and approximately 2,000 archers. Edward himself headed this formation. The king took up his position in a windmill halfway between his and Prince of Wales’s detachments. He could watch the whole operation and issue orders from there.
The royal reserve was placed up the slope, and covered the gap between the two spearheads. It consisted of 700 dismounted armour-clad knights and approximately 2,000 archers. Edward himself headed this formation. The king took up his position in a windmill halfway between his and Prince of Wales’s detachments. He could watch the whole operation and issue orders from there.
The main body of each unit was a tight phalanx made up of 1,000 dismounted armed men probably 6 ranks deep and about 250 yards (225 m) long. The archers were grouped on the outside wings of each detachment, and staggered in steps to gain convergent firing positions. Wing archers of both spearheads formed an inverted ”V“ ahead of the army, tip pointing towards the enemy. It is not known whether the Welsh light infantry was mixed with the archers or stood close together with the dismounted armed men in the central phalanx.
There was a small reserve of armour-clad cavalrymen behind the centre of each unit, ready to counterattack swiftly if the French offensive penetrated the front lines.
During the day the English and Welsh infantrymen built a system of ditches, pits and caltrops to maim and bring down the enemy cavalry. Crécy was probably the first European battle where gunpowder weapons were used. However, they did not influence the result of the battle extensively.
During the day the English and Welsh infantrymen built a system of ditches, pits and caltrops to maim and bring down the enemy cavalry. Crécy was probably the first European battle where gunpowder weapons were used. However, they did not influence the result of the battle extensively.
The French Army Before The Battle
The French army led by King Philip VI was both cosmopolitan and disorientated. Besides the French nobility there was the Roman King Charles IV, the Counts of Namur and Hainalt, the Duke of Lorraine, and King Jaime II of Majorca as well as several hundred German and Czech knights headed by the blind Czech King Jan of Luxembourg. The French army was composed of 12,000 armour-clad knights and cavalrymen (the flower of French chivalry), approximately 17,000 light-armed cavalry men, and over 25,000 recruits - an undisciplined crowd of foot-soldiers , who were only a small contribution to the French tactics. On the contrary, a contingent of 6,000 Genoese crossbowmen led by Odone Doria and Carl Grimaldi was of great significance
The Course Of Battle
King Philip at sunrise on this same Saturday, August 26, 1346, heard Mass in the monastery of Abbeville, and his whole army, gigantic for those times, rolled forward in their long pursuit. Four knights were sent forth to reconnoitre. About midday the King, having arrived with large masses on the farther bank of the Somme, received their reports. The English were in battle array and meant to fight. He gave the sage counsel to halt for the day, bring up the rear, form the battle-line, and attack on the morrow. These orders were carried to all parts of the army. But the thought of leaving, even for a day, this hated foe, who had for so many marches fled before overwhelming forces, and was now compelled to come to grips, was unendurable to the French army. What surety had they that the morrow might not see their enemies decamped and the field bare? It became impossible to control the forward movement. All the roads and tracks from Abbeville to Crécy were black and glittering with the marching columns. King Philip's orders were obeyed by some, rejected by most. While many great bodies halted obediently, still larger masses poured forward, forcing their way through the stationary or withdrawing troops, and about five in the afternoon came face to face with the English army lying in full view on the broad slopes of Crécy. Here they stopped.
King Philip, arriving on the scene, was carried away by the ardour of the throng around him. The sun was already low; nevertheless all were determined to engage. There was a corps of six thousand Genoese cross-bowmen in the van of the army. These were ordered to make their way through the masses of horsemen, and with their missiles break up the hostile array in preparation for the cavalry attacks. The Genoese had marched eighteen miles in full battle order with their heavy weapons and store of bolts. Fatigued, they made it plain that they were in no condition to do much that day. But the Count d'Alençon, who had covered the distance on horseback, did not accept this remonstrance kindly. “This is what one gets,” he exclaimed, “by employing such scoundrels, who fall off when there is anything for them to do.” Forward the Genoese!
At this moment, while the cross-bowmen were threading their way to the front under many scornful glances, dark clouds swept across the sun and a short, drenching storm beat upon the hosts. A large flight of crows flew cawing through the air above the French in gloomy presage. The storm, after wetting the bow-strings of the Genoese, passed as quickly as it had come, and the setting sun shone brightly in their eyes and on the backs of the English. This, like the crows, was adverse, but it was more material. The Genoese, drawing out their array, gave a loud shout, advanced a few steps, shouted again, and a third time advanced until they stopped about 135 m short of the English front and discharged their bolts. Because of the wet bowstrings, the quarrels did not reach far enough. Unbroken silence had wrapped the English lines, but at this the archers, six or seven thousand strong, ranged on both flanks in “portcullis” formation, who had hitherto stood motionless, advanced one step, drew their bows to the ear, and came into action. They “shot their arrows with such force and quickness, that it seemed as if it snowed”, wrote Jean Froissart , one of the most important of the chroniclers of medieval France, in his “Chronicles”, the most important sources for the first half of the Hundred Years' War. Froissart, “
The effect upon the Genoese was annihilating; at a range which their own weapons could not attain they were in a few minutes killed by thousands. The ground was covered with feathered corpses. Reeling before this blast of missile destruction, the like of which had not been known in war, the survivors recoiled in rout upon the eager ranks of the French chivalry and men-at-arms, which stood just out of arrow-shot. “Kill me those scoundrels,” cried King Philip in fury, “for they stop up our road without any reason.” Whereupon the front line of the French cavalry rode among the retreating Genoese, cutting them down with their swords. In doing so they came within the deadly distance. The arrow snowstorm beat upon them, piercing their mail and smiting horse and man. Valiant squadrons from behind rode forward into the welter, and upon all fell the arrow hail, making the horses caper, and strewing the field with richly dressed warriors. A hideous disorder reigned. And now Welsh and Cornish light infantry, slipping through the chequered ranks of the archers, came forward with their long knives and, “falling upon earls, barons, knights, and squires, slew many, at which the King of England was afterwards exasperated.” Many a fine ransom was cast away in those improvident moments.
Only a few men of the Alecon front line managed to attack dismounted English knights after most of the French first wave had been swept away by arrows. Moreover, no measure to clean the field had been taken before the second French wave charged in to the fight. This caused more havoc, in which King Philip's ally, the blind King of Bohemia, fell. John the Blind, also count of Luxembourg, was slain a very valiant man. When he heard how the battle had been ordered, he asked (according to Froissart), "Where is my son, the Lord Charles?" His people answered, "We know not, but we believe that he is fighting Then said the King, "Gentlemen, you are all my people, my friends, and my brethren-in-arms this day; therefore, as I am blind, I beg of you that you will lead me so far into the battle, that I may be able to strike one stroke with my sword." The knights answered that they would forthwith lead him as he desired. And that they might not lose him in the crowd, they fastened all the reins of the horses together, and putting the King at their head, that he might have his wish, so advanced towards the enemy. Then the King made good use of his sword, and his companions also fought most gallantly. So far did they go with the press that they were all slain. On the morrow they were found upon the ground, with their horses all tied together. When the Black Prince approached the dead John I he said: "There lies the Prince of Chivalry, but he does not die." His personal crest (three white ostrich feathers) and motto Ich Dien ("I Serve") was then seized by Edward, the Black Prince, and since then has been used by the reigning Prince of Wales. His son, Prince Charles of Luxembourg, who as Emperor-elect of the Holy Roman Empire signed his name as King of the Romans, was more prudent, and, seeing how matters lay, departed with his following by an unnoticed route.
The main attack of the French now developed. The Count d'Alençon and the Count of Flanders led heavy cavalry charges upon the English line. Evading the archers as far as possible, they sought the men-at-arms, and French, German, and Savoyard squadrons actually reached the Prince of Wales's division. The enemy's numbers were so great that those who fought about the Prince sent to the windmill, whence King Edward directed the battle, for reinforcements. But the King would not part with his reserves, saying, “Let the boy win his spurs” — which in fact he did.
The French commanders showed no sense of tactics during the battle. Each group of knights seemed to have only one aspiration - to strike the enemy head-on, without any sign of manoeuvre or launching any flanking action.
The French attacked fifteen times in a row (the last attack after dusk), but were forced to withdraw in the end after suffering heavy losses. The English remained in their formations until dawn. When night had fallen Philip found himself with no more than sixty knights at hand. He was slightly wounded by one arrow, and his horse had been shot under him by another. Sir John Hainault, mounting him again, seized his bridle and forced him from the field upon the well-known principle which, according to Froissart, he exactly expounded, of living to fight another day. The King had but five barons with him on reaching Amiens the next morning.
Froissart: “When on the Saturday night the English heard no more hooting or shouting, nor any more crying out to particular lords, or their banners, they looked upon the field as their own and their enemies as beaten. They made great fires, and lighted torches because of the obscurity of the night. King Edward who all that day had not put on his helmet, then came down from his post, and, with his whole battalion, advanced to the Prince of Wales, whom he embraced in his arms and kissed, and said, ‘Sweet son, God give you good perseverance. You are my son, for most loyally have you acquitted yourself this day. You are worthy to be a sovereign.’ The Prince bowed down very low, and humbled himself, giving all honour to the King his father.”
On the Sunday morning fog enshrouded the battlefield, and the King sent a strong force of five hundred lancers and two thousand archers to learn what lay upon his front. These met the columns of the French rear, still marching up from Rouen to Beauvais in ignorance of the defeat, and fell upon them. After this engagement the bodies of 1,542 knights and esquires were counted upon the field. Later this force met with the troops of the Archbishop of Rouen and the Grand Prior of France, who were similarly unaware of the event, and were routed with much slaughter. They also found very large numbers of stragglers and wandering knights, and “put to the sword all they met.” “It has been assured to me for fact,”wrote Froissart, “that of foot-soldiers, sent from the cities, towns, and municipalities, there were slain, this Sunday morning, four times as many as in the battle of the Saturday.”
John the Blind (10 August 1296 – 26 August 1346)
In the evening of the battle the triumphant English king summoned clergymen and barons, who were knowledgeable in heraldry: "And he commanded them to count the dead and to record the names of the knights they could recognize." More than 17,000 dead, among them under 11 princes, 1,200 knight and 4,000 squires, most of them of French, covered the battlefield of Crecy on August 26, 1346. One of the most distinguished fallen lay crushed between horse cadavers. He was only identified by the ostrich feathers of his helmet – John I, King of Bohemia and Count of Luxemburg who had fought on the French side. "Today fell the cream of the knighthood", said the English King when one showed him the body of John I, "yet no one was as brave as he was."
In the late afternoon John I. had intervened into the battle and had found death immediately - that he probably also desired; the man was of course blind. His escort had tried in vain to hold him off of his intention, had described the hopeless situation to him, the battle already lost, thousands of Frenchmen had already lost their lives - yet John I wanted to draw his sword a last time.
Two knights took him in the middle, to make sure he would not get lost in the melée the battle horses were connected with chains. At a gallop, they went into battle where the English long archers mowed down the planless attacking knights of the king of France for hours, where for the first time canons were used which provided for additional confusion. Soon, of John I and his escort was nothing to be seen in the melée.
Throne Disorders
The King of Bohemia originated from Luxembourg - as John the Blind or how he is named in its homeland, the "Blanne Jann" he became part of history. John I was born as on the 10 August 1296, his father, Count Heinrich of Luxembourg, was elected 1308 to the German King and should even attain the Roman Emperor crown. Throne disorders in Bohemia - the reigning dynasty of the Przemyslides ceased to exist in 1306 – resulted in the domestic nobility pressing King Henry VII in the year 1310 to enfeoff his son with Bohemia and to protect the succession to throne through a marriage with Elisabeth, the youngest daughter of the deceased Wenzel II dynasticly. Wedding and enfeoffment occurred at the end of August 1310 in Speyer - unexpectedly the House of Luxembourg had won one of the most important territories of the empire.
After the early death of the father (1313), John had to bow to the tactical considerations of the Archbishop of Trier, his uncle, and to elect the Wittelsbacher Ludwig, "the Bavarian", to the German King. Mentally he never recovered from the renunciation of an own candidacy. Also in the Kingdom of Bohemia the things did not develop to the best; John I and Elisabeth were crowned at the Prague Castle in February 1311 however, the Bohemian nobility opposed the intentions of the new king to construct a strong central authority from the beginning. After 1315, it came to a regular civil war, in which the nobility party retained finally the upper hand; in April 1318 John I announced an amnesty for the leaders of the opposition at the Parliament of Taus, moreover he promised to release all Germans from their functions.
Unrestrained Life
It came to the breach within the royal family. Elizabeth, mother of four children, could not settle things with the defeat of her husband and after evil intrigues on both sides John I even withdrew the upbringing of the children. The couple did not seem to have had had a real romantic relationship. Czech chroniclers have passed on numerous stories of the unrestrained mode of life of the king, who prowled around best in brothels and taverns and who sometimes was located in the gutter of the darkest quarters of Prague.
Taus meant a turning point in the life John I. After the failure of his ambitions related to home affairs, he started a unique "tour d' Europe". The Czechs who did not see him sometimes for years gave him the nickname "kral cizinec" (king stranger). He was seen fighting on many seats of war of the continent: in the German throne dispute he fought for Bavaria, in France he visited it festivals and tournaments; as a guest of the German of knight order one against Prussians and Lithuanians and three times did he attend the “Prussian Journey”, a procedure of the European High Nobility to fulfil its vow of crusade. On one of these trips to the East Prussian swamps, in 1337, John I caught an inflammation of the right eye. In Breslau (today Wrcoclaw) the treatment of a French physician aggravated the evil. John I let the man drown in the river Oder. His right eye turned blind.
In the last days of the year 1330, the Bohemian King went to Italy when the inhabitants of Brescia appealed for help. The political system of the peninsula had fallen completely to pieces, there was no order, cities and potentates led a perpetual battle against everybody; in addition came arguments between order and sect that suspected themselves mutually the heresy and looked at murder and manslaughter as theological arguments.
Initially John I was able to obtain some success, a few cities imputed themselves under his sovereign authority. But already in 1331 the first setbacks occurred. Guelphs and Ghibellines fought suddenly side by side against the intruder, the "Boemino". In 1333 John I left the country; he had done nothing good, but rather huge money wasted, called him an author from Parma after.
The failure of the Italian adventure resulted in John I concentrating his activities on East Central Europe. In the west Johann acted as a loyal ally of France. Luxembourg had a strong relationship based on various marriages with the French royalty. In August 1337 a contract was signed, which obligated John to allocate 500 "helmets" for the war against England. Meanwhile, the old English-French animosity had reached European dimensions - when with the death of Charles IV the house of Capet became extinct the English king Eduard III put in a claim to the French throne as his mother was a Capet. In the meantime, the Parisian parliament excluded a succession over the feminine line and proclaimed Philipp of Valois to the king. Edward first came to terms with with the Valois-succession - yet a few years later took the title "King of France"; after the victory of the Naval Battle of Sluys in 1340 an English bridgehead was formed in the north France.
The Black Prince
John I had ridden in January the same year to Montpellier, whose medical faculty had promised the healing of its eye trouble. The operation that the physicians carried out at the left eye, failed and led to entire blindness. The king put up with his fate with great firmness; already in the summer he returned to the bivouac of the Valois. Even when Edward, again, ferried across to the mainland with a small army in the summer 1346 John I was one of the first who granted the request for help of Philip IV: "Also if I am blind, must I yet defend the children of my daughter against the English usurpers", has he been quoted. Since 1332 was his daughter Guta was married with the French successor to the throne.
And so, on 26 August, 1346, John I stood and fell on the fields of Crecy. The knighthood, that celebrated its highpoints in the 14th century in its rituals and on literary field, gave its first large farewell performance as a military factor in Crecy . Edward and his army leaders however celebrated the victory: "they fed and drank in great joy on account of the lovely adventure, that they had come safely through."
Edwards son, the Prince of Wales, called the Black Prince, was the actual victor of the battle - he bended over the corpse of John I, struck off the ostrich feathers of his helmet and decorated his own - moreover he transferred John´s chivalrous motto "Ich dien”. In slightly altered form ("I serve"), it belongs yet today to the crest of the respective English successor of the throne.
Casualties
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,1.200 knights and an Archbishop.
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
John I, King of Bohemia and Count of LuxemburgLouis I, Count of Flanders
Rudolph, Duke of Lorraine