Battle of Crécy

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Battle of Crécy
Image:BattleofCrecyEngraving.jpg
Conflict: Hundred Years' War
Date: 26 August, 1346
Place: South of Calais, near Crécy-en-Ponthieu
Outcome: Decisive English victory
Combatants
Kingdom of England	France
Commanders
Edward III of England	Philip VI of France
Strength
about 12,000	30,000 to 40,000
Casualties
150-1,000 killed and wounded	6,000-20,000 killed and wounded
Hundred Years' War Sluys – Crécy – Calais – Poitiers – Auray – Agincourt – Rouen – Bauge – Cravant – Verneuil – Orléans – Patay – Gerbevoy – Formigny – Castillon

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. Because of new weapons and tactics used, the battle is seen by many historians as the beginning of the end of chivalry.

Contents 1 Significance 2 Background 3 English dispositions 4 The battle 5 Casualties 6 Aftermath

Significance

Crécy was a battle in which a much smaller English army of approximately 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. It was a battle where the effectiveness of the English longbow, used en masse, was proven against armoured knights. The French knights, in plate armour, were cut down by the bodkin arrows as they charged the English position up a hill. The result was that the flower of the French nobility died, perhaps as many as a third (the actual number for each army varies considerably, according to the source used).

The battle is seen by many historians as the beginning of the end of chivalry; because 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.

Background

The Battle of Sluys was the first great battle of the Hundred Years' War, on 23 June, 1340. After this battle, Edward attempted to invade France through Flanders, yet failed. Six years later, Edward attacked Normandy, and the number of easy victories that followed led to the Battle of Crécy, the second great battle of the war.

English dispositions

As in the previous battles against the Scottish, Edward III placed his forces in an area of flat agricultural land, surrounded by natural obstacles in the flanks. The king placed 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 should fight on foot, and distributed the army between three groups. His sixteen-year-old son, Edward, the Black Prince, was to command one of them. The army's secret weapon, the longbowmen, were formed 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

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 in the front line, with the cavalry in the back.

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 period of time. Furthermore, their weapons were damaged by the rain that had fallen before the battle, while the longbowmen were able to avoid harm to their weapons by simply unstringing their bows until the weather improved. The crossbowmen did not have their pavises (shields), which were still in the baggage train. Frightened and confused, the Genoese crossbowmen retreated with heavy losses, some of them killed by the French cavalry, who thought they were cowards.

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 fired a curtain of arrows upon the knights. The French attack could not break the English formation, even after 16 attempts, and they took frightful losses. 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 consequently proved himself to be a good soldier.

At nightfall, Philip VI, himself wounded, ordered the retreat. It was a disastrous and humiliating defeat for France.

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. Of these, eleven were princes, and 1200 were knights.
• The English lost from 150 to 250 men. (This is probably a low estimate; and quite unreliable.)

Among the dead were important nobles such as:

• Charles II, Count of Alençon, Philip VI's brother (b.1297)
• John I, Count of Luxemburg and King of Bohemia; 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)

Aftermath

After the French left the field, the Welsh and 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. This was against the chivalric codes of warfare since peasants, such as the Welsh, were killing knights; knights were also dying from anonymous arrows.

This battle established the military supremacy of the English/Welsh longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights (due to a significantly greater rate of fire, and a longer range in the hands of a skilled 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 shortly afterwards, 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.