Battle of Crécy

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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 used have caused many historians to consider this battle the beginning of the end of chivalry.

Contents

1 Significance
2 Background
3 English dispositions
4 The battle
5 Casualties
6 Aftermath
7 Footnotes
8 Further reading

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, 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.

However, 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 English arrow storms, were cut down by bodkin arrows. 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).

As in later battles, while the longbowmen could not easily penetrate the knights' much-improved armor, they found flank areas of the opposition's horses which were unprotected and killed or disabled their mounts, leaving the knights floundering about on foot.

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.

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 placed his forces in an area of flat agricultural land, surrounded by natural obstacles on 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 to 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 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 Crecy

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. French chronicler Froissart gives an account of the action:

"The English, who were drawn up in three divisions and seated on the ground, on seeing their enemies advance, arose boldly and fell into their ranks...You must know that these kings, earls, barons, and lords of France did not advance in any regular order...There were about fifteen thousand Genoese crossbowmen; but they were quite fatigued, having marched on foot that day six leagues, completely armed, and with their crossbows. They told the constable that they were not in a fit condition to do any great things that day in battle. The earl of Alençon, hearing this, said, 'This is what one gets by employing such scoundrels, who fail when there is any need for them.'" Amt, p. 330.

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 still in the baggage train. Frightened and confused, the Genoese crossbowmen retreated after heavy losses, some of them killed by the French cavalry, who thought they were cowards. According to Froissart, the King of France himself ordered their slaughter. The English continued firing as Cornish and Welsh infantry advanced and many French knights fell.Amt, p. 331.

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 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

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)

Aftermath

Battle of Crécy (19th century engraving)

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 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.