battle of Crécy
Crécy, battle of (1346). The first major English victory on land in the Hundred Years War was achieved by dismounted men-at-arms and archers, using tactics which became classic. Edward III had landed at La Hogue in Normandy on 12 July 1346 with c.15, 000 men, of whom less than 3, 000 were men-at-arms, c.4, 000 mounted archers, and c.8, 000 foot soldiers. Although he may have planned an occupation, as he marched south and east, the expedition developed as a ferocious chevauchée, his shipping keeping abreast to carry home the enormous booty. After Caen fell (26 July), Edward announced he would seek out Philip VI of France and his army, then gathered around Paris. Ponthieu may have already been chosen for the encounter since orders were given to send supplies to the mouth of the Somme. He then marched up the Seine, reaching Poissy (13 August), whence he attacked Paris, before turning north, pursued by the enraged French.
Edward was at first unable to cross the Somme, but a ford at Blanchetacque, below Abbeville, was traversed on 24 August despite opposition. A few miles to the north-east, on a gentle slope between Crécy and Wadicourt, with a wood behind them, the English took up a position probably reconnoitred in advance. With c.25, 000 men, Philip VI left Abbeville early on 26 August, catching the English around midday. By late afternoon his troops had formed three main divisions (battles), one behind the other, with 6, 000 Genoese crossbowmen in the first rank, the main cavalry force in the second, and the king in the third. The English also formed three battles. Whether these were disposed in line abreast, with archers thrown forward on the two outer flanks; or whether the longbowmen were placed to either side of each battle (the tactics of Dupplin Moor (1332) and Halidon Hill (1333) ); and whether the two battles were in the front line, with the third, commanded by Edward in the centre but to the rear as a reserve, are matters still hotly disputed: contemporary sources are ambiguous.
When the Genoese began the attack at 17.00, they were quickly repulsed, whereupon the Count of Alençon, commanding the main cavalry, rode through the retreating archers only to meet the English archers' same devastating fire while primitive cannon (this may have been their first use in the field) caused further panic. The English right wing briefly wavered, and in the centre the ‘Black Prince’, who was ‘winning his spurs’ as his father wished, was hard pressed. But the French were broken, Philip VI fleeing the field. English casualties were light but there were thousands of French dead, among them the counts of Flanders, Alençon, and Blois, the Duke of Lorraine, and blind King John of Bohemia, whose retinue, in a supremely quixotic gesture, had, at his own request, led him into battle with their bridles tied together. If the strategic gains for Edward III were slight (it needed the capture of Calais in 1347 to consolidate Crécy), for Philip VI the battle was not only a military disaster but also a political catastrophe.
Bibliography
- Bennett, M., ‘The Development of Battle Tactics in the Hundred Years War’, in A. Curry and M. Hughes (eds.), Arms, Armies and Fortifications in the Hundred Years War (Woodbridge, 1994).
- Sumption, J., The Hundred Years War, vol.
1 . Trial by Battle (London, 1990)
— Danny M. Johnson
