Chevauchée is a term which occurs in many chronicles relating to the period of the Hundred Years War. It is often translated in modern works as ‘raid’, but more accurately means ‘ride’. The reality was that a chevauchée was a campaign of destruction, pillage, and chaos perpetrated by English forces in French territories in an attempt to encourage acceptance of English hegemony. A chevauchée would typically involve a mobile English force striking deep into French territory looting, pillaging, and destroying all in its path, including towns and villages, but avoiding centres of enemy strength. Contact with enemy armies was to be avoided, unless absolutely necessary or if the English force was considerably superior.
The English employed the chevauchée many times, and the major battles of the period— Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt—all resulted from chevauchées where the English army had been run down and forced to fight. After 1415, Henry V abandoned the chevauchée and switched to a policy of systematic conquest as the only means of bringing northern France under full English rule.
Bibliography
- Jones, A., The Art of War in the Western World (New York, 1987).
- Oman, C., The Art of War in the Middle Ages, vol.
ii , 1278-1485 (London, 1991)
— Brian Bond
