page_title: Battle of Calais
section_title: Charny's revenge
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Calais / Aftermath / Charny's revenge
caption_attribution_description: Clock Tower of Guînes
context_page_description: The Battle of Calais took place in 1350 when an English force defeated an unsuspecting French army which was attempting to take the city. Despite a truce being in effect the French commander Geoffrey de Charny had planned to take the city by subterfuge, and bribed Amerigo of Pavia, an Italian officer of the city garrison, to open a gate for them. The English king, Edward III, became aware of the plot and personally led his household knights and the Calais garrison in a surprise counter-attack. The French were routed by this smaller force, with significant losses and all of their leaders captured or killed.
  Later that day, Edward III dined with the highest-ranking captives, treating them with royal courtesy except for Charny, whom he taunted for having abandoned his chivalric principles by both fighting during a truce and attempting to purchase his way into Calais rather than fight. As Charny was considered a paragon of knightly behaviour, the accusations struck deep, and were frequently repeated in subsequent English propaganda, as Charny was to write several authoritative books on chivalry.
context_section_description: In late 1350 Raoul, Count of Eu, the Grand Constable of France, returned after more than four years in English captivity. He was on parole from Edward III personally, pending the handover of his ransom. This had been set at an exorbitant 80,000 écus, too high for Raoul to afford. It had been agreed that he would instead hand over the town of Guînes, which was in his possession. This was a common method of settling ransoms. Guînes had an extremely strong keep, and was the leading fortification in the French defensive ring around Calais. English possession would go a long way to securing Calais against more surprise assaults. Guînes was of little financial value to Raoul, and it was clear that Edward was only prepared to accept it in lieu of a full ransom payment because of its strategic position.
  Angered by the attempt to weaken the blockade of Calais, the new French king, John II, promptly had Raoul executed for treason. The perceived interference of the crown in a nobleman's personal affairs, especially one of such high status, caused an uproar in France. Charny had served under Raoul during his first military campaigns and was related by marriage, but his views on the situation are not known. The English made much of this in their diplomatic and propaganda campaigns.
  In early January 1352 a band of freelancing English soldiers seized Guînes by a midnight escalade. The French were furious, the acting-commander was drawn and quartered for dereliction of duty at Charny's behest, and a strong protest was sent to Edward III. He was thereby put in a difficult position because of the flagrant breach of the truce. Retaining Guînes would mean a loss of honour and a resumption of open warfare, for which he was unprepared. He ordered the English occupants to hand it back.
  The English parliament was scheduled to assemble the following week. Several members of the King's Council made fiery, warmongering speeches and the parliament was persuaded to approve three years of war taxes. Reassured that he had adequate financial backing, Edward III changed his mind. By the end of January the Captain of Calais had fresh orders: to take over the garrisoning of Guînes in the King's name; and thus the war resumed.
  The English had been strengthening the defences of Calais with the construction of fortified towers or bastions at bottlenecks on the roads through the marshes to the town. With the war resumed Amerigo had returned to English service. It was felt that his service at Calais had earned him a position of responsibility, but he was not trusted enough to be assigned to any place where a betrayal would be a devastating blow. He was placed in charge of a new tower at Fretun, 3 miles (4.8 km) south west of Calais.
  The main French effort of this round of fighting was against Guînes. Geoffrey de Charny was again put in charge of all French forces in the north east. He assembled an army of 4,500 men, against the English garrison of 115. He reoccupied the town, but in spite of fighting described as savage, he failed to take the keep. In July the Calais garrison launched a surprise night attack on Charny's army, killing many Frenchmen and destroying their siege works.
  Shortly after, Charny abandoned the siege and marched his army to Fretun where it launched a surprise attack during the night of 24/25 July. Assailed by an entire French army, the night watch fled. According to one near-contemporary account by Jean Froissart, Amerigo was found still in bed, with his English mistress. Charny took him to Saint-Omer, where he disbanded his troops. Before they departed they gathered, together with the populace from miles around, to witness Amerigo being tortured to death with hot irons and quartered with an axe; his remains were displayed above the town gates. Charny neither garrisoned nor slighted Fretun, to reinforce his view that his argument was a personal one with Amerigo, which entitled Charny to attack the tower to capture him; and that he had acted with honour in leaving it to be reoccupied by the English.
  Charny was killed in 1356 at the Battle
caption: The keep at Guînes in 2007
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