The Hundred Years' War Battle of Crecy 20,000-80,000 men Battle of Crécy Overview: Seeking to invade France in 1346, King Edward III landed in Normandy that July. Quickly capturing Caen on July 26, Edward moved east towards the Seine. Alerted that King Philip VI was assembling a large army in Paris, Edward turned north and began moving along the coast. Pressing on, he crossed the Somme after winning the Battle of Blanchetaque on August 24. Tired from their endeavors, the English army encamped near the Forest of Crécy. Eager to defeat the English and angry that he had failed to trap them between the Seine and Somme, Philip raced towards Crécy with his men. Alerted to the approach of the French army, Edward deployed his men along a ridge between the villages of Crécy and Wadicourt. Dividing his army, Edward assigned command of the right division to his sixteen-year old son Edward, the Black Prince with assistance from the Earls of Oxford and Warwick, as well as Sir John Chandos.

The left division was led by the Earl of Northampton, while Edward, commanding from a vantage point in a windmill, retained leadership of the reserve. These divisions were supported by large numbers of archers equipped with the English longbow . While waiting for the French to arrive, the English busied themselves by digging ditches and laying out caltrops in front of their position. Advancing north from Abbeyville, the lead elements of Philip's army arrived near the English lines around mid-day on August 26. Scouting the enemy position, they recommended to Philip that they encamp, rest, and wait for the entire army to arrive. While Philip agreed with this approach, he was overruled by his nobles who wished to attack the English without delay. Quickly forming for battle, the French did not wait for the bulk of their infantry or supply train to arrive. Advancing with Antonio Doria and Carlo Grimaldi's Genoese crossbowmen in the lead, the French knights followed with lines led by the Duke D’Alencon, Duke of Lorraine, and Count of Blois, while Philip commanded the rearguard. Moving to the attack, the crossbowmen fired a series of volleys at the English.

These proved ineffective as a brief thunderstorm before the battle had wet and slackened the crossbowstrings. The English archers on the other hand had simply untied their bowstrings during the storm. This coupled with the longbow's ability to fire every five seconds gave the English archers a dramatic advantage over the crossbowmen who could only get off one to two shots per minute. The Genoese position was worsened by the fact that in the rush to battle their pervises (shields to hide behind while reloading) had not been brought forward. Coming under devastating fire from Edward's archers, the Genoese began withdrawing. Angered by the crossbowmen's retreat, the French knights fired insults at them and even cut several down. Charging forward, the French front lines fell into confusion as they collided with the retreating Genoese. As the two bodies of men tried to move past each other they came under fire from the English archers and five early cannon (some sources debate their presence). Continuing the attack, the French knights were forced to negotiate the slope of the ridge and the man-made obstacles. Cut down in large numbers by the archers, the felled knights and their horses blocked the advance of those to the rear.

During this time, Edward received a message from his son requesting aid. Upon learning that the younger Edward was healthy, the king refused stating "“I am confident he will repel the enemy without my help," and "Let the boy win his spurs." As evening approached the English line held, repelling sixteen French charges. Each time, the English archers brought down the attacking knights. With darkness falling, a wounded Philip, recognizing he had been defeated, ordered a retreat and fell back to the castle at La Boyes. Aftermath: The Battle of Crécy was one of the greatest English victories of the Hundred Years' War and established the superiority of the longbow against mounted knights. In the fighting, Edward lost between 100-300 killed, while Philip suffered around 13,000-14,000 (some sources indicate it may have been as high as 30,000). Among the French losses were the heart of the nation's nobility including the Duke of Lorraine, Count of Blois, and the Count of Flanders, as well as John, King of Bohemia and the King of Majorca. In addition eight other counts and three archbishops were slain.

In the wake of the battle, the Black Prince paid tribute to the nearly blind King John of Bohemia, who had fought valiantly before being slain, by taking his shield and making it his own. Having "earned his spurs," the Black Prince became one of his father's best field commanders and won a stunning victory at Poitiers in 1356. Following the victory at Crécy, Edward continued north and laid siege to Calais. The city fell the next year and became a key English base for the remainder of the conflict. Selected Sources Battle of Crecy - Aug 26, 1346 - HISTORY.com Battle of Crecy Publisher A+E Networks During the Hundred Years War, King Edward III’s English army annihilates a French force under King Philip VI at the Battle of Crecy in Normandy. The battle, which saw an early use of the deadly longbow by the English, is regarded as one of the most decisive in history. On July 12, 1346, Edward landed an invasion force of about 14,000 men on the coast of Normandy. From there, the English army marched northward, plundering the French countryside.

Learning of the Englishmen’s arrival, King Philip rallied an army of 12,000 men, made up of approximately 8,000 mounted knights and 4,000 hired Genoese crossbowmen. At Crecy, Edward halted his army and prepared for the French assault. Late in the afternoon of August 26, Philip’s army attacked. The Genoese crossbowmen led the assault, but they were soon overwhelmed by Edward’s 10,000 longbowmen, who could reload faster and fire much further. The crossbowmen then retreated and the French mounted knights attempted to penetrate the English infantry lines. In charge after charge, the horses and riders were cut down in the merciless shower of arrows. At nightfall, the French finally withdrew. Nearly a third of their army lay slain on the field, including Philip’s brother, Charles II of Alencon; his allies King John of Bohemia and Louis II of Nevers; and 1,500 other knights and esquires. Philip himself escaped with a wound. English losses were less than a hundred. The battle marked the decline of the mounted knight in European warfare and the rise of England as a world power.

From Crecy, Edward marched on to Calais, which surrendered to him in 1347. Related Videos The Battle of Crecy, August 26, 1346. [Hundred Years' War] The Battle of Crécy, fought between Edward III of England and King Philip VI of France, was one of the most important battles in the Hundred Years' War . Sources disagree over the size of the armies, the English army cited as numbering 10-34,000 strong, the French army 35-120,000 strong. Due to their organization, their cannons, and their longbowmen, the English won the day. The new weapons and tactics employed marked an end to the era of the feudal warfare of knights on horseback. —AJ. BATTLE OF CRÉCY (August 26, 1346) The Battle of Crécy (1346).—The first great combat of the long war was the famous battle of Crécy.

Edward had invaded France with an army of 30,000 men, made up largely of English bowmen, and had penetrated far into the country, ravaging as he went, when he finally halted, and faced the pursuing French army near the village of Crécy, where he inflicted upon it a most terrible defeat. 1,200 knights, the flower of French chivalry, and 30,000 foot-soldiers lay dead upon the field. The great battle of Crécy is memorable for several reasons. It was here that cannons were first used in open battle, though some time before this rude artillery had been employed by the Spanish Moors in siege operations. The guns used at Crécy were very clumsy affairs, and were described by a French writer as engines "which, with fire, threw little iron balls to frighten the horses."1 It was on this field, too, that the eldest son of Edward III, known, from the color of the armor he wore, as the Black Prince , earned his spurs, the symbol of knighthood, and a fame which the English have loved to keep green.

This favorite prince was only sixteen years of age, but his father, notwithstanding, with a confidence in the temper and judgment of the boy which the event showed was not misplaced, entrusted him with the command of one of the main divisions of the army. The king himself took no active part in the battle, but watched the fight from an old windmill which overlooked the field. In the midst of the battle a messenger came in hot haste to the king, beseeching aid for the prince, who, he represented, was hard pressed by the enemy. "Do not send to me so long as my son lives; let the boy win his spurs; let the day be his," was Edward's only reply to the entreaty. And the young prince won both his spurs and the day. The battle of Crécy also derives a certain interest from the fact that there Feudalism and Chivalry received their death-blow. The yeomanry of England there showed themselves superior to the chivalry of France. "The lesson which England had learned at Bannockburn she taught the world at Crécy. The whole social and political fabric of the Middle Ages rested on a military base, and its base was suddenly withdrawn.

The churl had struck down the noble; the bondsman proved more than a match, in sheer hard fighting, for the knight. From the day of Crécy, Feudalism tottered slowly but surely to its grave."2 The battles of the world were hereafter to be fought and won, not by mail-clad knights with battle-ax and lance, but by common footsoldiers with bow and gun. The death of the blind king John of Bohemia, Philip's ally, who fell with the chivalry of France on the fatal field, added another incident to the record of the memorable day. The veteran warrior, when he learned that the battle was going hard with the French, ordered his companions to fasten his horse's bridle to theirs, and lead him into the thickest of the fight, where he and his faithful nobles fell dead together. The old king's crest and motto, which consisted of a triple ostrich plume with the legend Ich Dien, "I serve," were adopted by the Prince of Wales , and from that day to this have been worn by his successors. 1. J. R. Green. A Short History of the English People. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1876.

220. link 2. ibid. 244. link List of 5 Most Significant Battles of the Hundred Years' War - History Lists HISTORY LISTS You are here: History Lists · Events · List of 5 Most Significant Battles of the Hundred Years' War List of 5 Most Significant Battles of the Hundred Years' War The Hundred Years' War was fought between France and England over the French throne from 1337 to 1453 which is even longer than 100 years. The war, however, was not fought continuously but in phases which initially evolved in the English favor. But the tide of war lastly turned in the French favor. By 1453, the French throne was secured by the House of Valois (a cadet branch of the extinct House of Capet), while all English possessions in France with the exception of Calais were lost. Nevertheless, the English won three of five most significant battles of the Hundred Years' War.

Battle of Crecy (August 26, 1346) The battle which was fought at the village of Crecy in northern France went into history for the disastrous defeat of the French despite the fact that they had a considerable numerical superiority. The Genoese mercenary crossbowmen and later the elite force of French knights proved to be an easy target for the English longbowmen. Victory at Crecy enabled Edward III of England to lay siege to Calais and force the city defenders to surrender one year later. Battle of Poitiers (September 19, 1356) Son of Edward III of England, Edward the Black Prince heavily defeated the superior French army near Poitiers, the today’s capital of the French region of Poitou-Charentes. Again, the English longbowmen played the decisive role in the outcome of the battle. The French king John II was captured during the battle and taken to England. He was released in 1360 after he promised to pay an enormous ransom. Battle of Agincourt (October 25, 1415) The battle marked the last of the three brilliant English victories in the Hundred Years’ War against France.

The English, commanded by King Henry V decisively defeated the numerically superior French army and conquered much of France. The English, however, failed to achieve a decisive victory in the war which entered into a new phase after the Battle of Agincourt and gradually turned in the French favor. Lifting of the Siege of Orleans (May 8, 1429) Joan of Arc, a 17-year old French peasant girl who claimed divine guidance lifted the Siege of Orleans which marked the turning point in the Hundred Years’ War. One of the greatest successes of the French army during the entire war enabled Charles VII to travel to Rheims to be crowned as King of France but it also significantly increased the morale among the French soldiers. In 1430, Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians who handed her over to the English. She was burned at the stake for heresy in the same year. Battle of Castillon (July 17, 1453) The battle which ended with the French victory marked the end of the Hundred Years’ War between France and England although a peace treaty was never signed.

The English who achieved several major victories during the course of the war lost all their possession in France except for Calais which was recaptured by the French only in 1558. The battle, however, also went into history as the first battle in Europe in which cannons played a decisive role. The Battle Of Crécy - YouTube The Battle Of Crécy Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jun 21, 2015 The Battle of Crécy (26 August 1346) was an important English victory during the Edwardian phase of the Hundred Years' War. Coupled with the later battles of Poitiers (also fought during the Edwardian phase) and Agincourt, it formed the first of three decisive English successes during the conflict.

Category Crecy CRECY - 26 August 1346 The first and biggest battle in which longbow men fought against knights and won against overwhelming numbers and repeated charges into the darkness. The battle of Crécy was a resounding victory for the English longbow men during the 100-year war and was fought on 26 August 1346 by the Army of King Edward III and King Philip VI of France. A large army of King Philip VI of France numbering some 30,000 to 40,000 men, was in close pursuit of King Edward III. The latter had had to cross the Somme river at a ford known as Blanchetacque, downstream of Abbeville. This had to be undertaken at low tide, leaving a detachment of the French army and Genoese crossbowmen on the North shore time to prepare. Longbowmen were the first to wade in to a volley of crossbow bolts. They overcame the opposition at considerable cost. The English in turn now left a rearguard on the North shore while the tide rose and stopped the main French army coming up behind them.

The English army moved swiftly North-west to take and despoil le Crotoy on the other (North) shore of the Somme estuary. They also cleared much of the countryside of resistance towards the East. The main French Army, unable to make the crossing at the same ford, moved South-eastwards inland to Abbeville. The following day much of the French army, which included 6000 Genoese crossbowmen as well as some and German mercenaries, proceeded North-west from Abbeville to the Crotoy. Smoking fires had encouraged them into thinking the English were still in the town and could be encircled. However, the English Army had moved on and was already making defensive preparations for a battle at Crécy. The considerable detour thereby made by the French army meant that by the time it located the English, it had already marched an appreciable distance. In the meantime the English Army numbering some 12,000 to 13,000 of which 6000 to 7000 were longbow men, was aligned on a ridge between Crécy and Wadicourt.

The ground in front of the Crécy-Wadicourt ridge slopes away to a shallow valley with a small river. Just below the ridge the ground has up to three terraces in some places. The steepest part of the ridge is towards Crécy, while towards Wadicourt the fall of the ground softens and is marshy at the bottom. Woods at either end afforded some protection to the flanks, while a small wood behind the battle lines was used to locate the baggage train. The battle line was some 2000 yards (1830m) long, which given the numbers deployed was a comparatively narrow front. King Edward had chosen his ground well and now made expert use of it. The English Army was drawn-up in three battle lines, two in the front-line and one in reserve. Each line consisted of a centre of dismounted knights and men at arms, flanked on both sides by forward curving wings of archers. The English capitalised on the lie of the land and in its occupation of the terraces. The forward line with equal numbers of archers on its wings stood at the edge of the gradually rising ground. The second line was nearer the ridge.

The King held the third line a short distance back from the ridge itself and was quartered in a windmill overlooking the whole of the battlefield. Given the length of the front and the numbers it had to accommodate it is likely that the English positioned their longbow men in wedge-shaped formations. The wedge or harrow-formation was varied in order to take account of the ground, but the majority of archers were on the flanks in an open V formation pointing towards the adversary. Placed in wedge-shaped ranks a thicker barrage of arrows was possible and this was a vital contributor to the outcome of the battle. Each longbow man carried two sheafs of 24 arrows. The method of re-supply was well rehearsed with archers going a short distance for supplies, while others took their place. Runners covered the distance between the archers and the baggage train. The English army had good time to prepare itself, not only in terms of its disposition, but also to add to its defences with ditches, potholes and caltrops placed in the ground ahead of it. The army was fully dismounted and had been given strict instructions not to pursue the enemy too far down the slope into the valley.

The discipline it showed in not doing so was critical. The advance for the French up to the ridge was some 500 yards (460m), of which 400 (366m) on upward sloping terrain. The slope increases as one approaches the first of the terraces. The French Army was sighted from the windmill at about four in the afternoon. The Oriflamme had been unfurled signifying that no quarter was to be given. However, King Philip's advisors counselled against joining battle that same day for two reasons. Only four hours of daylight remained and the army needed resting after a long march. Secondly the size of the Army was such that during the march columns had become mixed up and needed organising prior to battle. King Philip accepted the advice. However, the nobles seeing the English up on the ridge and confident of an easy victory, could not resist pressing for an immediate attack. As the cavalry and men at arms on foot surged forward the French King had to give way and agree to the charge, which therefore got underway without proper order. Moments prior to the battle there was a thunderstorm with a heavy downpour, which softened the ground, making it heavier for the cavalry.

It also loosened the heavy bowstrings on the crossbows of the Genoese mercenaries in the French army. This may to some extent have spoilt their cast. The longbow men in the English lines had tucked theirs under their helmets to keep them dry. When the sun came out again it was on the backs of the English and therefore shone straight into the eyes of the attacking forces. It is possible that in the haste to attack the Genoese crossbow men had not been able to retrieve their pavises (large shields) from the baggage train. If that were so it would have left them without protection once they had shot and were starting to reload. The 6000 Genoese crossbow men were placed in a forward position and were followed up the gradually inclining slope by the cavalry. Crossbows at that time were made of wood or composite construction and shot approximately 200 to 220 yards (180-200 metres). When the crossbow men had the forward lines of the English within that distance they loosed their bolts.

The flat trajectory of a crossbow bolt, pointed slightly upwards to meet the rising ground, meant that much of the shot missed the English who were partially hidden from view on the terraces. Little did the Genoese realise that the longbow had the greater range and could cover up to 320 yards (300 metres). While the slow process of reloading their crossbows began after the first round, the English longbow men stood up and shot volley after volley of arrows. - French Men at Arms on foot - Genoese Cross Bow - English Cavalry and Men at Arms on foot - English Men at Arms on foot - English Archers - Canon The reloading and unprotected Genoese were disrupted and they suffered very heavy casualties. They began to withdraw. The King and the nobles were furious at this reverse. Many of the Genoese began to cut their bowstrings or cast their bows aside, so that they could not be made to fight a second charge. Realising that dead crossbow mercenaries did not need payment, the oncoming cavalry charged straight through the ranks of the Genoese deliberately cutting down many of them in the process. Now the full charge by the cavalry got underway, banners flying and swords raised.

Volleys of arrows fell upon them like snow. Horses demented with pain threw their riders, panicked and ran down into the already disordered second wave of the attack. Charge after charge was made by the French cavalry up the slope, which with the weight of rider, armament and equipment meant that horses were exhausted by the time they came within bowshot of the English lines. Horses and riders were killed and wounded in many hundreds with each volley of arrows, always directed at that part of the battlefield where the press was greatest. Successive charges had to be made through ever increasing numbers of dead and wounded men and horses. Already within the first half hour the ground just below the terraces was covered with the fallen and the dying. Fifteen more charges were made by the cavalry and the men at arms on foot. They were never well enough organised, as the King’ s advisors had warned. However, they were in themselves a testimony to the raw courage of the French army. Each successive charge was weaker and during brief pauses in the battle, the English archers stood in their lines with remarkable discipline, only going down the slope far enough to collect their arrows.

At some stage during the battle King Edward’s 16-year old Son, the Black Prince did fight his way too far down the slope and was almost separated from the main lines. The King refused to send reinforcements, but the position was retrieved through a flank attack by Arundel, one of his commanders. The attacks continued into the moonlight as French commanders refused to cede against a much smaller army and its lowly born archers. Finally, only towards midnight, did the attacks cease. By that time the King of France had been wounded and taken off the battlefield. Large numbers of the French nobility had been killed or were wounded. The next day, after the morning fog had lifted, some 2000 longbow men and 500 spearmen did go down the slope and made contact with the French levies, killing a large number of them and scattering the remainder. The battle lasted from four in the afternoon until about midnight. French and Genoese casualties are estimated at 10,000 to 30,000, the most likely figure being 12,000. Of these 11 were Princes of the realm and 1200 were Knights.

The English suffered 150 to 250 dead, about the same losses as they had incurred crossing the Somme at blanchetacque. The French army had made 15 to 16 distinct charges in all. The French nobility interpreted the new method of battle as unchivalrous. Nevertheless, the devastating effectiveness of the longbow at Crécy meant that for some 50 years thereafter Knights dismounted to fight. In the next major battle of Poitiers there were almost no crossbows. Crécy had shown they were of inferior cast, had a low rate of shot and made the reloading crossbowman vulnerable in the process. Only when their bows could be made of steel were the French armies again tempted to use them. For almost ten years after the battle of Crécy the fighting between France and England subsided. This was caused in part by the Black Death, which swept over Europe and killed more than a third of its population. Calendars Battle of Crécy | Crécy Museum Battle of Crécy The Battle of Crécy was arguably the most important battle of the Hundred Years war.

Of all the battles of the Hundred Years War, both Crécy (1346) and Agincourt (1415) are particularly famed for their strategic importance. But while Shakespeare wrote his most patriotic work about Henry V, culminating in the battle of Agincourt, he wrote nothing comparable about Edward III and Crécy. Consequently, Henry V and Agincourt have acquired a unique cultural significance: iconic symbols of an English victory won against the odds. Therefore the visitor coming to Crécy-en-Ponthieu is entitled to ask: what is the significance of this place? If Shakespeare had chosen to write about Edward III, would the English language ring with famous lines associated with Edward on the field of Crécy? To answer this question it is necessary to know something about England in the fourteenth century. Edward III inherited a kingdom beset by two main zones of conflict: Aquitaine (South West France) and Scotland. It was therefore a turning point when he realised, in 1332, that the massed use of longbows could destroy a much larger army on the battlefield. Edward decided to resolve his political dilemmas through the use of thousands of longbowmen equipped with huge numbers of arrows.

Edward III’s purposeful development of massed longbows in the years between 1332 and 1346 was a profoundly important military revolution. Previously battles had been fought by infantry and groups of heavily-armoured knights fighting hand-to-hand. The main strategic advantages had been those of outnumbering the enemy, cutting off their supply lines, or having a better-equipped army. Edward realised that a far greater strategic advantage lay in killing the enemy before the hand-to-hand fighting began. A force of longbowmen could tackle a much larger enemy army, for the archers could each kill several men without danger of being hurt themselves. When Edward III put his new thinking to the test against the Scots at Halidon Hill in 1333, he had fewer men than the Scots; nevertheless, his archers massacred the Scottish army. There was a third advantage to Edward’s archer-dominated armies. Longbowmen were much cheaper to employ and equip than aristocratic knights. Therefore it was possible for him to take an army of longbowmen deep into France itself, and show the French people how King Philip was unable to protect them. The key to all of this was preparation. Edward needed experienced longbowmen.

He also needed enough bows and arrows. He encouraged the practice of archery – and with it the continual manufacture of new equipment in peacetime as well as war. When in 1341 he wanted to lead an expedition to Brittany, he simply issued an order for 130,000 sheaves of arrows to be gathered – a total of 2,600,000 arrows. No king of France could ever have hoped to gather so many at short notice. In July 1346 Edward landed at St Vaast-la-Hogue with about twelve thousand men and proceeded to fight his way across Normandy. He knew that a French army, when it gathered, was bound to outnumber him; but he knew that if he could force the French men-at-arms to charge uphill within range of his carefully arranged archers, he would be able to destroy them with the minimum of actual hand-to-hand fighting. Edward’s victory over the French at Crécy on 26 August 1346 astounded all of Christendom. It was doubly astonishing, for it was not just unexpected, it had obviously been carefully planned. Edward had achieved a military superiority over all his enemies.

In later campaigns in France and Scotland in the 1350s he sought to repeat his success; he was never defeated. He came to be regarded as the greatest king that England had ever had. When his grandson, Henry IV, took the throne of England in 1399, the new king expressly stated that he wished to lead an army into France, in emulation of Edward III. Henry IV’s second son, Thomas, chose to land his army in 1412 at St Vaast-la-Hogue, where Edward himself had landed in 1346. And Henry’s eldest son, Henry V, sought to re-enact the battle of Crécy in 1415. He knew that if he won, then this would demonstrate that God wished him too to be king of both England and France – and no one then would be in a position to question his claim to either title. Henry V followed Edward III’s 1346 campaign closely. His army was mostly composed of archers and he sought to entice a French army to attack him on a march through Northern France. He even tried to follow a similar route, planning to cross the Somme at Blanchetaque, as Edward III had done.

However, the ambitious start to his campaign – beginning with a siege rather than ending with one (as Edward III had done at Calais) – almost stifled his campaign. And at Blanchetaque the French showed they had learned from their past mistakes; they blocked his way. In the end, the very predictability of following in Edward III’s footsteps meant that Henry V had to fight his own battle. In the tense moments of fighting, no rule book could do; only the abilities, equipment and spirit of the fighting men mattered. But the principles upon which Agincourt was fought and won on 25 October 1415 were those established by Edward III. Archers were massed on the flanks, and a French army principally composed of heavily armoured knights and men-at-arms was slowed by the terrain and shot to pieces. Contemporary English chroniclers welcomed Agincourt as a blessing from God. Their adulation did not lessen with Henry V’s early death in 1422, and his iconic military status began to rival that of Edward III. Agincourt was not only more recent than Crécy, it was associated in England with God’s blessing – and in an increasingly religious age, that mattered.

By the time Shakespeare took up his pen, under the Protestant queen, Elizabeth I, Agincourt had come to be regarded as the greatest of all English victories. And Shakespeare immortalised it and its architect, despite knowing very little of the battle or the real Henry V. In comparing the two battles, therefore, it is Edward III who deserves the credit for first having the vision of taking an army of longbowmen into France and organising them to shoot for victory. His development of projectile warfare – in which massed longbows prefigured the use of massed gunfire – set the pattern for battles up until the nineteenth century. Henry V made no comparable innovation but nevertheless deserves the credit for having had the vision and courage to re-enact Edward III’s great victory. And Shakespeare deserves some credit too – for immortalising Henry V and Agincourt in such a way that the more admirable qualities of those who fought such battles are not forgotten amid the brutality, fear and personal tragedies of the Hundred Years War. Publisher: The Boydell Press; New Ed edition (17 April 2007) Language English Battle of Agincourt - Hundred Years' War approx.

24,000-36,000 men Battle of Agincourt - Background: In 1414, King Henry V of England began discussions with his nobles regarding renewing the war with France to assert his claim on the French throne. He held this claim through his grandfather, Edward III who begun the Hundred Years' War in 1337. Initially reluctant, they encouraged the king to negotiate with the French. In doing so, Henry was willing to renounce his claim to the French throne in exchange for 1.6 million crowns (the outstanding ransom on French King John II - captured at Poitiers in 1356), as well as French recognition of English dominion over occupied lands in France. These included Touraine, Normandy, Anjou, Flanders, Brittany, and Aquitaine. To seal the deal, Henry was willing to marry the young daughter of the chronically insane King Charles VI, Princess Catherine, if he received a dowry of 2 million crowns. Believing these demands too high, the French countered with a dowry of 600,000 crowns and an offer to cede lands in Aquitaine.

Negotiations quickly stalled as the French refused to increase the dowry. With talks deadlocked and feeling personally insulted by French actions, Henry successfully asked for war on April 19, 1415. Assembling an army of around, Henry crossed the Channel with around 10,500 men and landed near Harfleur on August 13/14. Battle of Agincourt - Moving to Battle: Quickly investing Harfleur, Henry hoped to take the city as a base before advancing east to Paris and then south to Bordeaux. Meeting a determined defense, the siege lasted longer than the English had initially hoped and Henry's army was beset by a variety of diseases such as dysentery. When the city finally fell on September 22, the majority of the campaigning season had passed. Assessing his situation, Henry elected to move northeast to his stronghold at Calais where the army could winter in safety. The march was also intended to demonstrate his right to rule Normandy. Leaving a garrison at Harfleur, his forces departed on October 8. Hoping to move quickly, the English army left their artillery and much of the baggage train as well as carried limited provisions.

While the English were occupied at Harfleur, the French struggled to raise an army to oppose them. Gathering forces at Rouen, they were not ready by the time the city fell. Pursuing Henry, the French sought to blockade the English along the River Somme. These maneuvers proved somewhat successful as Henry was forced to turn southeast to seek an uncontested crossing. As a result, food became scarce in the English ranks. Finally crossing the river at Bellencourt and Voyenes on October 19, Henry pressed on towards Calais. The English advance was shadowed by the growing French army under the nominal command of Constable Charles d'Albret and Marshal Boucicaut. On October 24, Henry's scouts reported that the French army had moved across their path and was blocking the road to Calais. Though his men were starving and suffering from disease, he halted and formed for battle along a ridge between the woods of Agincourt and Tramecourt. In a strong position, his archers drove stakes into the ground to protect against cavalry attack. Battle of Agincourt - Formations: Though Henry did not desire battle due to being badly outnumbered, he understood that the French would only grow stronger.

In deploying, men under the Duke of York formed the English right, while Henry led the center and Lord Camoys commanded the left. Occupying the open ground between the two woods, the English line of men at arms was four ranks deep. The archers assumed positions on the flanks with another group possibly being located in the center. Conversely the French were eager for battle and anticipated victory. Their army formed in three lines with d'Albret and Boucicault leading the first with the Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon. The second line was led by the Dukes of Bar and Alençon and the Count of Nevers. Battle of Agincourt - The Armies Clash: The night of October 24/25 was marked by heavy rain which turned the newly plowed fields in the area into a muddy quagmire. As the sun rose, the terrain favored the English as the narrow space between the two woods worked to negate the French numerical advantage. Three hours passed and the French, awaiting reinforcements and perhaps having learned from their defeat at Crécy , did not attack. Forced to make the first move, Henry took a risk and advanced between the woods to within extreme range for his archers.

The French failed to strike with the English were vulnerable ( Map ). As a result, Henry was able to establish a new defensive position and his archers were able to fortify their lines with stakes. This done, they unleashed a barrage with their longbows . With the English archers filling the sky with arrows, the French cavalry began a disorganized charge against the English position with the first line of men-at-arms following. Cut down by the archers, the cavalry failed to breach the English line and succeeded in doing little more than churning the mud between the two armies. Hemmed in by the woods, they retreated through the first line weakening its formation. Slogging forward through the mud, the French infantry was exhausted by the exertion while also taking losses from the English archers. Reaching the English men-at-arms, they were able to initially push them back. Rallying, the English soon began inflicting heavy losses as the terrain prevented the greater French numbers from telling. The French were also hampered by the press of numbers from the side and behind which limited their ability to attack or defend effectively. As the English archers expended their arrows, they drew swords and other weapons and began attacking the French flanks.

As a melee developed, the second French line joined the fray. As the battle raged, d'Albret was killed and sources indicate that Henry played an active role at the front. Having defeated the first two French lines, Henry remained wary as the third line, led by the Counts of Dammartin and Fauconberg, remained a threat. The only French success during the fighting came when Ysembart d'Azincourt led a small force in a successful raid on the English baggage train. This, along with the menacing actions of the remaining French troops, led Henry to order the killing of the majority of his prisoners to prevent them from attacking should the battle resume. Though criticized by modern scholars, this action was accepted as necessary at the time. Assessing the massive losses already sustained, the remaining French troops departed the area. Battle of Agincourt - Aftermath: Casualties for the Battle of Agincourt are not known with certainty, though many scholars estimate the French suffered 7,000-10,000 with another 1,500 nobles taken prisoner. English losses are generally accepted to be around 100 and perhaps as high as 500.

Though he had won a stunning victory, Henry was unable to press home his advantage due to the weakened state of his army. Reaching Calais on October 29, Henry returned to England the following month where he was greeted as a hero. Though it would take several more years of campaigning to achieve his goals, the devastation wrought upon the French nobility at Agincourt made Henry's later efforts easier. In 1420, he was able to conclude the Treaty of Troyes which recognized him as the regent and heir to the French throne. Selected Sources BBC - History - British History in depth: The Hundred Years War Roots of war Historical tradition dates the Hundred Years War between England and France as running from 1337 to 1453. In 1337, Edward III had responded to the confiscation of his duchy of Aquitaine by King Philip VI of France by challenging Philip’s right to the French throne, while in 1453 the English had lost the last of their once wide territories in France, after the defeat of John Talbot’s Anglo-Gascon army at Castillon, near Bordeaux. Edward III formally assumed the title 'King of France and the French Royal Arms'.

The overseas possessions of the English kings were the root cause of the tensions with the kings of France, and the tensions reached right back to 1066. William the Conqueror was already duke of Normandy when he became king of England. His great-grandson Henry II, at his accession in 1154, was already count of Anjou by inheritance from his father and duke of Aquitaine (Gascony and Poitou) in right of his wife Eleanor. These trans-Channel possessions made the kings of England easily the mightiest of the king of France’s vassals, and the inevitable friction between them repeatedly escalated into open hostilities. The Hundred Years War grew out of these earlier clashes and their consequences. England's King John lost Normandy and Anjou to France in 1204. His son, Henry III, renounced his claim to those lands in the Treaty of Paris in 1259, but it left him with Gascony as a duchy held under the French crown. The English kings’ ducal rights there continued to be a source of disquiet, and wars broke out in 1294 and 1324.

The 1294 outbreak coincided with Edward l’s first clash with the Scots, and thenceforward the French and Scots were allied in all subsequent confrontations with England. It was indeed French support for David Bruce of Scotland, in the face of Edward III’s intervention there, that triggered the breakdown between England and France and culminated in Philip VI’s confiscation of Aquitaine in 1337 - the event that precipitated the Hundred Years War. Edward’s 1337 riposte - challenging Philip's right to the French throne - introduced a new issue that distinguished this war from previous confrontations. In 1328, Charles IV of France had died without a male heir. A claim for the succession had been made for Edward, then 15 years old, through the right of his mother Isabella, daughter of Philip IV and Charles IV’s sister. But he was passed over in favour of Philip, the son of Philip IV’s younger brother, Charles of Valois. Edward now revived his claim, and in 1340 formally assumed the title 'King of France and the French Royal Arms'. Historians argue about whether Edward really believed he might actually attain the French throne.

Irrespective, his claim gave him very important leverage in his dealings with Philip. He could use it to stir up trouble by encouraging French malcontents to recognise him as king instead of Philip. He could also use it as a powerful weapon in negotiation, by offering to renounce his claim against very large territorial concessions, for instance the independence of Aquitaine from France - possibly even the cession of Normandy and Anjou on the same terms. Top Edward III and the Black Prince Detail of the Battle at Crecy from 'Chroniqueurs de l'Histoire de France' © Edward skilfully played on his claim to the French throne during the 1340s and 1350s to lure discontented French princes and provinces into alliance with him. Among these were the Flemings, always open to English pressure on account of their commercial links with England; the Montfort claimants to the duchy of Brittany in the succession war that broke out there in 1342; and Charles of Navarre, of the French blood royal and a great Norman vassal and landowner, in the 1350s.

These alliances enabled Edward to render substantial regions of France virtually ungovernable from Paris, and to keep the fighting on French soil going in between occasional English expeditions. The conquest of territory was not an object, but Edward was quite ready to engage a pursuing French army in open battle. Though intermittent, these expeditions had a very major impact. They took the form of large-scale, swift-moving military raids (chevauchées) deep into France and were intended, through systematic plundering and the burning of crops and buildings, to damage the economy and undermine French civilian morale. The conquest of territory was not an object, but Edward was quite ready to engage a pursuing French army in open battle if he could do so in advantageous circumstances. He rightly reckoned that economic damage and defeat in the field would force his adversary to the negotiating table. Edward III’s great chevauchée of 1346 climaxed in his victory at Crécy, and was followed by the successful siege of Calais, securing for England a key maritime port on the French channel coast.

The two chevauchées that his heir, Edward the 'Black Prince', led out from Bordeaux in 1355 and 1356 were even more glamorously successful in terms of plunder. The second of these culminated in the victory at Poitiers, where John of France, Philip’s successor, was taken prisoner. Between 1356 and 1360, chaos engulfed the kingless French kingdom, with Charles of Navarre in revolt and temporarily controlling Paris in 1358. There was also a major peasant rising in the same year, in the central provinces (the 'Jacquerie'), and freebooting companies of soldiers on the rampage almost everywhere. Under these conditions, it is not surprising that in 1359 Edward III’s last chevauchée was aimed at Rheims, in the clear hope of a coronation there. But Rheims did not open its gates and nor did Paris. The abortive expedition ended instead in the opening of negotiations with Charles, the dauphin (heir apparent to the French throne), which led in May 1360 to the sealing of the Treaty of Brétigny.

The principle terms of the treaty were that France should pay three million crowns for King John’s ransom, and that he would cede to Edward an enlarged Aquitaine, wholly independent of the French crown. In return, Edward would renounce his clam to the French throne. For the next nine years Edward did indeed cease to use the title king of France. Top The road to Agincourt Portrait of Henry V © ln 1369 the peace of Brétigny broke down, largely as a result of French and English backing opposite sides in an internal Spanish dispute for Castile’s throne. By 1375, the French under the leadership of the shrewd new king, Charles V, and his great constable, Bertrand du Guesclin, succeeded in wresting from the English the greater part of the principality of Aquitaine. This reduced England's, effective authority to a coastal strip between Bordeaux and Bayonne. With wise caution, Charles made a point of not challenging the chevauchées the English carried out in 1370 and 1373. But he did retaliate with the help of his Castilian allies by launching a series of damaging naval raids on English south coast ports.

After the fall of Rouen, the way to Paris lay open to the English. By the time Charles V died in 1380, however, the French military revival was running out of steam, and both sides were becoming war-weary. Over the two decades that followed, fighting was desultory and punctuated by truces. Under the English King Richard II indeed, there were serious efforts to find a way towards a negotiated and final peace. Things began to change again after Richard II’s deposition in 1399. In France, rivalry was escalating between the dukes of Burgundy and Orléans for control of government for the insane Charles VI. Following the assassination of Louis of Orléans in 1407, the confrontation slid into civil war between Burgundy and allies of Orléans known as the Armagnacs. This opened clear opportunities for an ambitious English intervention, which Henry V, who succeeded in 1413, boldly seized.

In 1415, Henry V crossed with a royal host to Normandy, took Harfieur and, marching chevauchée-style across northern France, met and overwhelmingly defeated the pursuing French army at Agincourt in Picardy on 25 October. The French battle casualties were horrific, and the royal dukes of Orléans and Bourbon were taken prisoner. Henry returned to France in 1417, opening a new campaign in new style - this time aiming at the conquest of territory. A campaign of sieges ensued, in which Henry correctly calculated that the rivalry between Burgundians and Armagnacs would prevent either French party attempting the relief of beleaguered towns and castles. After the fall of Rouen, the Norman capital, in January 1419, the English were able to bring the whole duchy under their control, and the way to Paris lay open before them. At this dire pass, the French parties at last agreed to meet at Montereau to coordinate resistance to the English.

But when they met on the bridge there on 19 September 1419, John, Duke of Burgundy, was struck down by the Armagnac followers of the dauphin Charles, thereby avenging Louis of Orléans. Rather than ally with his father’s assassins, John’s heir, Philip, agreed to ally with the English, and to broker an agreement with the ailing Charles VI whereby Henry should marry Charles’s daughter Catherine and be recognised as his heir to the French throne. Henry would then act as regent for Charles while he lived. These became the terms of the Treaty of Troyes of 1420. Henry further promised to make war on the formally disinherited dauphin’s party, in order to avenge John, Duke of Burgundy. These terms were widely accepted in northern France, but not in the south. When Henry V died in August 1422, followed by Charles VI in October, the nine-month-old Henry VI of England (son of Henry and Catherine) was recognised as king of France in Paris. But in the south, the Armagnacs upheld the succession of the dauphin, Charles.

Top Joan of Arc and English defeat The regency for Henry VI in France was taken up by his eldest surviving uncle, John, Duke of Bedford, and with it the task of seeking to win acceptance of the Troyes settlement throughout France. Militarily, Bedford needed to carry the war forward successfully into the 'dauphinist' lands south of the Loire. But before he could push south, Bedford needed to consolidate Anglo-Burgundian authority north of the Loire. In August 1424, his great victory at Verneuil on the borders of Maine and Normandy effectively destroyed the dauphin Charles’s formidable Franco-Scottish army, which in Henry V’s absence had beaten the English at Baugé three years earlier. By 142S, after some vigorous mopping-up, the position looked sufficiently secure for an offensive southward, and the first English objective was the key bridgehead on the Loire south of Paris, Orléans. Joan of Arc's charisma breathed a new confidence into the army she led to Orléans. Orléans was invested in September 1428, but the besieging force was too small to attempt an immediate storming.

The aim had to be to starve the garrison out. At first it looked as if there was little chance of a relief for the defenders, but in February 1429, Joan of Arc arrived at the dauphin’s court at Chinon with her story of the voices that had given her the mission of ridding France of the English. Her charisma breathed new confidence into the relieving army that she led to Orléans in May, and it successfully broke the siege. On 12 June at Jargeau and again at Patay on 17 June, she defeated the retreating English. Just a month later, on 16 July, she watched as her ‘gentle dauphin’ was solemnly crowned Charles VII of France in Rheims cathedral. After Joan’s capture in the following year and her subsequent execution for heresy, the English succeeded in recovering some of the towns they had lost in the wake of her victories and more or less held their own for a while. But in 1435, Philip, Duke of Burgundy, abandoned his English alliance at the Congress at Arras, and recognised Charles VII as his king.

This dealt a mortal blow to English hopes of making the Troyes settlement stick. Paris opened its gates to Charles's general, Arthur, Constable de Richemont, in April 1436, and though the English still controlled most of Normandy and campaigned vigorously along its borders, the prospects for their cause began to look very gloomy indeed. Negotiations formed a continuous background to the fighting from 1435. They finally bore fruit in 1444 with a general truce agreed at Tours. It was hoped that the arranged marriage there between Henry VI of England and the French princess Margaret of Anjou would help to make the truce a step toward full peace terms. Then in 1449, an English force sacked and looted Fougères in Brittany. Charles VII, who had used the break in fighting to reorganise his royal army, declared himself no longer bound by the terms of the truce. His forces rapidly overran Normandy during 1449-1450. In 1451, he repeated this success in Gascony. The veteran English commander John Talbot arrived there the following year with a force from England and retook Bordeaux.

But on 17 July 1453, his army was disastrously defeated at Castillon and Talbot himself killed. Soon after, with Bordeaux once more in French hands, there was nothing left of the former English territories in France, bar Calais. The war was effectively over, even though it would not officially end for many years yet. Top Armies, battles and weaponry English longbowmen at Crecy © The English armies of the Hundred Years War were small by modern standards. Henry V probably had fewer than 7,000 men at Agincourt, Talbot at Castillon maybe 6,000. Forces were raised principally by voluntary recruitment and organised by aristocratic leaders who contracted to serve the crown with a stated number of men-at-arms (knights and esquires) and archers. The terms, recorded in a written indenture, stipulated wages and an agreed length of service, such as six months or a year, with the possibility of extension. These aristocratic leaders contracted in their turn with those that they recruited into their companies. This method of raising an army ensured an effective command structure much superior to that of the hastily assembled French armies that fought at Crécy and Agincourt).

Archers as well as men-at-arms were usually mounted, ensuring a high degree of mobility. Both usually dismounted for battle. The men-at-arms were armed with lance and sword, the archers with the famous longbow. The final French victory at Castillon in 1453 was the first major field engagement of the war to be decided by gunfire. The longbow played an important part in the English victories in the field. Its special qualities were its accuracy and penetrating power over a long range (approximately 200 metres) and the ease of rapid discharge, which was much faster than the rate of fire of French crossbowmen. The fire of well-positioned longbowmen was decisive against charging French cavalry at Crécy, and at Agincourt against both cavalry in the first attacking wave and the dismounted men-at-arms in the second wave. Archery contributed to victory again at Poitiers, but in this very hard fought battle, charging Anglo-Gascori cavalry had a decisive impact at a critical juncture. The longbow did not make the English invincible. Archers were always very vulnerable if they could be taken in the flank.

At Jargeau, Joan of Arc’s cavalry successfully rode down the English bowmen. Archers also played an important part in naval warfare. The longbow’s range and rapid rate of fire could be of great advantage as ships were closing to grapple. This was thought to be the key to Edward III’s naval victory at Sluys in 1340. Both he and Henry V well understood the importance of safeguarding the Channel for the transport and supply of English forces in France, as well as for the protection of English overseas commerce. In the siege-dominated fighting in France post-1417, gunnery became seriously important. Henry V’s great sieges at Rouen (1418-1419) and Meaux (1421-1422) ultimately succeeded only by starving out the defence, as had Edward III’s 1347 siege of Calais. But at Maine (1424-1425), bombardment was a key to English success. There was brisk artillery fire from defenders as well as attackers at Orleans in 1428-1429.

The final French victory at Castillon in 1453 was the first major field engagement of the war to be decided by gunfire. Top The legacy of war The shock in England over the loss of its formerly wide overseas empire was very great. Popular rage against the counsellors and commanders deemed responsible had much to do with the outbreak in the mid-1450s of civil war (the 'Wars of the Roses'). The recovery of the lost lands in France long remained a wishful national aspiration, but in material terms the consequences of their loss, for Englishmen living in England at least, was not very great. Fears that English commerce would suffer now that the Norman Channel harbours were back in French hands proved largely groundless. The only real sufferers from the loss were the professional soldiers and those Englishmen who had sought to settle in France. Their numbers were not seriously significant in social terms. The war period witnessed a considerable rise in the importance and frequency of parliaments, and in the influence of the Commons. Although most noblemen and a good many among the gentry saw some war service, among the total population the proportion that fought was decidedly low.

Since virtually all the fighting was on French soil, there was no English experience comparable to the devastation and dislocation of economic life in the French countryside. Plagues, recurrent after the 1348 Black Death, had much more significant effects on the conditions and living standards of ordinary working people in town and country than the war ever did. Where the impact of war was most directly felt by most people was in increased taxation. Campaigning abroad called for high government expenditure, and the only means of raising the necessary funding was through taxes. This required the assent of the Commons in parliament, which meant the war period witnessed a considerable rise in the importance and frequency of parliaments, and in the influence of the Commons. This in turn set in train parliament’s future central constitutional role. Publicity for the war effort, in which, the church played an important part (with royal encouragement), fostered a patriotic sense of English identity. Prayers were regularly ordered for armies serving overseas, and in thanksgiving for victories. Edward III’s promotion of the cult of St George as England’s warrior patron saint played deliberately to nascent national sentiment.

A proud patriotism, nourished by royal propaganda and pulpit oratory, and also, emphatically, by the euphoria of such dramatic English victories as Crécy, Poitiers and Agincourt, was probably the most lasting legacy of the Hundred Years War. Its origins in national war experience gave that patriotism a chauvinistic edge that continued to colour English popular attitudes to foreigners and especially to the French for a very long time. Francophobia runs as a recurrent thread through the English story from the 15th century down to the start of the 20th, when finally the Germans replaced the French as England’s natural adversaries in the popular eye.

The Hundred Years War: England and France at War, c.1300-c.1450 by CT Allmand (CUP, 1988) The Angevin Legacy and the Hundred Years War, 1250-1340 by Malcolm Vale (Blackwell, 1990) The Black Prince by Richard W Barber (Boydell, 2003) The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III, Founder of the English Nation by Ian Mortimer (Jonathan Cape, 2006) War Cruel and Sharp: English Strategy under Edward III by Clifford J Rogers (Boydell, 2000) The Hundred Years War; vol 1- Trial by Battle, vol 2 - Trial by Fire by Jonathan Sumption (Faber 1999) Agincourt: the King, the Campaign, the Battle by Juliet Barker (Little Brown, 2005) The Battle of Agincourt: Sources and Interpretations by Ann Curry (Boydell, 2000) John Talbot and the War in France 1427-53 by AJ Pollard (Royal Historical Society Studies in History no 3

5, 1983) Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism by Marina Warner (Weidenfield and Nicholson, 1981) Top About the author Maurice Keen was educated at Winchester and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied history under Richard Southern.

In 1961, he was elected a fellow of Balliol as tutor in medieval history. He retired in 2000. His publications include 'The Outlaws of a Medieval Legend' (1961); 'England in the Later Middle Ages' (1973, second edition 2003); 'Chivalry' (1984); and 'Origins of the English Gentleman' (2002). Battle of Crécy: New historical battle for Medieval 2 Total war By Magister - YouTube Battle of Crécy: New historical battle for Medieval 2 Total war By Magister Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Nov 14, 2015 I made the battle of Crecy throght the editor of total war. If you want enjoy with it you can download from here: C:\Program Files \Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War\data\world\maps\battle\custom And done!

----------------------------------- The Battle of Crecy, also called Battle of Cressy, (26 August 1346) was an important English victory during the Edwardian phase of the Hundred Years' War. Coupled with the later battles of Poitiers (also fought during the Edwardian phase) and Agincourt, it formed the first of three decisive English successes during the conflict. The battle was fought on 26 August 1346 near Crécy in northern France. An army of English, Welsh and allied troops from the Holy Roman Empire led by Edward III of England engaged and defeated a much larger army of French, Genoese and Majorcan troops led by Philip VI of France. Emboldened by the lessons of tactical flexibility and utilisation of terrain learned from the earlier Saxons, Vikings and the recent battles with the Scots, the English army, despite being heavily outnumbered by the French, won a decisive victory.[1][2] The battle saw the rise in power of the longbow as the dominant Western European battlefield weapon, whose effects were devastating when used en-masse. Crécy also saw the use of some very early cannon by the English army, shot being found on the battlefield centuries later during archaeological digs.

The combined-arms approach of the English, the new weapons and tactics used, which was far more focused on the infantry than previous battles in the middle-ages (whose predominant focus was the heavily armoured knight) and the killing of incapacitated knights by peasantry after the battle has led to the engagement being described as "the beginning of the end of chivalry". Game

Question: During which conflict was the battle of Creçy fought?
Answer: Hundred Years War