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—— ON THIS DAY ——
AUGUST 26, 1346
Crecy-en-Ponthieu, France
680 years ago
The Battle of Crecy on August 26, 1346, an early and decisive English victory in the Hundred Years' War in which the longbow overwhelmed the mounted knights of France.
On August 26, 1346, near the village of Crecy in northern France, a heavily outnumbered English army under King Edward III met the far larger host of the French king Philip VI and destroyed it. The English were tired and hungry, retreating through hostile country, and outnumbered perhaps two to one. Yet by the end of the day the finest cavalry in Europe lay slaughtered on the field, cut down in charge after charge, and England had won one of the most lopsided and consequential victories of the medieval age.
The battle was an early engagement in the Hundred Years' War, the long dynastic struggle between England and France that would grind on, off and on, for more than a century. Edward III had landed in Normandy and marched through the French countryside, and Philip pursued him with an army that included thousands of mounted knights and hired Genoese crossbowmen. When the English took up a strong defensive position on a low ridge, the French chose to attack.
—— MARQUEE EVENT ——
The English longbow, the powerful and rapid-firing weapon whose mastery at Crecy overturned the dominance of the armored knight and reshaped medieval warfare.
The decisive weapon was the English longbow. Edward's army included thousands of longbowmen, positioned on the flanks, who could loose arrows far faster and farther than the French crossbowmen could reply. When the Genoese advanced, they were overwhelmed by the storm of English arrows and driven back in disorder, some cut down by their own impatient allies. Then the French knights charged, and charged again, into the same murderous hail.
Charge after charge broke against the English line. The heavy warhorses and armored riders, the pride of French chivalry, were shot down before they could close, and those who reached the English men-at-arms found them well-rested and dug in behind obstacles. The French attacked with reckless courage through the afternoon and into the night, and were slaughtered in numbers. The scale of the defeat stunned Europe, for a small force of commoners with bows had annihilated the mounted nobility of a great kingdom.
Crecy did not end the age of the knight overnight, but it announced its decline. The battle demonstrated that disciplined infantry armed with powerful ranged weapons could defeat and destroy heavy cavalry, upsetting the military and social order in which the mounted, armored noble reigned supreme. It confirmed English tactics that would win further victories at Poitiers and Agincourt, and it pointed toward a future in which the massed firepower of common soldiers, and eventually the gun, would dominate the battlefield. On a field in France, the longbow began to break the age of the knight.
—— WHY THIS MATTERS ——
It demonstrated the power of the longbow over the mounted knight. An outnumbered force of archers destroyed the finest cavalry in Europe, showing that disciplined infantry with powerful ranged weapons could defeat heavy horse. The battle marked a turning point in the history of warfare.
It signaled the decline of the age of chivalry. The slaughter of the French nobility by common bowmen upset the military and social order in which the armored knight reigned supreme, pointing toward a future dominated by the firepower of ordinary soldiers.
It shaped the long course of the Hundred Years' War. Crecy confirmed the English tactics that would bring further victories at Poitiers and Agincourt, defining the character of a conflict between England and France that would last more than a century.
—— THE TAKEAWAY ——
On August 26, 1346, an outnumbered, exhausted English army at Crecy destroyed the flower of French chivalry with massed longbows, cutting down charge after charge of armored knights. The victory stunned Europe and announced a new age of warfare, one in which the arrows of commoners could break the mounted noble.
—— QUOTE OF THE DAY ——
“The battle was very murderous and cruel, and many gallant deeds of arms were performed.”
— The chronicler Jean Froissart, on the Battle of Crecy
—— OUR QUIZ OF THE DAY ——
How much do you know about the Battle of Crecy, the power of the English longbow, the destruction of the French cavalry, and the decline of the age of the knight?
