Between 13th and 17th July he continued landing men and supplies, his forces attacked Barfleur and pillaged and burned the town and the warships in the harbour. It was said that there was so much loot that the soldiers could hardly carry it all and an area 35 kilometers around the landing area was devastated. Edward advanced northwards in three divisions while some of his fleet sailed along the coast destroying or capturing any French warship they found. It was Edward’s intention to link up with another invasion force led by Sir Hugh Hastings that he had dispatched to Flanders to join with a force being collected by Count Henry of Flanders.
Arriving at the city of Caen the English forces attacked, and after fierce fighting, defeated the French and proceeded to rape, massacre and loot. Over 2,500 citizens died, many being buried in a mass grave at the church of St Jean. The English rested for the next five days, systematically burning and destroying the surrounding area. Edward sent orders to England for an additional 1,500 archers, more weapons and equipment and 100 more ships to bring reinforcements, instructing them to land at Le Crotoy on the northern side of the Somme, in territory the English had yet to conquer, giving some insight to Edward’s confidence.
Philip was in the meanwhile gathering forces, but had to spread them thinly to cover all potential areas of the English advance. Edward left a small force at Caen and moved on to the Seine, threatening Paris. The French sent two cardinals to discuss terms, even proposing a marriage between the houses of Valois and Plantagenet, but Edward would have none of it, he even issued a challenge to battle south of Paris forcing Philip to move his army to the southern wall in preparation. Edward’s challenge was merely a ruse to gain time. He had to cross the Seine, but all the bridges were destroyed. Edward’s forces moved to Poissy and started to rebuild. When Philip learned of this attempt at a crossing he sent a force to intercept, but by then the English had managed to span a single beam across and sufficient troops were now over the river and able to drive them off.
On the 16th August English marauders rode south to confuse the French, but Edward’s main force crossed the river and headed north towards the Somne, being harassed all the way by local militias, brushing them off easily except at the village of Poix where the English turned back and burned the town. Edward’s forces needed to cross the Somme before Philip and began to abandon some of the baggage wagons for the sake of speed, but as foraging became more difficult in the abandoned countryside, the English were forced to scour far afield thus slowing the army down. The French force overtook Edward, arriving at the Somme on 20th August. The people of Picardy, heartened by the arrival of French forces, began to attack isolated groups of English troops. On the 22nd Edward’s tired army reached Airaines, whose garrison had been withdrawn to guard the bridge at Pont-Remy.
The main French army had now reached Amiens and Philip ordered the destruction or garrisoning of the Somme bridges. Edward sent scouts to look at the Somme bridges, but found that all were too strongly defended. The English seemed trapped, but Edward was on familiar territory; Ponthieu had been his own county before Philip had confiscated it at the outbreak of war and some of his commanders knew the area. Edward had been gone from Airaines only two hours before the French arrived and the trap was closing. Edward had some hard choices: he could make a stand and fight, he could retreat to Saint Valery and take ship home, or he could try to cross the Somme. Some of his men through local connections knew of the ford at Blanchetaque (whitestones) on the Somme estuary, so called because the traffic using it stirred up the chalk bed of the river and left white trails on the banks.
The English had little choice but to head for the ford and arrived at nearby Saigneville on 24th. Before dawn they began their crossing and within a few hours had the bulk of their forces across, a remarkable feat for the time. The French had also set out at dawn, a party of some 500 men at arms and 3,000 foot soldiers being sent to oppose any English attempt at crossing. The French crossbowmen attacked the English vanguard and some men at arms charged into the water to close with them, but the English under the command of Hugh Despenser, Reginald Cobham and the Earl of Northampton drove them off.
By the time the English rearguard came ashore the battle was over. Edward’s position was precarious; he received information that his Flemish allies with whom he had hoped to unite had suffered some setbacks at Bethune and Lillers and that the Flemish forces had began to argue among themselves and had lifted their siege on Merville. Edward clearly could not rely on any aid from them and sent Hugh Despenser to capture the coastal towns of Novelles, Le Crotoy and Rue, which they did, but there was no sign of the English ships bringing urgently needed supplies.
He decided he had no option but to stand and fight and sent Warwick, Cobham, Suffolk and Sir Geoffrey Harcourt ahead with the main force to occupy the high ground on a hill outside the village of Crécy while the rest of his force followed. Philip’s scouts reported that the English had made a stand and called a council to decide on the next move. Some advocated moving ahead of the English to cut them off, others suggested waiting for reinforcements who were still moving to join the main group, but many demanded an immediate attack.
Was not the French army the most experienced and ablest in Christendom? Philip’s forces were strung out over a wide area on the road from Abbeville and Philip placed his infantry ahead of the cavalry as a precaution against ambush as they marched through the forestland. This decision meant that his Genoese crossbowmen were separated from their pavisse shields in the baggage train, an error that would have serious consequences later.
Philip called a halt; the Genoese who had been leading were tired and the men at arms following were greatly disorganized, the bulk of the army and baggage was further back while hordes of locals filled the lanes hoping for a chance to strike a blow or to collect loot. Once Philip decided to fight the disarray became worse, every unit jostling to be first through pride and everyone wishing to surpass his neighbour.The French unfurled the sacred Oriflamme banner indicating no quarter and the Genoese were ordered to advance.
Edward had placed his divisions in the same three lines as when they marched. His son, Edward the Black Prince, now 16 was placed with his division on the right of the battle line with archers in a block in front and to one side together with some artillery. The left was held by Northampton and Arundel also with a wing of archers in front, while Edward commanded the rearguard. Potholes were dug in front of all positions to slow down cavalry. The baggage train was to the rear at the edge of Crécy Grange wood surrounded by field fortifications of carts and wagons with just one opening for the speedy replenishment of arrows. Food was cooked in the baggage area and troops were sent back by units to eat and relieve themselves leaving their bows or helmets as a marker for their place in the line.
The Genoese were not keen to advance; they were tired and did not have the protection of their pavisses which were normally used for shelter while rewinding their crossbows. Furthermore they did not have adequate reserves of ammunition and with the lowering sun in their eyes were at a disadvantage, but their complaints to the Count of Alençon were ignored. Nevertheless, the 6,000 Genoese crossbowmen and spearmen began their advance on the Black Prince’s line. To the sound of drums and trumpets, the force, under the leadership of Carlo Grimaldi moved forward in three stages, each pause being signaled by a great shout to dishearten the enemy and also to enable them to adjust ranks.
A sudden and violent rainstorm erupted, quickly turning the lower ground into slippery mud. The rain also soaked the strings of their crossbows making them lose power. A combatant, Jean de Venette, records that the English longbowmen took the strings from their bows and kept them dry beneath their helmets. This cannot be done with a crossbow and explains how the English easily outranged their opponents. The Genoese opened fire after their third shout at about 150 meters range; they did so uphill with the sun in their eyes, a major disadvantage for men who aimed direct at targets rather than dropping arrows on them. They were then hit by the English arrow storm from the Black Prince’s division and from the bombards on the wings.
Outshot and outranged and without the protection of their pavisses the Genoese faltered and began to fall back into the path of the following Count of Alençon’s cavalry who were trying to ride past the archers to get to the Black Prince’s position. It is said that the men at arms attacked the Genoese for cowardice or treachery, riding over them to get at the English bowmen who continued to rain storms of arrows into the confusion. Furthermore, the cavalry had to attack uphill over muddy fields and through the broken remnants of the crossbowmen. French plate armour was good enough to protect from most types of English arrowheads, but visors, joints and chain mail were vulnerable.
Furthermore, the horses were only protected by padded caparisons easily penetrated and the arrows caused fearful damage, throwing their riders and trampling them in the mud. The frightened horses reared, fled or panicked and lay down refusing to move. The French knight Jean le Bell describes how “The English arrows were directed with such skill at the horsemen that their mounts refused to advance. Stung to madness some reared hideously, some turned their quarters to the enemy; others simply fell to the ground”. The English, seizing the initiative, advanced into this melee and slaughtered the struggling horsemen. The straggling French forces, arriving on the field, rushed impetuously forward, eager for a share of the glory.
Among Philip’s commanders was the near blind John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia and Poland and knowing that his son Charles, King of the Romans was with Alençon, ordered his companions to to tie their bridles to his before leading them in a charge against the Black Prince, saying “place me so far forward that I am able to strike a blow”. The charge broke through the archers and the fighting became so fierce that at one time the Prince was forced to his knees before being rescued by his standard bearer Sir Richard FitzSimon.
The English line held and pushed the French back. King John and his companions were all killed. The Earl of Northampton, seeing the French charge, ordered his nearest unit under the Earl of Arundel to help the prince and a message was also sent to King Edward for help. The King was reported to have replied “is my son dead, fallen, or wounded so that he cannot help himself? Then let him earn his spurs, for it is my wish that the glory of the day be his”.
Despite the death of Alençon and Luxembourg, the French made a further 13 cavalry charges, mostly against the Black Prince’s division and some against Northampton’s but were met with the same arrow cloud, breaking the charges and enabling the English to hack down the survivors. As dusk fell, the charges became fewer and less intense. Edward ordered the English to advance. The horses were brought forward and forming in conrois formation, charged. The remnants of the French fled, leaving Philip and some 50 of his followers, plus his Orleans militia to fight on. The royal banner and the sacred Oriflamme were captured and the standard bearer killed. Philip himself had two horses killed under him and was wounded in the face by an arrow before being dragged off the field by the Count of Hainault. The king and a few survivors fled to Labroye castle.
Some fighting continued until after dark when the English infantry moved forward to kill the wounded and loot the bodies. Edward ordered the burning of a windmill that stood behind his position, plus French baggage wagons to illuminate the battlefield during the first tense hours of the night as French troops were still arriving, separated from their leaders, wandering around and shouting their passwords as they tried to find their units. Many were found and killed as the English still refused to take prisoners. Many estimates have been made of the French losses at Crécy, but the most realistic gives combined losses of men of aristocratic rank as 1,542. Of the men at arms, spearmen and other infantry, estimates range from 8,000 to 12,000 who were unceremoniously tipped into grave pits.
The old king of Bohemia was carried from the field, his body washed, wrapped in linen and returned to Luxembourg with honour.It is said that Edward the Black Prince of Wales adopted John’s motto “ich dien” (I Serve) and John’s badge of three feathers as his personal arms, this being quite separate from the Prince’s own Royal Arms with the three vertical white stripes indicating his status as heir apparent.
The English army continued slowly northwards, staying close to the coast in the hope of receiving supplies by sea. They followed the usual pattern of looting and foraging, destroying an area over 30km wide. On September 1st they rested at Neufchâtel and next day stopped at Wimille to review the situation after hearing that the English force at Caen had been destroyed. Edward realized that he would not be able to retain Normandy, a heavy blow to the Norman knights that had supported him against the French king.
Edward decided to besiege Calais rather than Boulogne because it would be a better base and was closer to his Flemish allies. Moving north he destroyed the port of Wissant and on 4th September reached the marshes surrounding Calais. On the same day, the English fleet attacked Boulogne but were driven off, they did however make contact with Edward who sent letters home demanding fresh troops and supplies for the siege of Calais.The supply fleet arrived a few days later under the command of Sir John Montgomery and the English settled down for the siege. Edward was here to stay!
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