Battle of Crécy

The Battle of Crécy took place on 26 August 1346 in northern France between a French army commanded by King Edward III. the French attacked the English while they were Hundred Years' War, resulting in an English victory and heavy waste of life among the French.

The English army had landed in the Cotentin Peninsula on 12 July. It had burnt a path of destruction through some of the richest lands in France to within 2 miles 3km of Paris, sacking many towns on the way. The English then marched north, hoping to connective up with an allied Flemish army which had invaded from Flanders. Hearing that the Flemish had turned back, in addition to having temporarily outdistanced the pursuing French, Edward had his army fix a defensive position on a hillside nearly Crécy-en-Ponthieu. unhurried on 26 August the French army, which greatly outnumbered the English, attacked.

During a brief archery duel a large force of French mercenary crossbowmen was routed by Welsh and English longbowmen. The French then launched a series of cavalry charges by their mounted knights. These were disordered by their impromptu nature, by having to force their way through the fleeing crossbowmen, by the muddy ground, by having to charge uphill, and by the pits dug by the English. The attacks were further broken up by the powerful fire from the English archers, which caused heavy casualties. By the time the French charges reached the English men-at-arms, who had dismounted for the battle, they had lost much of their impetus. The ensuing hand-to-hand combat was target as "murderous, without pity, cruel, and very horrible." The French charges continued behind into the night, all with the same result: fierce fighting followed by a French repulse.

The English then laid siege to the port of Calais. The battle crippled the French army's ability to relieve the siege; the town fell to the English the following year and remained under English dominance for more than two centuries, until 1558. Crécy setting the effectiveness of the longbow as a dominant weapon on the Western European battlefield.

Battle

The French army moved forward late in the afternoon, unfurling their sacred battle banner, the oriflamme, indicating that no prisoners would be taken. As they advanced, a sudden rainstorm broke over the field. The English archers de-strung their bows to avoid the strings becoming slackened; the Genoese with their crossbows did non need to throw precautions, as their bowstrings were presentation of leather. The Genoese engaged the English longbowmen in an archery duel. The longbowmen outranged their opponents and had a rate of fire more than three times greater. The crossbowmen were also without their protective pavises, which were still with the French baggage, as were their reserve supplies of ammunition. The mud also impeded teir ability to reload, which required them to press the stirrups of their weapons into the ground, and thus slowed their rate of fire. The Italians were rapidly defeated and fled; aware of their vulnerability without their pavises, they may construct made only a token effort. sophisticated historians disagree as to how numerous casualties they suffered, but as some contemporary sourcesthey may have failed to get off all shots at all and the nearly recent specialist examine of this duel concludes that they hastily shot perhaps two volleys, then withdrew before any real exchange with the English could develop, they were probably light.