Campaign Crecy 1346 Triumph of the Longbow DAVID NICOLLE was born in 1944, the son of the illustrator Pat Nicolle. He worked in the BBC Arabic service for a number of years, before going 'back to school', gaining an MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and a doctorate from Edinburgh University. He later taught world and Islamic art and architectural history at Yarmuk University, Jordan. He has written many books and articles on medieval and Islamic warfare, and has been a prolific author of Osprey titles for many years. David lives and works in Leicestershire, UK. GRAHAM TURNER is a leading historical artist, specialising in the medieval period. He has illustrated numerous titles for Osprey, covering a wide variety of subjects from the dress of the 10th-century armies of the Caliphates, through the action of bloody medieval battles, to the daily life of the British Redcoat of the late 18th century. The son of the illustrator Michael Turner, Graham lives and works in Buckinghamshire, UK. OSPREY Campaign PUBLISHING Crecy 1346 Triumph of the Longbow OSPREY Campaign « 7 I PUBLISHING Crecy 1346 Triumph of the Longbow David Nicolle • Illustrated by Graham Turner Series editor Lee Johnson • Consultant editor David G Chandler First published in Great Britain in 2000 by Osprey Publishing, Elms Court, Dedication Chapel Way, Botley, Oxford 0X2 9LP United Kingdom Email: [email protected] For Peter Nicolle and his family, a long-lost cousin and a new-found fellow interest. © 2000 Osprey Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, Artist's Note research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, be transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, Readers may care to note that the original paintings from electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, which the colour plates in this book were prepared are without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be available for private sale. All reproduction copyright addressed to the Publisher. whatsoever is retained by the Publisher. All enquiries should be addressed to: CIP Data for this publication is available from the British Library ISBN 1 85532 966 2 Graham Turner, PO Box 88, Chesham, Bucks, HP5 2SR, UK Consulant Editor: DAVID G. CHANDLER Series Editor: LEE JOHNSON The publishers regret that they can enter in to no correspondence on this matter. Editor: Marcus Cowper Design: The Black Spot Further reading Colour birds-eye view illustrations by the Black Spot Cartography by the Map Studio Allman, C. T., Society at War, The Experiences of England Battlescene artwork by Graham Turner and France during the Hundred Years War Wargaming Crecy by Stuart Asquith (revised ed. Woodbridge 1998). Originated by Grasmere Digital Imaging, Leeds, UK Ashley, W., Edward III and his wars, 1327-1360 Printed in China through World Print Ltd (1887; reprint 1993). 04 05 06 07 08 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 Burne, A. H., The Crecy War: A Military History of the Hundred Years War from 1337 to the Peace of Bretigny FOR A CATALOGUE OF ALL BOOKS 1360 (London 1955). PUBLISHED BY OSPREY PLEASE CONTACT Chazelas, A., Documents Relatifs au Clos de Galees de NORTH AMERICA Rouen et aux Armees de Mer du Roi de France de 1293 Osprey Direct, 2427 Bond Street, a 1418 (Paris 1977-1978). University Park, IL 60466, USA Contamine, P., 'Crecy (1346) et Azincourt (1415): une E-mail: [email protected] comparison,' in Divers aspects du Moyen Age en Occident; Actes du Congres tenu a Calais en ALL OTHER REGIONS Septembre 1974 (Calais 1977) 29-44. Osprey Direct UK, P.O. Box 140, Wellingborough, Contamine, P., Guerre, Etat et Societe en France, en Northants, NN8 2FA, UK Angleterre et en Bourgogne XlVe-Xve Siecle (Lille 1991). E-mail: [email protected] Curry, A. and Hughes M. (eds), Arms, Armies and Participants in the Hundred Years War (Woodbridge 1994). www.ospreypublishing.com Devries, K., Infantry warfare in the early fourteenth * century: Discipline, tactics and technology (1996). Hewitt, H. J., The Organisation of War under Edward III, 1338-62 (Manchester 1996). Lot, F., L'Art Militaire et les Armees au Moyen Age en Europe et dans le Proche Orient (Paris 1946). Louandre, F-C., L'histoire d'Abbeville et du comte de Ponthieu (Paris 1944; revised 1983). Lucas, H. S., Low Countries and the Hundred Years War, 1326-1347 (Ann Arbor 1929). KEY TO MILITARY SYMBOLS Postan, M. M., 'The Costs of the Hundred Years War,' Past and Present XXVII (1964) 34-53. xxxx XXX XX Prince, A. E., 'The Payment of Army Wages in Edward Ill's X IX IX ^ Reign,' Speculum, XIX (1944) 137-160. ARMY GROUP ARMY CORPS DIVISION BRIGADE Prince, A. E., 'The Strength of English Armies in the Reign Kl Kl ISI S of Edward III,' The English Historical Review CLXXXIII REGIMENT BATTALION COMPANY INFANTRY CAVALRY (1931)353-371. Sumption, J., The Hundred Years War, vol. 1: Trial by ra SE gj S§ Battle (London 1990). FORCES Wailly, H. de, Crecy 1346: Anatomy of a battle (Poole 1987). CONTENTS ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN 7 THE OPPOSING COMMANDERS 10 English Leaders • French Leaders OPPOSING FORCES 15 The English • The French OPPOSING PLANS 32 The English Invasion Plan • The French Defence Plan THE CAMPAIGN 33 The Invasion • The Battlefield • The Battle AFTERMATH AND RECKONING 77 THE BATTLEFIELDS TODAY 84 CHRONOLOGY 85 WARGAMING THE BATTLE OF CRECY 88 The English Army • The French Army INDEX 95 ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN During the early-14th century France and England were more prosperous and powerful than at any time since the height of the Roman Empire, France being the richest country in Christendom. England lagged far behind in terms of population and prestige, although the country was more united. Not only was part of south-western France ruled by the English king, but Flanders and Brittany were virtually auto-nomous. Both these fringe areas also had close commercial links with England. In 1328 there was a crisis of succession. Philip IV had died 14 years earlier, leaving the Capetian line apparently secure with three sons and a grandson. All of them died in rapid succession, with the last, Charles IV, leaving a pregnant queen. The French nobles elected Philip of Valois (the nephew of Philip IV) as regent and agreed that, if the queen produced a daughter, Philip would become king. A daughter duly appeared and Philip de Valois became King Philip VI. But the only way to legalise this situation was to adopt the new Salic Law, which stated that no woman could rule France, nor could anyone lay claim to the crown through a female relative. This law also excluded several other princes who could have claimed the crown, one of them being King Edward III of England, whose mother was a daughter of Philip IV. For several years things progressed smoothly enough until a new crisis erupted when Philip VI found it politically necessary to support the Count of Flanders LEFT The Mullhouse Altar was against his old friend Robert d'Artois over the succession to the County painted in Bohemia around 1385 of Artois. Robert felt betrayed and so transferred his allegiance to AD, several decades after the Edward III of England. Not long afterwards a similar situation arose in battle of Crecy. Nevertheless its representation of the Saint-King Brittany when Philip VI ruled in favour of his nephew Charles of Blois, Wenceslas shows the country's and his rival, Jean de Montfort, consequently turned to Edward. patron saint as a warrior-ruler with the typical 14th-century armour used by Bohemia's feudal elite. (State Galleries, no. 1038, Stuttgart) RIGHT 'A knight rescuing a captive from a giant,' in an early - 14th-century English manuscript. The knightly class saw them- selves as fully armoured cavalry maintaining right and crushing wickedness, which was, as in this picture, often represented as a boorish foot soldier. (Psalter of Richard of Canterbury, Pierpont Morgan Lib., Ms. Glazier 24, f. 103v, New York) Effigy of an unnamed knight, English c.1340-50. His armour is typical of the period, though more decorated than most. The previously accepted dating for English effigies and brasses should be pushed forward approximately a generation, in line with comparable monuments on the Continent. (Parish church, Ifield; author's photograph) Such constitutional problems subsequently provided Edward III with political propaganda when war finally broke out in 1337; he officially proclaimed himself king of France three years later. The anonymous Invective against France, written shortly after the battle of Crecy, maintained the justice of Edward's claim by stating somewhat strangely that, 'Christ is the King of the Jews by right of his mother, therefore let the boar [Edward's nickname] be made king over the French by right of his mother.' The trigger to the outbreak of the Hundred Years War in 1337 was, as in so many previous Anglo-French wars, the unclear frontiers of English-ruled Gascony in south-western France. This time, however, Edward III decided to use his claim to the French throne as a political weapon against Philip VI, while the latter used France's old alliance with Scotland as a weapon against Edward. Each ruler also sought allies elsewhere, notably within the fragmented Holy Roman Empire, which included much of what are now Germany, Austria, part of Poland, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, northern Italy, eastern France, Luxembourg, eastern Belgium and Holland. The first years of the war were very inconclusive. Despite a major English naval success at the battle of Sluys in 1340, many Englishmen doubted the wisdom of Edward Ill's aggressive policy towards a country as powerful as France and there was widespread fear of enemy coastal raids. Certainly Philip VI had decided to invest more heavily in naval power than France had done before, even hiring fleets of war galleys from Genoese and Spanish ship owners. Philip VI also undermined Edward's alliances in Flanders, though Edward opened up a new front in Brittany. By 1345 the war was becoming dangerously expensive for both rulers. Edward Ill's allies held most of Brittany on behalf of Jean de Montfort. French attacks on Gascony in the south-west had been checked and Edward III had rebuilt his Flemish alliances. Finance was a problem for Philip VI, whose subjects objected to paying taxes unless France was actually being invaded. Edward III also borrowed heavily and widely, so