History of the Battle of Crecy
1346, August 26 - the Battle of Crecy took place, near the small village of Crecy in Northern France. It became one of the most important battles of the Hundred Years' War. The combination of new weapons and tactics that the British used in the battle has led many historians to conclude that the Battle of Crecy defined the decline of medieval chivalry.
Between England and France is considered the longest war in world history. And in fact, this protracted conflict lasted from 1337 to 1453, that is, 116 years. But... this war was strange. Long periods of hostilities were followed by equally long, sometimes up to a quarter of a century, stages of peaceful coexistence. And the participants themselves, and their descendants, had never heard of any Hundred Years War.
There was the Edwardian War, there was the Lancastrian War, there was the Carolingian (Duguesclin) War, but there was no Hundred Years War. It turns out that the term “Hundred Years' War” itself is quite late, it is a little over 150 years old. Only in 1860, French historians from the time of the Second Empire introduced this new, not very precise concept into scientific circulation. But if we proceed from this understanding of history, then the legendary ones should be considered as a single protracted conflict, which lasted, by the way, 118 years (from 264 to 146 BC), that is, two years longer.
It should be noted that this is far from the limit - the Age of the Warring States, this almost continuous war of seven states for hegemony in China, lasted almost 200 years! And many English historians call the period from 1689 to 1815, filled with an endless series of Anglo-French conflicts, the Second Hundred Years War.
Previous events. Balance of power
All this, however, does not detract from the significance of the Hundred Years' War in European and world history. Beginning as a dynastic conflict, it became the first war of nations in history. Its main battles marked the beginning of the end of chivalry and introduced Europe to firearms for the first time. And the first of these great battles was the famous Battle of Crecy.
The battle was preceded by a long raid of the British army in Normandy. 1346, July - 32,000 soldiers landed at Cape La Gogue in Normandy - 4,000 cavalry and 28,000 infantry, including 10,000 English archers, 12,000 Welsh and 6,000 Irish infantry - under the command of the king himself. All of Normandy was devastated. In response, King Philip VI of France sent his main forces against Edward. In total, the French had 12,000 cavalry and up to 40,000 infantry and militia.
Edward with the main part of the army crossed the Seine and Somme and went north of Abbeville, where, near the town of Crecy, he decided to give a defensive battle to the French troops pursuing him. The place chosen for this was very good. A gentle slope rose above the road along which the French army was supposed to pass. Throughout the next day, the British carefully set up their defensive positions here. Their right flank, near Crecy itself, was protected by the Me River. On the left flank, in front of the village of Vadikur, a grove grew, and the British infantry managed to dig several ditches there before the battle.
By the very moment of the Battle of Crecy, the English army was significantly smaller than the French, especially inferior in cavalry. Froissart in his “Chronicle” estimates the number of Englishmen as only 8,500 people; modern historians estimate their number at 15–20,000. But be that as it may, the French army was no less than twice, and maybe even three times larger than the English one. Hence Edward’s choice of tactics, careful preparation of the battlefield, and well-thought-out deployment of forces for defensive purposes.
Balance of power
The right division was nominally commanded by 16-year-old Edward, Prince of Wales, later famous as the “Black Prince,” but in reality the reins of power were in the hands of an experienced veteran of many campaigns, the head of the heraldic chamber, the Earl of Warwick. Approximately three hundred meters to the northeast was a relatively shallowly echeloned left division under the command of the Earls of Arundel and Northampton.
Bridging the gap between the right and left divisions, stood the central division, most deeply echeloned along the front (several hundred meters in depth), under the command of Edward III himself. The monarch himself set up an observation post for himself at a mill, located approximately halfway between his own division and the “army” of the Prince of Wales. From this place he could survey the entire battlefield and send orders to all field commanders.
The core of each division was a powerful phalanx of about a thousand dismounted heavy horsemen - lined up, according to some accounts, in six rows with a front width of about 250 meters. On the flanks of each division, English and Welsh archers were moved forward - both for the best view and to ensure that the sectors of fire reliably overlapped.
In front of the center of the army, the flank archers of the right and left divisions closed in such a way that their formation formed an inverted V, directed towards the enemy. Behind the center of each division there was a small reserve of heavy cavalry ready for immediate counterattack in case the French advance was able to break through the front lines of defense.
Beginning of the Battle of Crecy
The attacking French army could not boast of such a clear formation. King Philip, apparently, managed to push the Genoese crossbowmen forward, but the “heroic” knightly cavalry had difficulty obeying order and orders. Moreover, just at the time when the French vanguard encountered the advanced formations of the British, a short thunderstorm began, a downpour passed, and the ground became wet.
When the sun, already leaning towards the west, appeared again, the disciplined Genoese crossbowmen crossed the valley in a dense line and headed up the slope. Stopping about 150 meters from the British forward positions, they fired crossbow bolts, most of which did not reach the target. Then they moved forward again - and then a shower of English arrows, each almost a meter long, fell upon them.
Having mixed ranks, the Genoese rolled back. And then the French knights, who were impatient to get involved in the battle, spurred their horses and, in a discordant avalanche, went on the offensive right through the formations of the Genoese. Literally a moment later, the slippery slope was already covered with a continuous mass of heavy, clumsy, chain-mailed horses and riders, stumbling their way right through the unfortunate Genoese, and English arrows rained down on all this chaos.
Due to inertia, part of the French heavy cavalry was still able to reach the English line of defense, where a short but fierce battle broke out. But after just a few seconds the French were counterattacked by the heavy cavalry of the Prince of Wales and driven back.
Then, as they arrived, each subsequent detachment of the French column recklessly rushed into battle, immediately coming under murderous English fire. It should be noted that Edward III was able to extremely effectively organize the supply of arrows; in addition, in between attacks, English archers went out to pick up arrows on the field. As a result, the massacre continued until darkness - the French attacked 15 or 16 times, and each such wave actually choked on its own blood. Finally, the French despaired and played a retreat. The English army remained in their positions until dawn.
Losses
The losses of the French army in this battle were enormous. When the next morning Edward sent 3,000 cavalrymen on a reconnaissance mission, the British counted the number of dead. The French lost 11 princes, 80 banner knights, 1,200 “ordinary” knights, and 4,000 other horsemen killed. No one counted the dead infantrymen, but it is obvious that here too the count was at least in the thousands. British losses are usually estimated at around 200 men, although this figure may very well be an underestimate.
Aftermath of the battle
The Battle of Crecy is, in fact, the first general battle in which the new English tactics of the combined use of archers and dismounted knights were used against large masses of knightly cavalry. Many historians consider this battle to be one of the turning points in military history, ending more than five hundred years of domination of knightly cavalry on the battlefield.
In addition, field artillery was used for the first time at the Battle of Crecy, although its role, for obvious technological reasons, was small in this particular battle. After Crecy, the crisis of classical medieval chivalry becomes an obvious fact, including for the most far-sighted contemporaries, which, alas, did not include the kings of France. Well, the most direct consequence of the battle was the capture by the British of the port-fortress of Calais, which became their outpost in France for more than 200 years.
Battle of Crécy (1346): fighting
MOVEMENTS BEFORE THE BATTLEThe French saw the English near Crecy at approximately 16 o'clock, by which time they were already in considerable disarray: parts of all three “battles” were mixed up in places and lost contact with the commanders. The French should have waited for the next day or given themselves the trouble to line up properly. King Philip, in fact, ordered the army to stop, but the heavily armed horsemen in the vanguard had their own reasons for this. Ahead of them stood the pathetic cowards who had barely managed to escape from the noble knights the day before, and now they also showed themselves to be fools as they lined up for battle, hoping to withstand the crushing blow of the forged lava.
Presumably, the ardent and reckless knights believed that they were just a few steps away from glory, since they had no doubt that they would be able to crush the enemy with one decisive throw. The idea that infantry could even fight staunchly and bravely - let alone win - did not seem to even occur to the knights. The despicable crowd of French infantry must have only strengthened this impression. In general, the heavily armed horsemen of the vanguard, aware that their reputation depended on heroic deeds on the battlefield, were impatient to attack. Any knight who showed uncertainty in the face of an enemy - especially one so pathetic and unworthy - risked tainting his honor with shame. Moreover, it was necessary to advance as quickly as possible, before someone robbed the vanguard of its rightful glory.
Impatiently, the heavily armed "gendarmes" rushed forward, sweeping out of the way the 6,000 Genoese crossbowmen of the vanguard. The Genoese were not very eager to go on the attack. The weapons were damaged by the rain, they themselves were tired and upset during the march, in addition, they already had experience communicating with the English shooters, who calmly waited for the moment when the enemy was within reach of their bows. On top of that, they lost their pavises - large shields that could have been used to hide behind while reloading, but which were stuck somewhere behind in the train. Despite any protests or explanations, the mercenaries received orders to attack. When the Genoese reluctantly moved forward, not all the French units had yet reached the field.
FIRST ATTACK
Meanwhile, while the Genoese crossbowmen were making their way towards the English positions, trying to bring their ranks into some semblance of order, they came under destructive “fire” from the hillside. Typically, the Welsh bows of the English were inferior in range to crossbows, but several factors - mainly moisture affecting the bowstrings and the dominant position of the enemy - provided advantages to the English side. She used them to the fullest. When the Genoese approached 150 m, that is, at a fairly confident striking distance for a Welsh bow, the British opened fire. While the Genoese only had time to reload their powerful crossbows once, the archers made several fairly well-aimed shots.
The ragged ranks of the attackers wavered under the destructive volleys. Smoke and flashes of flame from the English lines signaled the approach of the era of firearms. Edward during Battle of Crecy used cannons in the field, but it was not they, but his archers who crushed the enemy. The heavily armed horsemen of the French vanguard remaining behind the Genoese fidgeted nervously in their saddles, unable to tolerate such a violation of their rights and the theft of the honor of delivering the first and deadly blow to the enemy. When the Genoese retreated, the knights were no longer able to look at what was happening indifferently. They hurried to the attack, cutting their way with their horses and not hesitating to brandish their weapons in order to make a passage through the masses of crossbowmen.
Under pressure from both sides, the Genoese finally broke the formation. Some even fired on the heavily armed "gendarmes" in self-defense, and scattered brawls broke out down the hillside as the mass of knights rushed on and on towards the real enemy.
Partly out of contempt for the pitiful archers, partly because of the defensive holes in front of the skirmishers' positions, and to some extent due to the "canalizing effect" of the flanking "fire", the spearhead of the dashing French attack aimed at the dismounted heavily armed "gendarmes" and Welsh pikemen. Ordinary broad-headed arrows were not particularly lethal to riders in forged armor, but they could kill a horse or cause it to go berserk from pain.
However, the British also had “awl-shaped” arrows, which had long and sharp tips capable of piercing metal plates. Volley after volley of arrows rained down on the galloping knights, stubbornly and inexorably striving for the goal. Quite a few French reached the English line, but those that broke through attacked the enemy with all their fury and pressure. The attackers were mixed up as small squads of heavily armed horsemen rushed towards the enemy, while others turned back to gather and rush into battle again. The English line stood unshakable, spearmen and heavily armed “gendarmes” fought with the advancing French.
Philip of France understood that nothing could be changed. He couldn't just abandon the vanguard without support. As soon as the rest of his army moved into position, he ordered them to deploy and threw them against the British in a series of uncoordinated attacks.
APOGEE OF THE BATTLE OF CRESY
French attacks in Battle of Crecy were disorganized due to the difficulties associated with managing the battle, as well as problems generated by the need to begin assaulting enemy positions directly from the march. Nevertheless, the attackers were not lacking in courage and pressure. The determination to achieve victory and the enthusiasm of the French reached such a high level that they continued to rush into battle for several hours. The hand-to-hand fighting became more and more fierce, and Godfrey Harcourt, whom the king ordered to guard Prince Edward, began to seriously worry not only for the safety, but also for the life of the young man.
Harcourt galloped to the nearest English detachment on the left flank and asked its commander, Earl of Arundel, to launch a counterattack in order to weaken the enemy’s pressure on the sovereign’s young son and his squad, and also sent a messenger to Edward III asking for reinforcements. Seeing that Arundel was already coming to the rescue of the prince, King Edward refused to commit a reserve to the battle.
Instead, he made the brave and wise decision to give the young man the opportunity to “earn his spurs.” The warriors of the Earl of Arundel cut into the flank of the French attacking the “battle” of young Edward, and with joint efforts both detachments repelled the onslaught with great damage to the enemy. Even before the moment when reinforcements from the reserve managed to reach the threatened area, everything was already over, and the prince’s entourage could be proud of what they had done. It was then that Edward, Prince of Wales, began to earn his reputation as a formidable warrior. In history he remained as the Black Prince because of the color of his armor, although some hinted that it was not the armor at all, but the character traits of this outstanding commander.
CONTINUATION AND END OF THE BATTLE OF CRESY
And yet the French Battle of Crecy they did not stop desperate attacks, spurred on by the examples of commanders, including the blind king John of Bohemia (1296 - 1346), whose horse was led in battle by two knights. Spurring their horses again and again, the attackers forced them up the slope under showers of arrows from the Welsh archers. It is difficult to determine exactly how many attempts the French made that day. Basically, experts agree on the figure 15 or 16, but this does not take into account, so to speak, attacks of a local nature, launched by individual detachments, which - having been thrown back - regrouped and again entered into battle.
The persistent actions of the French cannot but attract attention, first of all, by their highest courage, as well as by their lack of common sense. Why did the French continue their costly and fruitless attacks? The answer is probably to be found in the social structure of the French army. The “gendarme” learned one thing from birth - to fight. He was distinguished by self-confidence and assertiveness and strove to gain fame as the best fighter, or at least have reason to speak of himself as an experienced soldier who had been in many fights and skirmishes.
Victory was his goal, but admitting defeat was not his custom. He was part of the military elite, where he strived to stand out - to become at least an inch, if not a head, taller than its other representatives. Each “gendarme” was concerned about personal honor, and therefore the stake in the battle was his social position. To be defeated by the peasants - the infantry - or to leave the field before the trumpets sounded for the end of the battle meant to cover oneself with shame forever. In short, until the battle is over, the knight cannot stop fighting. The French commanders reasoned in exactly the same way. At that time in the West, it was customary for commanders to fight on the front line or at least close to the front line. The situation forced the detachment commander to continue attacking until victory or until the moment when the king, who was often himself in the thick of the battle, orders to withdraw from combat contact. The duty of the less eminent knights and simply heavily armed horsemen was to follow the examples of the leaders. Thus, seeing the enemy in front of them and being bound by the bonds of worldview and traditions, the French simply had no choice - only to attack and attack.
Among other things, the situation on the field Battle of Crecy , perhaps, did not seem hopeless for the French. Only small areas of the battle were visible to them through the narrow viewing slits of their helmets. Not imagining the true state of affairs, the “gendarme” could only, responding to the sound of trumpets and the calling cries of the commanders, gallop forward under the banner of the one among whose warriors he happened to be at one time or another. Apparently, the leaders themselves were no more capable of assessing the situation.
Chaos reigned on the field, which was not at all exceptional by the standards of that time. In the gathering twilight, the French might have really thought that they would defeat the British. One more throw, a little more pressure, and the French courage and pressure would overcome the skill of the English archers. However, this was not destined to happen.
Closer to midnight, when King Philip was gathering people for another attempt, one of his close associates, Sir Jean d'Hainaut, dissuaded the sovereign from a hopeless undertaking. Reluctantly, Philip nevertheless agreed to cancel the attack, and the remnants of the French army retreated under the cover of darkness. There was no pursuit. The exhausted British lay down to sleep in the same place where they had just fought. They defeated an army three times their size, without retreating an inch from their original positions. The King did not even have to bring a reserve into the battle.
Knights of the Holy Roman Empire
Previous events
Three years after the sudden start of the Hundred Years' War, its first major battle took place - the naval battle of Sluys, which took place on June 24, 1340. For several years after this battle, King Edward attempted to invade France through Flanders, but these attempts failed due to financial difficulties and the instability of the alliances he formed. Six years later, Edward chose a different route and attacked Normandy, winning first at the Battle of Caen on 26 July and then at the Battle of Blanctac on 24 August 1346. The French plan to trap the British between two rivers, the Seine and the Somme, failed, and the English outflanking maneuver led to the Battle of Crécy, the second most important battle of the war.
The British had, according to various sources, from 8,000 to 20,000 warriors (the English historian Morris defines Edward’s forces as 4,000 mounted knights and sergeants and 10,000 archers; the chronicler Froissart speaks of 9,000 warriors, but we are talking only about those in the “first line” ).
The exact size of the French forces is unknown. The French army was not at full strength - one detachment entered into battle with the British the day before, trying to prevent them from crossing the river, another detachment (500 spears and 2000 archers, according to Froissart) arrived at the battle site only the next day; a significant number of troops were in the south of France, in Guienne, where they waged war against the British and local Gascon vassals of Edward.
Disposition of the English army
Since the Normandy landing on July 12, 1346, the British had lost about 10 percent of their soldiers. By the time of the battle there were 12-13 thousand of them left. Edward III positioned his forces on the ridge of the hill near the village of Crécy, with a front of 1,829 meters (2,000 yards), flanked by natural obstacles. Probably the troops were not located in a continuous line, but in separate detachments. In front of the hill there were three embankments, which were the main obstacle for the French horsemen. The king himself and his retinue settled in a mill on a small hill, which covered the army from the rear and from which he could control the course of the entire battle.
In such a strong defensive position, Edward gave the order to the cavalry to take the battle dismounted. He divided the army into three large parts. On the right flank, in accordance with tradition, was the vanguard of the army under the nominal command of the sixteen-year-old son of Edward III the Black Prince (in fact, the right flank was commanded by the Earl of Warwick). The rearguard on the left flank was led by the Earl of Northampton. The troops in the center were led by the king himself. The English archers were positioned in wedges, hollow or filled, ahead of the position of knights and men-at-arms along the crest of the hill.
Progress of the battle
The French army, led by Philip VI himself, was greatly disorganized due to the excessive confidence of the French knights in the outcome of the battle. Philip placed Genoese mercenaries with crossbows (under the command of Admirals Antonio Doria and Carlo Grimaldi) in the vanguard of his army, and took the cavalry to the rear.
The first to attack were the crossbowmen, who unleashed a shower of arrows to disorganize and terrify the English infantry. This first maneuver was accompanied by war cries and the sounds of musical instruments brought by Philip VI to frighten the enemy. But the attack of the crossbowmen turned out to be completely useless. Having a rate of fire of 3 to 5 arrows per minute, they could not be compared with English archers, who could fire 10-12 shots in the same time. Moreover, some historians believe that crossbows were damaged by the rain that fell before the battle, while a simple archer could easily unstring his bow during bad weather. The crossbowmen did not even have with them pavez(shields, usually used as protection during long reloading), which remained in the lagging convoy. There is unverified information that the crossbowmen left the main supply of crossbow arrows and bolts there.
| The English, divided into three armies, sat completely calmly on the ground, but as soon as they saw the approaching French, they immediately rose to their feet and very collectedly, without the slightest fear, lined up for battle... Then the crossbowmen were given the way, but some of them showed that they were not on fire at all desire to go into battle, since they were already completely tired, having walked six leagues from Abbeville itself and carrying their crossbows... These speeches were conveyed to the Count of Alençon, who became cruelly angry because of them and said to those who were nearby: “Look! You have to burden yourself with such rabble! They are only good at the table! Kill them all! They are more of a hindrance than a benefit!”... When all the Genoese gathered together and were about to attack the British, they began to yell in unison, in many voices, to scare the British... They advanced even further, pulled the bowstrings of their crossbows and began to shoot. When the English archers saw what was happening, they took one step forward and released their arrows, which began to fall and rain on the Genoese so thickly that it resembled snow... |
The frightened and confused Genoese crossbowmen had to retreat with heavy losses. Around this time, the French cavalry decided that their time had come and rode into the attack straight through the retreating Genoese. Continuing to fire at the advancing cavalry, the English killed many French knights.
Froissart writes that the British, “to frighten the Genoese, discharged several cannons that were in their army,” without further mentioning the guns, since such primitive artillery took a long time to fire again.
Aftermath of the battle
After the French left the battlefield, the British walked around it in search of the wounded, whom they wanted to capture for ransom. Knights whose wounds were too serious to be easily carried away were killed with special daggers called misericord(which translates to “compassion”). These long daggers were stuck either through unprotected axillary areas directly into the heart, or through viewing slits into the brain, which contradicted the knightly code of warfare, because knights were finished off by simple peasants. This code was also contradicted by the fact that in battle knights died from “anonymous” arrows.
The Battle of Crécy established the temporary military superiority of the Welsh longbow over the French combination of crossbow and heavily armed knight - due to the much greater rate of fire and greater range of the bow in the hands of a skilled yeoman archer compared to the crossbow of the time. It was thanks to this superiority, according to some historians, that the Battle of Crecy predetermined the tactics of warfare by the British for a very long time (before the Battle of Crecy, the British successfully used such tactics in the wars with Wales and Scotland, but very little was known about these wars on the continent). However, no European country adopted the English system. The French were defeated at the Battle of Agincourt (1415) under similar conditions, without even attempting to adopt English tactics for 70 years. In the 15th century, despite the resounding victories of the British, the crossbow remained the main small arms in European continental armies. This testified not so much to the qualitative superiority of the longbow over other types of weapons, but to the tactical skill of English commanders in its use and the feudal anarchy in France (the French army was an unorganized, undisciplined feudal militia).
Immediately after this battle, Edward III besieged the city of Calais, which surrendered to him 11 months later, becoming the English base in Northern France. The next important battle of the Hundred Years' War was the Battle of Poitiers (1356), which resulted in another defeat for France, suffered in very similar conditions.
It was during this period of history that longbow arrows could pierce a knight's armor (especially those parts that were not covered with metal plates), but, of course, not all arrows fired by English archers found their targets, just as not all arrows that found target, pierced the armor of the approaching French knights - the angle of impact played a big role here. At the same time, the arrows were quite good at knocking horses out from under the knights, and even non-penetrating weapons were enough to seriously hurt, wound or knock down a knight on foot trying to reach the English positions. Froissart claimed that the barrage of arrows was so dense and frequent that it blocked out the sun. Even making allowances for certain poetic exaggerations, we can say with confidence that not every arrow had to look for a target for a long time. By the time the survivors of the arrow shower reached the English positions, they were relatively easily overwhelmed by the defensive formations of the dismounted, heavily armed British. The overall effect was devastating in any case.
At the end of the battle and the return of the Welsh archers home to their native Llantrisant (English) in South Wales, each was given an acre of land "for bravery". Each also received the title of "Freeman" (translated from English - free man), and was exempt from paying taxes on livestock breeding. Even years later, anyone who could prove their Freeman heritage could become a Freeman.
Against heavily armed knights, it was proven by the British, contrary to the widespread belief of that era that archers were ineffective against warriors in heavy armor and were easily destroyed in close combat, and the horses of knights were generally barely protected. Many horses were killed and disabled, forcing the knights to struggle through the mud on foot under a hail of arrows.
The Battle of Crecy, according to many historians, was the beginning of the end of chivalry. Firstly, many prisoners and wounded were killed during the battle, which was contrary to the chivalric code of warfare. Secondly, mounted knights were no longer considered “invulnerable” in the face of infantry.
Another feature of this battle was that for the first time in Europe, guns were widely used. Before this, in the 1340s, cannons were used by only a few states and in very small quantities.
In reports The King's Personal Wardrobe(an institution that was part of the Department of the Royal House of England), compiled in preparation for the battle between and 1346, the so-called "ribalda" or "ribodecines" ribaldis Normandy and ensuring its continuous supply. The widespread use of requisitions for the needs of the royal court and even the arrest of ships for the purpose of using them to transport army troops gave rise to many potential sources of discontent with the king in his own kingdom. Equally, the daring and unprecedented extension of conscription to a scale usually required only for coastal defence, coupled with service outside his own country, was extremely unpopular among many of his subjects. However, the very first subsequent convening of the English Parliament (September 11-20, 1346) showed that the successes of the campaign significantly muffled the voices of the protesters.
In June 1340, the English won the naval battle of Sluys, gaining supremacy at sea. However, they were plagued by failures on land - they failed to take the Tournai fortress. The English king Edward III was forced to lift the siege of the fortress and conclude a fragile truce with the enemy.
Soon, trying to turn the tide of events in its favor, the British government resumed hostilities. In 1346, the British landed troops at three points: Flanders, Brittany and Guienne. In the south they managed to capture almost all the castles. In July 1346, 32 thousand soldiers landed at Cape La Gogue in Normandy (4 thousand cavalry and 28 thousand infantry, including 10 thousand English archers, 12 thousand Welsh and 6 thousand Irish infantry) under the command of the king himself . Normandy was devastated. In response, the French king Philip VI sent his main forces against Edward. In total, the French had 10 thousand cavalry and 40 thousand infantry. Having destroyed the bridges over the Seine and Somme rivers, Philip forced the British to move around.
Following the marching order to Flanders, Edward crossed the Seine and Somme, went north of Abbeville, where at Crecy, a village in northern France, he decided to give the French pursuing him a defensive battle. The British took up a position on an oblong height, which had a gentle slope towards the enemy. A steep cliff and dense forest reliably secured their right flank. To bypass the left flank, the army under the command of King Philip would have needed to carry out a flank march, which was completely impossible for the French knights, who were forced to enter the battle from the march. France Jacquerie Joan of Arc
The English king ordered his knights to dismount and send their horses over the reverse slope, where the convoy was located. It was assumed that the dismounted knights would become the support of the archers. Therefore, in battle order, the knights stood interspersed with archers. The groups of archers lined up in a checkerboard formation of five ranks, so that the second rank could shoot at the intervals between the archers of the first rank. The third, fourth and fifth ranks were actually support lines for the first two ranks.
On the night of August 26, the French reached the Abbeville area, approaching approximately 20 km to the British location. Their total number was unlikely to greatly exceed the army of the British, but they outnumbered the enemy in the number of knights. On the morning of August 26, despite heavy rain, the French army continued its march.
At 15 o'clock, Philip received a report from scouts, which reported that the British were in battle formation at Cressy and were preparing to give battle. Considering that the army made a long march in the rain and was very tired, the French king decided to postpone the enemy attack until the next day. The marshals gave the order: “the banners should stop,” but only the leading units followed it. When rumors spread in the marching column of the French army that the British were ready to give battle, the rear ranks began to push the knights in front, who, on their own initiative, moved forward with the intention of engaging in battle. There was a mess. Moreover, King Philip himself, seeing the British, lost his composure and ordered the Genoese crossbowmen to move forward and begin the battle in order to deploy the knightly cavalry under their cover to attack. However, the English archers were superior to the crossbowmen, especially since the latter's crossbows became damp in the rain. With heavy losses, the crossbowmen began to retreat. Philip ordered them to be killed, which brought even greater confusion to the ranks of the entire army: the knights began to destroy their own infantry.
Soon the French formed a battle formation, dividing their troops into two wings under the command of the counts of Alençon and Flanders. Groups of French knights moved forward through the retreating crossbowmen, trampling many of them. On tired horses, across a muddy field, and even uphill, they advanced slowly, which created favorable conditions for the English archers. If one of the French managed to reach the enemy, he was stabbed to death by dismounted English knights.
The battle, which started spontaneously, proceeded unorganized. 15 or 16 scattered attacks did not break the British resistance. The main blow of the French fell on the right flank of the British. It was here that the attackers managed to make some progress. But Edward sent 20 knights from the center to strengthen the right flank. This allowed the British to restore the situation here and repel enemy attacks.
When the defeat of the French became obvious, Philip and his retinue left his disorderly retreating army. Edward forbade pursuing the defeated enemy, since dismounted knights could not carry it out and, moreover, they were only strong in interaction with archers.
Thus, from beginning to end the battle on the part of the British was defensive in nature. They achieved success due to the fact that they used the terrain correctly, dismounted the knights and formed them together with the infantry, and also due to the fact that the English archers were distinguished by their high combat skills. The indiscipline and chaotic disorder of Philip's army accelerated his defeat. What saved the French from complete destruction was that the British did not pursue them. Only the next day in the morning Edward sent 3 thousand cavalry for reconnaissance. The French lost 11 princes, 1,200 knights, and 4,000 other horsemen killed, not counting the infantry.
