The 100 Years WarLast time, on History Class: Phillip VI's France repeatedly provoked Edward III's England, and then, when they responded, confiscated Guyenne. Then Edward decided to take advantage of his superior bloodline claim to the French throne and go to war with Phillip over Guyenne. St Vaast-la-Houge CaenValognes Cre'cyRouenRiver OrneRiver OdonJean de Melan

Tancarville

12 July, 1346: Edward III lands his army on St Vaast-la-Houge in Normandy (surprisingly close to where the Allies invade in 1944). It took approx. 750 ships to bring the army and their stuff. Between 7 and 10 thousand dudes, half of which was archers (this is pretty normal for the English). It took 5 days to disembark and get organized. Edward III's plan was to march along the coast toward Rouen and then turn inland toward Isle de France (aka, the area where Paris is). He split them into 3 divisions; the lead (vanguard/van) commanded by the Prince of Wales, his son, also known as the Black Prince (after his armor: he really liked the color). The Rear guard is commanded by the Bishop of Durham. Edward III commands the central. Meanwhile, Edward commanded 300 warships to sail north from the landing and destroy everything up to 5 miles inland. Why? To deny France naval bases. A smaller army has landed in Flanders to pin down French forces there. This is especially effective since the Flemish are revolting against France and side with the English.

The march starts (for the main force) on 18th July. They arrive in Valognes, a town which is not fortified and has no walls and no garrisons. And the gates are open. The town comes out to meet Edward III and asks to get out of this with their lives. Edward issues a decree saying the people of Valognes and their property will not be harmed. Then the English army loots whatever they want, and when they leave Valognes is in flames.

Meanwhile, Phillip VI is scrambling to gather an army to fight the English. The Duke of Normandy's (where Edward is atm) troops are off in the south, so Edward is rampaging unchecked. Phillip sent a decree to gather an army, but it won't actually work until AT LEAST August (and right now it's July). The best plan they had was to stall the English as much as possible at Caen, a town on the River Orne, with a well-fortified castle. It's also the largest town in Normundy at the time. Meanwhile, the Count of Eu transfers his entire army from the coast to Caen via the river Orne. He is reinforced by Jean de Melun, lord of Tancarville. Edward's smaller army hits Flanders on the 21st, further splitting Phillip's forces. Phillip issues ANOTHER decree to send same troops to Flanders. Phillip VI himself heads to St. Denis (a cathedral right outside Paris, at the time) to receive the oriflamme, a fancy French flag which means no prisoners (what it really means is no prisoners, except noblemen who don't accidentally get killed. French Knights get a lot of ransom from nobility, after all).

The English arrive at St Lo^ (40 miles from Caen), killing, burning, and looting everything they find in a 15 mile wide swath. The French call it chevauche'e. The English do a lot of this during the 100 Years War, both for kicks and to cripple France's economy. This strategy makes retreating across the same territory a VERY bad idea. The fleet sailing up the coast is doing the same thing. Some of the ships get so full of loot that they have to go back to England to drop it off. The English have stolen and/or burned everything on most of the coast of Normandy. Caen:

25 July: The English, pretty much unimpeded, arrive at Caen. Edward sends a messenger, summoning Caen to surrender. The Bishop of Bayeux, who is in charge of Caen, tore up the letter and tossed the messenger in his dungeon. Due to its size, location (low marshy ground studded with islands caused by the Odon and the Orne rivers flowing around it), and castle (built by William the Conqueror due to the first two factors), the town is rather defensible. The castle is great, but the town walls AROUND the castle are falling apart. The richest citizens live on an island nearby (Ile St. Jean), connected to the city by a bridge. Edward III assembles his army behind the ridge surrounding Caen, spreads them out, brings EVERYONE from the baggage train into the army, and then pops them out on a signal. All the defenders see is a giant line of English 'troops' stretching across the horizon. The people of Caen are like oh hell no!, and they decide to defend the Ile St Jean instead of the castle. 200 men-at-arms and 100 crossbowmen, led by the Bishop of Bayeux are left to defend the castle, and the rest are moved to Ile St Jean. The reason is unclear, but one theory goes that the wealthy of Ile St-Jean were very interested in protecting their wealth on the island, so they abandoned the nigh-impregnable castle to go to the island. There WAS a LONG section on weaponry, heraldry, and armor here, but Ive cut it down to the essential details:

Edward III banned his knights from wearing their own heraldry so they wouldn't get confused, so they all wore the Cross of St George over their armor. The French did no such thing. English archers use the English longbow, an ENORMOUS bow as tall as a man (or more) with 150-160 pound pull. English Archers (in this army) can fire 10 aimed arrows a minute, with perfect accuracy from 150 paces, for two hours (300ish feet/sec at launch). The arrowheads come in various nasty flavors, too. Theyre also STRONG (150 pound pull * 10 arrows/minute for two hours will do that to you), and often carry nasty choppy weapons to use when they run out of arrows. The bowstrings (and therefore the whole bow) are ruined by water, but theyre easy to unstring (so you can just put the string under your hat while you ford a river or something). The French hire Genoese crossbowmen that use crossbows. Theyve got more range than a longbow but take about a minute (AKA 10 aimed longbow arrows) to reload, so crossbowmen use a shield called a Pavise to hide behind while they reload (the fanciest pavises stand on their own, but less fancy ones need someone else to hold them up). They also take FAR longer to unstring than longbows.

After that, the Black Prince's forces circled around Caen to the other side (by the abbey). The French force was composed of 1000+ French men-at-arms and several hundred Genoese (from Genoa, in Italy) crossbowmen, which would have been more than enough to defend the castle. The island, not so much. The bridge had a barbican (gatehouse/mini-fortification thing), but it was on the wrong side of the bridge (you're supposed to put it at the far end, to keep the enemy off the bridge. It was on the near end, which I suppose is the right end to protect the Castle from the Isle). A part of The Black Prince's forces, composed of archers and welsh hobelars (welsh spearmen) is mostly watching the walls, as opposed to the bridge. They notice birds roosting on the battlements, indicating they're unmanned. So, they try the gate, and it's unlocked. So, they go in, look around, and discover that the Lower Town is pretty much deserted. They hunt for loot, and find nothing and nobody. Going through the town, approaching the Ile, they realize that everybody has crossed the bridge and that the French had thrown up a barricade on the bridge. So, they realize the French have moved to Ile St-Jean, and figure out what's up (the Island is full of rich people that have chickened out). So, the archers and hobelars attack the barricade without orders. It's well defended, by crossbowmen mostly, and they start losing. And then the REST of the Black Princes forces show up, rushing the barricade crazy-people style. And then the Prince realizes what's going on and asks one of his advisors what the hell is going on and who ordered it; it quickly becomes apparent that NOBODY did, so he sends his marshal to stop the attack, but he is swiftly ignored. After a few minutes, the prince concludes that if he can't STOP the attack, he might as well support it, so he sends his men-at-arms into the fight, which, thanks to their armor, changes the direction of the fight drastically.

Meanwhile, the smarter English archers (and some men-at-arms) start circling around the Island to shoot into the flank of the barricade. Along that side of the river are boats, anchored with crossbowmen to defend the river. Sadly for the French, it is low tide, so the archers discover they can wade the river. The crossbowmen open fire, but they have to pop out to do it, and get shot by the archers who aren't wading. While the crossbowmen do some damage, eventually they get whittled down enough for some hobelars to get on the boat, and then it's pissed off Welshmen versus crossbowmen and it's just a slaughter. With the boatmen dead, the archers and hobelars cross the river into the Ile St-Jean. So, then the French realize that the English are in the streets of Ile St-Jean, and things get messy. The English destroy the barricade, and now the barbican is pinned down by English archers on both sides. The English pour past the Barbican, putting the Black Prince's entire army (and part of Edward III's) on Ile St-Jean. As things go sour, a few French Knights flee through the English into the castle, but pretty much everyone is either taken prisoner (nobles) or killed (everyone else), and the city is looted. Both this battle and Cre'cy later are chaotic battles, due to a lack of control by the English in the first and the French in the second. The English camp out in the city rather than burning it. Edward III sends another messenger to the castle, demanding surrender. The Bishop continues to refuse. Then Edward brings up his artillery and his foreign artillerymen (in the 100 Years War they're always foreign and usually Italian or German.) They spend three days shooting at the castle, while the French taunt them (throwing crap, hurtling insults, and mooning them). Finally Edward III goes forget this, we're leaving. And they do! By the end, the French have approx. 2500 dead, soldiers and civilians (not counting those cut down while fleeing, maybe 500). One witness claims 5000 dead (half the pop. Of Caen). While the English Hobelars and archers took heavy casualties, only one man-at-arms died (armor!). And the English march toward Ile de France (where Paris is). Some historians claim that Edward's movement toward Paris was a feint, and the planned to cross the seine b/t Rouen and Paris, while others think he decided to do that as he approached Paris.

Meanwhile, Phillip VI is trying to gather an army while the people get pissed about his incompetence. He has no plan, and his army gathering at Rouen is disorganized, poorly equipped, and confused. And way too many were local levies (aka grunts, aka 'not a match for the english'). And the rest of the army is scattered.

August 12: The English come within 20 miles of Paris. Panic time! Phillip has about 8000 Men-at-arms and 6000 Genoese crossbowmen, plus a bunch of regular infantry. But... They can't defend Paris on both the North and South of the Seine, because that would be, you know, dividing your force in the face of the enemy. Which even Phillip VI isnt dumb enough to do. AND he can't defend both of the bridges west of Paris on both sides either. So, he decides to defend the north side of the bridges. He sends a message to the troops defending those gcrossings telling them to destroy the bridge, which they do. He plans to keep the English on the south side of the river, enabling him to focus on defending the south side of Paris. It's not a bad idea. So he marches his army through Paris to some vineyardsgh, assuming he's trapped the English. And then a messenger arrives saying The English have bridged the river at Poissy they don't buy it for quite a while, but eventually they get it; the English cut down a giant-ass tree and dragged it into place, bypassing the bridge and garrison altogether. The local forces (200 levies) had no chance: a couple dozen men-at-arms drive them off, and then the rest of the army crosses and smashes the bridge. The French sit around in Paris waiting for the English Army, who they have now lost track of. Phillip VI moves his army to the north side of the Seine. By the time they figure out where the English are, they are LONG gone off to the north, towards Amiens, where the French army was assembling... who are long gone, since they were sent to Flanders. But, the English army is running out of food and energy, while the French pursuing them are quite fresh. So the English are about to get quite desperate...

So, now the English are exhausted and starving, with a fresh (and larger) French army following them. And, because the French are fresh, they're catching up. So far, the English have been unable to find a place to ford the Somme, since every spot they check has a garrison of French men-at-arms. They discover a ford at Blanchetaque (a spot where the Somme broadens into a 2 mile wide tidal marsh) that is lightly guarded, with almost no crossbowmen. The English manage to get within 100 yards of the north shore. Midnight, August 24: the English start picking through the Marsh. At dawn, English archers open fire on the French, picking off the few crossbowmen and doing a lot of damage, especially in the middle of the formation, where the English men-at-arms attack. The French are routed, and the English are now across the Somme. And then the French army catches up, but the English now hold the garrison. So, the French have to turn around and go all the way back to Abbeville in order to cross the Somme.

Edward III moves his army north to Cre'cy forest, where he decides to stop running (seeing as how they found a place to rest and a bunch of food). Edward III sets up battle formations, and tells his archers to dig a trench all across the English line, deep enough to break a horse's leg. The English are on top of a deceptively steep hill. The French start filtering in, but they're strung all along the road from Cre'cy to Abbeville (and beyond). Phillip VI starts talking with his advisors, but they dont' know if they should fight now or wait for the rest of the army. By late afternoon, the bulk of the French cavalry and Genoese crossbowmen have arrived, while the baggage train (including the Pavises) isnt' there yet. The majority of Phillip VI's advisors want him to go around the English army and cut them off from the coast of Caley so they can't escape. A few nobles, however, encourage Phillip VI to fight now, since they outnumber the English, and most of their cavalry and crossbowmen are there. Phillip VI has been getting a reputation as being overcautious, and he's worried that if he doesn't give battle that some of his noble commanders will lose faith in him, so he decides to fight right then. (a quick note: at the fight is John of Bohemia, the blind king of bohemia). The English don't expect the French to give battle this late in the day, but as it becomes obvious that the fight is going to happen, Edward III starts to organize his dudes. And then it rains. Hard. And fast. The English archers are able to unstring their bows in time, but the French crossbowmen have no such luck. When it ends, the archers re-string their bows. After the rain ends, Phillip orders his crossbowmen forward, which they do reluctantly (since they don't have shields). The English stand in front of their trenches (which the French can't see), and wait for the crossbowmen to fire. Their bolts fall flat. The English go hell yes and pour down on the crossbowmen and butcher them (like, 70-80% of the crossbowmen were dead within minutes). The survivors run like hell. The rest of the French assume the crossbowmen are running on purpose because they've been bribed by the English to flee. One of Phillip's brothers, d'Alencon, flips out and yells that they've been betrayed by the Genoese crossbowmen, and his lead division attacks them (much to the amazement of the English). And then his cavalry charges the English, without being ordered to do so. And the hill is WAY steeper than they thought it was, so their (highly disorganized, rather than a proper phalanx formation) charge peters out. And, on the way up they get shot at by the English archers (shooting downhill, which makes them go even faster). All the French see is a storm of white streaks. The arrows take out a lot of people, especially since the archers can cause domino effects by shooting horses (horse falls down, knights behind the horse trip on it). And when they reach the trench, their horses go down. Right in front of the English men-at-arms. So, yeah, they're dead. Thanks to the lack of formation, the few French knights who get through are now in the middle of an infantry formation (which is a pretty doomed situation). So, yeah, d'Alecon's attack is a fiasco (he bites it, btw), which gives the French pause; their crossbowmen and lead element are all dead, and the English men-at-arms are WAY better than they thought. The second wave gets their cavalry in order, and they hit the English line HARD. But not, however, hard enough to break through. They do hit hard enough to start a hell of a fight, especially on the Black Prince's side (for a bit his standard drops, meaning his standard bearer got killed, meaning there were dudes right up in his grill). The English archers back up through the men-at-arms and stand above the rest of the English army, letting them aim easily at the French since they're on horses, and therefore above everybody else. So, yeah, the French's big mistake here is the fact that they're mounted: the English learned from the Scots that cavalry charges at men-at-arms will fail. The French, however, do not know this. About halfway through the battle, the English start taking hostages, but pretty much all the rest of the French get butchered. When the English archers finally run out of arrows, they join the melee with all the Nasty Nastiness That English Archers Carry. The French fall back and attack again several times, but they are just not ready for this kind of fight: they get slaughtered, and the English line does not break. Not even the 16 year old Black Prince, who took a real pounding. The Bishop of Durham was begging Edward III to let him help the Prince (Edward III held the bishop back because he wanted the Black Prince to prove himself), and when Edward finally did let him join in, his men ALSO butchered the French. When all is said and done, the field is LITTERED with dead Frenchmen, and Phillip VI has to get dragged out by his bodyguard, since he's almost captured by the English (when it became apparent that the French loss was permanent, the English reserves charged their cavalry into the French, and nearly got Phillip VI).