Everything about Battle Of Cr Cy totally explained
The
Battle of Crécy (often the
Battle of Cressy in English) took place on
26 August,
1346 near
Crécy in northern
France, and was one of the most important battles of the
Hundred Years' War. The combination of new weapons and tactics have caused many historians to consider this battle the beginning of the end of
chivalry.
Significance
Crécy was a battle in which a much smaller English army of 16,000, commanded by
Edward III of England and heavily outnumbered by
Philip VI of France's force of 80,000, was victorious as a result of superior weaponry and tactics, demonstrating the importance of the modern military concept of
fire power. The effectiveness of the
English longbow, used en masse, was proven against armoured knights, contrary to the conventional wisdom of the day which held that archers would be ineffective and be butchered when the armoured units closed in.
In the battle, the French
knights, protected by
mail reinforced with
plate, nearly exhausted by having to walk through a quagmire of mud to charge uphill into Welsh arrow storms, were cut down. The result was that much of the
French nobility died, perhaps as many as a third (estimates of the actual numbers in each army vary considerably, depending on the source).
Knights' armour hadn't yet evolved to the stage where longbows couldn't penetrate, and the knights' horses were barely protected at all. The storm of arrows killed or disabled the knights' mounts, and left the knights floundering about in the mud on foot beneath a withering fire.
The battle is seen by many historians as the beginning of the end of
chivalry; during the course of the battle, many of the prisoners and wounded were killed. This was against the chivalric codes of warfare; and knights on horseback were no longer "undefeatable" by infantry.
It also may have seen the first real use of
cannon on the European battlefield, which were used only in small numbers by a few states during the
1340s. "Ribaldis" were first mentioned in the English Privy Wardrobe accounts during preparations for the battle between
1345 and
1346, and they possibly were employed against both the
Genoese and the cavalry. Similar cannon would appear also at the
Siege of Calais in the same year, although it wouldn't be until the 1380s that the "ribaudekin" became mounted on wheels.
The political consequences of the battle were significant for
Edward III especially, who had financed and supplied his expedition to
Normandy with increasingly unpopular policies. The widespread use of
purveyance and the arresting of ships to provide transport for his armies had left the King with potential sources of discontent in his kingdom. Likewise, the bold and unprecedented move to expand
compulsory service, usually only required for defense of the coasts, to overseas service in France proved to be deeply unpopular with many of his subjects. However, the successes of the campaign did much to mute opposition when
English Parliament was called at 11th – 20th September 1346.
Background
Following the outbreak of war in
1337, the
Battle of Sluys was the first great battle of the
Hundred Years' War, on
23 June,
1340. In the years following this battle, Edward attempted to invade France through
Flanders, but failed due to financial difficulties and unstable alliances. Six years later, Edward planned a different route, and put into action a massive raid through the lands of Normandy, winning victories at the
Caen on
26 July and the
Battle of Blanchetaque on
24 August. A French plan to trap the English force between the
Seine and the
Somme Rivers failed, and the English escape led to the Battle of Crécy, one of the greatest battles in the whole war.
English dispositions
As in previous battles against the Scots,
Edward III disposed his forces in an area of flat agricultural land surrounded by natural obstacles on the flanks. The king installed himself and his staff in a windmill on a small hill that protected the rear, where he could control the course of the battle.
In a strong defensive position,
Edward III ordered that everybody fight on foot, and distributed the army in three divisions, one commanded by his sixteen-year-old son,
Edward, the Black Prince. The
longbowmen were deployed in a "V-formation" along the crest of the hill. In the period of waiting that followed, the English built a system of ditches, pits and
caltrops to maim and bring down the enemy
cavalry.
The battle
The French army, commanded by Philip VI, was much more disorganized, due to overconfidence on the part of his knights. The French tactical mindset was centered on the use of cavalry, and Philip was naturally assured that his cavalry could overhwlem Edward's much smaller cavalry contingent. Philip stationed his
Genoese mercenary crossbowmen, under
Ottone Doria, in the front line, with the cavalry in the back. The French even went as far as leaving the
pavises, the only means of defence for the crossbowmen, behind, along with the infantries. Both proved to be deadly mistakes. French chronicler
Froissart gives an account of the action:
The first attack was from the crossbowmen, who launched a shower of volleys with the purpose of disorganizing and frightening the English infantry. This first move was accompanied by the sound of musical instruments, brought by Philip VI to scare the enemy. But the crossbowmen would prove completely useless. With a firing rate of around 1-2 shots every 2 minutes, they were no match for the longbowmen, who could fire one shot every 5 seconds. Furthermore, their weapons were damaged by the brief thunderstorm that had preceded the battle, while the longbowmen were able to simply unstring their bows until the weather improved. The crossbowmen didn't have their
pavises, which were needed to cover them during the long reloading procedure and had remained in the baggage train. Frightened and confused, the Genoese crossbowmen retreated after heavy losses, as any trained professional soldier would have done. The knights, however, hurled insults at the crossbowmen. Calling these crossbowmen cowards, the knights and kings hacked down their own men. The fault wasn't the crossbowmen's, for the decision of leaving the pavises was one made by the king. By the time they've stopped the fuss, several waves of longbow had already fallen among the French. At this the French knights decided it was time to charge, and they ran right over the retreating Genoeses in an unorganized way. The English longbowmen continued firing as the infantry advanced and many French knights fell along the way.
Froissart writes that English cannon had made "two or three discharges on the Genoese", which is taken to mean individual shots by two or three guns because of the time taken to reload such primitive artillery. These were believed to have shot large arrows and simplistic grapeshot. The
Florentine Giovanni Villani agreed that they were destructive on the field, though he also indicated that the guns continued to fire upon French cavalry later in the battle:
Further Information
Get more info on 'Battle Of Cr Cy'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://battle_of_cr__cy.totallyexplained.com">Battle of Crécy Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
