Crécy, 1346

The battle, stage by stage

1. 24 August 1346, morning

   The ford of Blanchetaque

   Edward III's army, some six weeks into a destructive march through Normandy, is trapped south of the Somme with Philip VI following from Abbeville. At low tide it forces the ford of Blanchetaque, near Saigneville, against a French force under Godemar du Fay holding the north bank; archers and mounted men-at-arms wade in and drive the defenders off. When Philip's main army arrives the tide is rising and he cannot follow. Edward turns north toward Ponthieu, a county his family had held, and the Forest of Crécy.

2. 26 August, morning

   The English position

   After a day's rest Edward deploys on a slope above a valley — on the traditional site, the ground between Crécy-en-Ponthieu and Wadicourt, facing south-east over the Vallée des Clercs. Froissart describes three battles on foot: the sixteen-year-old Prince of Wales with Warwick and Oxford (by his count 800 men-at-arms, 2,000 archers and 1,000 Welsh), Northampton and Arundel (800 and 1,200), and the King's reserve by a windmill. The horses and baggage are left in an enclosure of carts behind. Modern estimates for the whole English army run from 7,000-10,000 to about 15,000. Livingston and DeVries argue instead for a position 5 km south, near Domvast at the edge of the Forest of Crécy (see landmark).

3. Late afternoon, 26 August

   The French arrive, and the storm

   French scouts find the English around midday. The advice is to rest and attack next day, but the columns keep coming on — by some accounts against Philip's wishes — and the army arrives in no settled order, late in the afternoon. A sudden storm of rain and thunder breaks; Froissart adds an eclipse and crows flying over both armies. Then the sun comes out in the Frenchmen's faces. The French army is perhaps twice or three times the size of the English; the chroniclers' totals of 70,000-120,000 are far too high. The French order of march here is reconstructed.

4. Evening

   Crossbow against longbow

   Philip sends his Genoese crossbowmen forward — 2,000, 4,000 or 6,000 according to different sources, under Ottone Doria and Carlo Grimaldi. Froissart says they had marched six leagues in armour and protested that they were not fit to fight. Their big shields (pavises) are reported still with the baggage. One account says the rain had slackened their strings; others say strings were kept covered. They shoot, but are outranged and out-shot by the English archers, whose arrows fell 'so thick that it seemed snow'. Italian chroniclers also mention English guns firing iron balls; whether cannon were used at Crécy is disputed (Thom Richardson's work on the royal accounts suggests not).

5. Evening, about sunset

   'Let the boy win his spurs'

   The Genoese break. Alençon's men-at-arms, impatient behind them, ride through and over them — Froissart says Philip ordered the 'rascals' slain — and the first charges go up the slope against the Prince's battle, losing order under the arrows. Alençon and the Count of Flanders reach the English men-at-arms and the fighting there is hard; Northampton and Arundel move up in support. A messenger, sent by Cobham's or Warwick's people, asks the King for help; by Froissart's well-known story Edward, watching from the windmill, asks whether his son is dead or wounded and sends word to 'suffer him this day to win his spurs'. On the Domvast reading this is a much narrower front with the carts closing it in.

6. Dusk to about midnight

   The blind king, and the King who left

   Fresh French contingents keep charging as they arrive, each attack broken by archery and hand-to-hand fighting; Britannica counts some 15 or 16 attacks into the night. The blind King John of Bohemia has his knights tie their bridles to his and rides into the fight; all are killed, and Froissart says they were found next day with the horses still tied together. Alençon and the Count of Flanders also die. Philip, wounded and with horses killed under him, is led away by John of Hainault and reaches the castle of La Broye late at night ('this is the fortune of France'). The Croix de Bohême stands about 2 km in front of the traditional English line — an argument both for and against that site.

7. Sunday 27 August, morning fog

   The fight in the fog

   Froissart says the mist was so thick a man could not see across an acre. An English mounted force — by his account 500 lances and 2,000 archers — rides out and falls on French levies still arriving, from Rouen and Beauvais, who take them for friends; the Archbishop of Rouen and the Grand Prior of France are among the dead. Edward III himself put the second day's French dead at about 4,000. The heralds counted some 1,542 French knights and squires dead on the first day; English losses were very light (a few hundred at most). Edward marched on to besiege Calais. Where the field lay — Crécy or Domvast — remains an open question that only archaeology can settle.