#battle of crecy

[historygoodies]

Edward the Black Prince badge

Edward the Black Prince

by CreativeHistory

[scotianostra]

On 22nd March 1421, Scottish army. under the Earl of Buchan defeated English forces at Bauge in Anjou, France.

Not heard of it? That’s because the history we were taught in school was all anglicized, oh we did get a wee bit about the 100 year war, mainly Agincourt, because the English won that day, or possibly Crecy, another victory for them, Bauge and many other times the English were gubbed are ignored.

Ok you might be wondering why I say a Scottish army, historians all say that the majority of the troops were Scottish soldiers, aye there was a few Frenchmen fighting on “our” side, but this was very much a Scottish victory over an English army.

This all goes down as part of the Auld Alliance, which was signed in 1295 by King John Balliol and Philip IV of France. The Alliance was renewed periodically after that date and by the 1410s it was very much “in play” as Henry V of England initiated the third phase of the Hundred Years War, often known to historians as the Lancastrian War.

In 1418, it was the French Dauphin who called on his Scottish allies for assistance in his efforts to curtail Henry’s depredations after the great battle of Agincourt in 1415. It had to be the Dauphin, or Crown Prince, who sought help from Scotland because the French king, Charles VI, was already showing signs of the mental illness that would eventually see him nicknamed Charles the Mad.

The French aristocracy had split into two factions with many supporting the Duke of Burgundy in his aspirations to take the throne, while many others stayed loyal to the King and the House of Valois, known as the Armagnacs. Increasingly it was the teenaged Dauphin, the future Charles VII, who made all the major decisions for the Valois regime and, faced with the Burgundy alliance with Henry V and the surrender of many of his own forces, he sent for help from Scotland.

The complicating factor at the time was that King James I of Scotland was still a prisoner of the English, albeit that he was part of the royal household of Henry, whom he greatly admired, and he would actually fight with the English army against the French in France in 1420. In charge of Scotland was the Duke of Albany, Robert Stewart, who had become regent when James was first captured by the English in 1406 while en route to France.

There had been no large battles between the Scots and the English since the Battle of Homildon Hill, or Humbleton Hill, in 1402 won by the English, but with England preoccupied with France, Albany no doubt felt it safe to respond positively to Scotland’s oldest ally. By 1419, there was also peace of a sort along the border with England so the Scots could afford to send an army of around 6000 men including men at arms, spearman and archers to serve alongside the remaining French royal army.

Henry V’s of England’s brother, Thomas the Duke of Clarence led 10,000 men south towards the Loire. They set about besieging the castle at Bauge when the Scots were garrisoned, they made contact with them the day before Good Friday. A truce was reached, lasting until Monday, so that the combatants could properly observe the religious occasion of Easter.

The English lifted their siege and withdrew to nearby Beaufort, while the Scots camped at La Lude. However, early in the afternoon of Saturday Scottish scouts reported that the English had broken the truce and were advancing upon them hoping to take them by surprise. The Scots rallied hastily and battle was joined at a bridge which the Duke of Clarence, with banner unfurled for battle, sought to cross. A detachment of a few hundred men under Sir Robert Stewart of Ralston, reinforced by the retinue of Hugh Kennedy, held the bridge and prevented passage long enough for the Earl of Buchan to rally the rest of his army, whereupon they made a fighting retreat to the town where the English archers would be ineffective.

Both armies now joined in a bitter melee that lasted until nightfall. During this time Sir John Carmichael of Douglasdale broke his lance unhorsing the Duke of Clarence; since that day the Carmichael coat of arms displays an armoured hand holding aloft a broken lance in commemoration of the victory. Once on the ground, the Duke was killed by Sir Alexander Buchanan. The English dead included the Lord Roos, Sir John Grey and Gilbert de Umfraville, whose death directly led to the extinction of the male line of that illustrious family, well known to the Scots since the Wars of Independence. The Earl of Somerset and his brother were captured by Laurence Vernon (later elevated to the rank of knight for his conduct), the Earl of Huntingdon was captured by Sir John Sibbald, and Lord Fitz Walter was taken by Henry Cunningham.

On hearing of the Scottish victory, Pope Martin V passed comment by reiterating a common mediaeval saying, that the Scots are well-known as an antidote to the English.

[racefortheironthrone]

How come the longbow is so associated with the English and their use of the longbow?

I imagine that there have been multiple societies that used the longbow (before or at the same time as the English), but it seems that the English are the most well known users of the longbow (at least in popular culture/thought).

The longbow was originally Welsh, but the English very quickly adopted it as one of their main weapons of war during and after the Edwardian conquest of Wales - that campaign ended in 1283, and by the time of the Battle of Falkirk in 1298, we see the English army now mainly made up of longbowmen (a lot of them Welshmen).

Moreover, the English monarchy enacted laws that reinforced this shift to a longbow-based army: the original Assize of Arms of 1181 had focused on requring freemen of England to own chainmail (or gambesons if you owned less than ten marks), helmets (or just an iron cap if you had ten marks or less), and lances as their main weapon. By the Assize of Arms of 1252, freemen with nine marks or more were required to "array with bow and arrow." By the time of the Statute of Winchester of 1285, even the poorest freemen is expected to have "bows and arrows out of the forest, and in the forest bows and pilets."

Thus, when Edward III starts up the Hundred Years War, the armies that win stunning victories at Crecy and Poitiers (and establish the lasting associaion between England and the longbow) were based on his grandfather's model. Edward would further reinforce royal policy towards longbows by enacting the Archery Law of 1363, which required that "every man … if he be able-bodied, shall, upon holidays, make use, in his games, of bows and arrows… and so learn and practise archery." Thus, longbow practice every Sunday and feast/saint's day became mandatory in England.

The English love affair with the longbow also continued much longer than in other nations. Even after the French began to use cannons against the formations of English longbowmen, and thus regained the upper hand in the Hundred Years War, (something often attributed to their adoption of the longbow, but in reality artillery was the main French adaptation) the English kept on fielding armies of mostly longbowmen. The Battle of Flodden in 1513 was largely fought with longbows; when Henry VIII's flagship the Mary Rose went down in 1545 she had 250 longbows on board (which form the material basis for a lot of our archaelogical understanding of medieval longbows); when the English militia was called up to fight the Spanish Armada in 1588, longbowmen still made up about 10% of their forces.

[selwynsel]

thread for george's crimes against the mongol ppl

they charged? you're telling me that they charged?????? you mean the mobile horsemen whose primary strength as mounted cavalry is their superior speed and maneuverability were just too stupid to flank????? the entire REASON why mongol armies were so difficult to deal with irl is bc they used their superior mobility to outflank their opponents. if there was no flanking opportunity, then they created situations in which they could. they were a herding people, they herded armies as well as they herded cattle!!!! charging into your enemies is what idiot europeans (BATTLE OF CRECY IM LOOKING AT YOU) did over and over again, george im gonna KILLL YOU

[fantastictyphoonpeanut]

English Longbowmen at the battle of Crecy began, 26th August, 1346

[magicalrocketships]

🙃🐸✏️ (ok kidding about that last one)

🙃 What’s a weird fact that you know?

There is as much vitamin c in an ounce of narwhal skin as there is in the equivalent amount of oranges.

Also I used to be able to describe and re-enact the battle of Crecy (1346) using only things you can find on tables in cafes.

🐸 Describe your aesthetic.

Goblin-core (I like to collect things) with a hint of dragon (I like to live on a little heap of things that I love and hoard) with a general air of the library (books) coupled with a rather large collection of plant babies (I talk to them, they live or die according to whim and not because of my deep and abiding love for them)

✏️ Have you ever written fanfiction?

There is a comment on one of my v old fics from someone that basically just says "ha ha I wasn't born when you wrote this ha ha" and sometimes I think about that and stare into the middle distance

[naranjapetrificada]

🤖 I love all of those things hit me

Crossbows are almost always best kept for sieges vs field battles. They'll do in a pinch though. At the battle of Crecy, famous for the way longbowmen on the English side were able to neutralize the French, there was actually a company of Genoese crossbowmen on the the French side. There's no telling what kind of a difference they could have made if the French cult of chivalry hadn't kept them from being better deployed. But the same things that make crossbows useful in a siege (distance, force, etc) could have made some targeted kills that might have changed the tide, even for a field battle.

(send me an emoji and I'll share a fact from one of my special interests!)

[nonevahed]

Men Of Iron: Crecy 1446

After leaving it gathering dust on my shelf for about 2 years, I decided to give Men of Iron another shot solo, this time with the Crecy Scenario. The rules for Men of Iron are on GMT's website if you want to follow along; instead of the standard battalion activation rules I instead used the chit-pull variant from Francisco Gradaille.

Historical context

Crecy was the first major land battle of the Hundred Years War. In 1446, Edward III led a major invasion force into France for the second time, and this time wasn't sent running home due to financial issues. He cut a swathe conquering much of Normandy, advanced on Paris, then fell back to Flanders to meet up with his Flemish allies. The Flemings did not show up, and Edward III ended up meeting the French in battle between the towns of Crecy and Wadincourt.

Historically, the battle began with an exchange of fire between English longbowmen and mercenary Genoese crossbowmen; the Genoese performed poorly (often blamed on the strings of their crossbows getting ruined by rain earlier that day.) The Genoese retreated to regroup, while the first group of French knights arrived, charging the English line and trampling any crossbowmen unlucky enough to be in their way. The knights were repulsed by the fortified English forces, with multiple waves of attacks being repulsed in tough fighting before the attack was finally called off. King John of Bohemia, an old French ally, died holding the rearguard. Edward III's son, Edward Prince of Wales, earned fame during the battle for gallant fighting.

The battle was a smashing success for the English, securing their hold over Normandy and enabling a successful siege of the French stronghold at Calais, which the English would hold well into the 16th century.

Battle report to be posted Soon

[harryofderby]

Today ( 15th June) is the 694th birthday of Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales who is more commonly known as the Black Prince. Born to Edward III, he was the heir apparent to the English throne and he won renown as a military command in the hundred years war to assert the Plantagenet claim to France especially in the battles of Crecy and Poitiers and in Poitiers, he even took John II of France hostage. He married Joan of Kent and had two sons Edward and Richard. He predeceased his father in 1376 and so it was his second son Richard who succeeded Edward III as king in 1377.

[warsofasoiaf]

In a world without Melisandre, where Renly beats his brother (prob with huge losses) what would have been his next move? what were his chances of taking KL by storm? I've always felt like he had no plan beyond "partying and starving the city" ala Mace tyrrel

I wouldn't count Renly as a shoo-in for that battle, his incompetence could lead him into a Crecy type situation. But in that case, Renly probably continues to march north to threaten King's Landing to encourage defections to avoid a length siege and continues to make veiled threats to Robb.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[scrumptiousdreamerruins]

THE BATTLE OF CRECY 1346 l ENGLAND vs FRANCE +20.000 UNIT Medieval Kingd...

[monkeyssalad-blog]

Image from page 268 of "Mediaeval and modern history" (1905) by Internet Archive Book Images Via Flickr: Identifier: mediaevalmodernh00myer Title: Mediaeval and modern history Year: 1905 (1900s) Authors: Myers, P. V. N. (Philip Van Ness), 1846-1937 Subjects: Middle Ages History, Modern World War, 1914-1918 Publisher: Boston : Ginn & Company Contributing Library: The Library of Congress Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: y scattered and theirleaders were pitilessly put to death. Yet the insurrection was a success after all. The fear of anotheruprising and the inefficient character of sullen labor caused thelandlords to hasten the process that had long been going on ofcommuting into money payments or rents the grudgingly renderedpersonal services of the serfs. At the end of a hundred years afterthe revolt there were very few serfs to be found in England. The aboHtion of serfdom was an important step in the nation-alization of the English people. Sweeping away artificial barriersbetween classes, it hastened the unification of English society andthe creation of a true English nation. 220. Battle of Agincourt (1415). — During the reign in Englandof Henry V, the second, sovereign of the House of Lancaster,France was unfortunate in having an insane king, Charles VI; andHenry, taking advantage of the disorder into which the Frenchkingdom naturally fell under these circumstances, invaded the JOAN OF ARC 213 Text Appearing After Image: country with a powerful army. After losing a great part of hisfollowers through sickness, Henry finally, with a force of onlyabout ten thousand men, chiefly archers, met a French feudalarmy fifty thousand strong on the field of Agincourt. The Frenchsuffered a most humiliating defeat, their terrible losses falling,as at Crecy, chiefly uponthe knighthood. Fiveyears later was con-cluded the Treaty ofTroyes, according to theterms of which theFrench crown, uponthe death of Charles,was to go to the Englishking. 221. Joan of Arc; theRelief of Orleans (1429).— But patriotism wasnot yet wholly extinct among the French people. There were many who regarded theconcessions of the Treaty of Troyes as not only weak and shame-ful but as unjust to the Dauphin Charles, who was thereby disin-herited, and they accordingly refused to be bound by its provisions.Consequently, when the poor insane king died, the terms of thetreaty could not be carried out in full, and the war dragged on.The party that stoo Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.

[scotianostra]

David II King of Scots was born on 5th March 1324 after his parents had been married for 22 years.

David was the elder and only surviving son of Robert I and his second wife, Elizabeth de Burgh.

He was only four when he himself was married to Princess Joanna of England in accordance with the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton.

The following year, he became Scotland’s first anointed king on the death of his father. Taking advantage of this royal minority, the English made several attempts to replace him with Edward Balliol.

After Edward III defeated the Scots at the Battle of Halidon Hill near Berwick in 1333, David and Joanna were sent to the safety of France, where they remained until 1341, when it was judged safe for them to come home.

On 26 August 1346, Edward III defeated France at the battle of Crecy. David II, now aged 17, decided to invade England in support of his ally, France, but he was defeated and captured at the Battle of Neville’s Cross, near Durham, on 17 October 1346.

He was held prisoner in the south for eleven years, during which time Scotland was ruled by his nephew, Robert the Steward.

Finally, on 3rd October 1357, the Scots agreed by the Treaty of Berwick to pay an enormous ransom of 100,000 merks for him, and he was allowed to return home.

Heavy taxation was needed to provide funds for the ransom, which was to be paid in instalments, and David alienated his subjects by using the money for his own purposes. During the period 1357-71 he reformed the machinery of government.

Hoping to produce an alternative heir to his nephew (whom he disliked), David married his mistress Margaret Drummond, in 1364, after Queen Joan had died in two years before, he had previously unsuccessfully tried to divorce Joan when she failed to provide an heir.

David’s concern over the succession, his growing friendship with Edward III, and his anger at the rebellion of some of his Earls, led to his attempted agreement with Edward III, which said that if David himself died childless, the King of England should succeed to the Scottish throne.

The Scottish Parliament refused to ratify the proposals and when David did die childless in 1371, his nephew Robert the Steward became king.

The photo is a depiction of King David with Edward III of England from a 1390 historic book.

[nathanalbright151]

Book Review: Agincourt

Agincourt: Henry V and The Battle That Made England, by Juliet Barker Agincourt, like Crecy and Potiers before it, was a glorious battlefield victory for outnumbered Englishmen. Did it really make England, though? By the time of Agincourt, England already had a pretty well-developed political system that combined royalty (in the Lancastrian branch of the Plantagenet family that had ruled over…

[kookaburrabugle]

NEW CHINLESS CHILD SKULL DISCOVERY IN CHINA PROVES ENGLISH POSH BOY GENES MUCH OLDER THAN THOUGHT

BY ARCHAEOLOGY EDITOR, MONTANA SMITH JNR THE DISCOVERY of a new three hundred thousand year old humanoid skull in China has sent shock waves through the English upper classes. For centuries the English aristocracy has believed it was forged in battles like Hastings, Crecy, Agincourt and Waterloo; and honed in the strict traditions of public schools like Eton and Harrow. The new evidence…

[fantastictyphoonpeanut]

A very well-equipped English Longbowman at the battles of Crecy (1346) or Poitiers (1356). (FTP)