-
Historically Crecy is said to be the first major battle in which bowmen were pitted against knights . Until Crecy , Knights fought mostly on horseback , which is what the French expected the English to do .But the English army dismounted to do battle with the French . Here the Longbow made a major debut at a battle historians say changed the way battles were fought for at least another 50 years .The English reinvented conventional warfare making chivalric battles obsolete much to the dismay of the French .The commander of the English was the son of Edward the 3rd dubbed "The Black Prince" by the French ,He had 12,000-to 20,000 men and the French 30 to 40,000, but Edward had a surprise he had hidden some 5 to 10,000 archers highly trained in the manner of rapid firing they could loose 10-20 arrows per minute. Observers said the arrows fell like snow, the English company cosisted of 3 groups of Men -at Arms and spearmen with the archers at either end in an open v formation .The French had 6,000 Genoese crossbowmen in the foreground backed up by many French Knights behind on horseback , The archers had also built defenses against the French calvary using "Caltrops" to render the horses lame ,The battle at Crecy lasted from 4p.m. to midnight on Saturday Aug. 26th 1346 French and Genoese casualties were estimated at 7 to 10,000 and the English several hundred in five minutes the English archers loosed more than 30,000 arrows and 1500 French knights and squires were cut down by peasant archers An English foot army had destroyed the French knights. In the 50 years following Crecy ,knights dismounted to fight for 200 years Longbow and Infantry were placed in the fore of any battle repalcing the position of the cavalry .P.S. The horse did return to the battlefield around the 1400's when armor for the horse was developed and refined .
-
Link to the battle of Crecy on my 100 years war web site
crecy
BTW there is a very good account on the battle in Bernard Cornwell's HARLEQUIN (The Grail Quest) - ISBN 0-00-651384-0
The story picks up with the battle for the city of Caen and then the march south and finishes with the battle. The book is fiction but the battles are based on historical fact.
-
It is important to note though that the English tactics weren't just made up on the spot, they were the result of many wars and battles against the Scots. The French knights were subjected to the same punishment that the Scottish pike schiltrons had endured.
