The Real Story of King Edward III’s Medieval Invasion of France | Battle of Crecy 1346

On 12th July 1346, a huge English invasion fleet landed on the shores of Normandy. The King of England was here to claim the throne of France for himself.

Historian Dan Jones sets out on a journey across Northern France, following in the footsteps of Edward III and his English army on their Crécy Campaign – one of the earliest and bloodiest raids of the Hundred Years’ War.

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at dawn on the 12th of July 1346 as the sun rose and the first light illuminated the sea off the Normandy Coast a terrible sight would have greeted anyone who stood looking out out of the haze loomed a massive fleeks almost a thousand ships strong the landing craft Beed and the first wave of men scrambled out and wed towards the shore they were expecting the worst above their heads crossbow bolts fizzed they returned a volley of Longbow arrows of their own and continued their surge up the beach this wasn’t a Liberation it was an invasion these men were at the spearhead of 15,000 soldiers 15,000 soldiers who would unleash hell on anyone and anything in their path a small band of French militia men tried to stop the Invaders but they were hopelessly outnumbered all they could do was fall back take the road heading south and warn everyone they came across the English are coming at the head of the invasion was King Edward III of England and this campaign his Cy campaign would go down in history as a great English Triumph heralding England as a powerful Nation on the world stage and Edward himself as a masterful Lord of [Music] War I’m Dan Jones and I’m following in the footsteps of this campaign learning not just about the Lords giving the orders but the ordinary men following them too and discovering that the traditional story doesn’t quite match up with what actually happened so chevet is a campaign of total Destruction yes robbing raping destroying he said look the king of France is not able to defend his lands and his subjects it’s absolutely astonishing to look out on this landscape and imagine what it must have looked like in mangled corpses and blood the summer of 1346 was truly extraordinary with acts of tactical genius and utter brutality of total luck and terrible misfortune and it all came to a head here with one of the most defining battles of the Hundred Years War the battle of cresy [Music] I’ve always been fascinated by Edward II third’s 1346 campaign it’s full of traditional heroic stories of king Edward and his eldest son the black prince as well as Deeds of gallantry and chivalry by the French nobility and that campaign provides the backdrop for my latest project a book called Essex dogs which tries to recreate life among the ordinary men of Edward’s Army and that campaign and my story both start here on the long sandy beaches of SV laug in Normandy the wide flat Sands of the Kenan Peninsula are perfect for an invasion so perfect in fact that they were chosen for another 600 years later between L and Shor in Normandy the shock Troop move in for the beach assault in 1944 the beaches just to the south of here were codenamed Utah The Landing point for thousands of US service Personnel on D-Day thankfully for the men of the 1346 invasion they didn’t have to deal with concrete gun imp placements and machine gun fire in fact their Landing saw almost no resistance at all apart from that band of local militia men Edward’s Army came ashore unopposed they couldn’t have wished for a better start to the campaign but things didn’t begin quite as well for the king himself Edward’s own Landing was far less auspicious this is an illustration from Jean fasa’s 14th century Chronicle and it shows the king taking a tumble as he stepped off his boat and face planting onto the beach now that could have been pretty embarrassing but Edward was a masterly propagandist and he said this just proved the land was ready to receive him others may have interpreted this as something of a bad Omen but with the French nowhere to be seen and English troops flooding onto French soil and into the port of s Vala any thoughts of evil portent were quickly pushed to one side and in any case for the average Soldier on campaign there was work to be done as usual there are lots of stories of kings and princes but to get inside the experience of the ordinary Soldier we have to read between the lines of the sources we have available now here I’ve got an excerpt from a proclamation issued in Edward’s name explaining how the Army was supposed to behave it says no house or Manor is to be burned no church or holy Place sacked and no old people children or women are are to be harmed or molested nor are they to threaten any other people except men who resist them or do any kind of wrong on pain of life and limb but unfortunately for the local French population there was a bit of a gap between instructions being issued and being obeyed Edward clearly understood the types of men he’ brought with him the dogs of war men who are either so poor they had no choice other than to join the campaign or were in too much trouble with the law to refuse within hours svog was an English outpost on the continent the supplies of War flowed through the harbor the town itself had been all but abandoned and while the men weren’t unloading the ships they were filling their own Pockets the town was stripped of everything of value nothing like an easy bit of loop on the first morning of the campaign the Looting of lug might sound to us like petty crime but actually it tells us a lot about the men in Edward’s army they weren’t all rich Aristocrats out to defend the honor of their King and their country most of them were just ordinary guys here to make a bit of money to find out more about the men of the English Army and the amazing logistical feat that Edward achieved I’m meeting historian Professor Michael Livingston who spent the best part of the last decade working on Edward’s campaign of 1346 Edward II brings 15,000 men to Normandy that’s a big army by medieval standards it’s a very big army it’s a huge Army especially by medieval standards as you said so it’s hard to support with Logistics and it’s hard to transport across the English Channel which is a big barrier in a pre-modern context we’ve got number 15,000 fighting men come to France with Edward but give us some context how big is that yeah it may not seem like a lot when we think about the size of stadiums you know for football today but it is a big number in terms of what it was like back then we’re talking about something potentially a quarter of the population alone in wow and that’s just the fighters that’s just the fighters essentially you have to have a city on the move something that can feed itself as best it can get its own clothes make repairs everything that’s needed I mean you got to have people to mend tents you have to have people to you know Drive the carts to fix the carts to everything that you kind of don’t think about we just think about army fighting man there’s an enormous number of support here I’ve written about the ordinary men in Edward’s Army but what’s the sort of composition I mean how many Nobles are there how many Knights how many archers what what is the rough composition of the army it’s it’s quite varied and it’s awesome that you’ve done this and like brought the common man into this cuz too often we simply focus on Edward and the main Lords and they’re not very many men compared to the 15,000 that are there so you have about 15,000 men 7,800 or more are archers you then have a couple thousand mounted archers and then kind of a motly of men-at-arms and nights beneath that what’s in it for the ordinary guy in Edward’s Army I mean why are they going are they getting a salary are they getting like bonuses what’s the what’s the point some of it is salaried which is surprising to a lot of people some of it is salaried but a lot of it is also this is a chance to actually enrich yourself through looting through something you might accomplish ransoms there’s a chance of making money making a living essentially at going to war are there guys who put their hands up every time the call to war goes out oh yeah there’s guys who enjoy this work they’re good at it and they’re ready to do it they’re going to find work wherever they can get it and potentially even make their own how long is Edward planning to bring this Army to France this kind of thing takes months so the French knew it was coming Spa people knew that there was an Army being prepared they just didn’t know where it was going that’s the big secret being kept from the French now in most people’s imagination the beaches of Normandy are associated with the 6th of June 1944 with dday absolutely there are advantages natural advantages throughout time to the this this spot in the coast there are there are advantages and disadvantages Advantage wonderful beaches for a landing terrific terrific at that point the koton peninsula is pretty marshy there’s really only one way in and out now that’s an advantage and a disadvantage it means it’s going to be difficult for somebody to stop you once you get yourself a beach head right but before that if there’s gathered up addition you’re going to have to fight all the way through it and that can be a problem for him now when Edward arrives on the constan peninsula on the on the Normandy beaches there’s a little bit of resistance but it’s not it’s not D-Day is it you don’t have these ranks and ranks of French why why not so most of the French army is in the South down in G es and so there’s really only local resistance and not much at that there’s sort of one guy who tries to sort of organize resistance but he knows look I I only have a few hundred men I can’t stop 15,000 Englishmen so he starts kind of like making a delayed Retreat just trying to slow them down in the hopes of more forces Gathering behind him in order to finally bottle up the English the English have got to just move fast to outpace that Edward’s got 15,000 men and not all of them are sort of ious Knights by any means so how’s he going to control this lot well to some degree he’s not going to I’m not even sure the chalous knights are that chalous there’s a lot of this that is sort of you know we’re going to pretend that we’re one way we might have to act another way and that’s expected so yeah things are going to happen that are going to be bad on the campaign he knows that but he’s going to issue edicts saying not to do that but yeah his orders keep getting ignored just routinely disobey just routinely disobeyed you know he walks in I’m not going to burn this city he turns around it’s on fire it is just constant this rampaging and pillaging and looting it’s hard to control this many men it’s just simply hard to do even in a a modern age we have difficulty controlling Armed Forces on campaign and Edward’s not stupid he must have known that this was a likely thing to happen I think he thought it was inevitable to some degree it’s good for him if this happens the men are getting paid and he’s not necessarily having to do it like this is a win-win situation as long as it can look like I disapprove that was terrible I naughty naughty yeah naughty naughty I I took care of those men they won’t do that again that’s the position he wants to be in in an army such as the king of England was leading it was impossible that there should not be plenty of Bad characters and criminals without conscience in 1346 the 100 Years War was still in its infancy several skirmishes had seen the men of Edward theii of England and Philipe v 6 of France Clash both on land and at sea but make no mistake England was still a small island nation France was the superpower of Europe but the cresy campaign in the summer of 1346 would turn that narrative upside down and finally the two kings were going to be at the heart of the action clear really this was a huge Invasion but exactly why Edward landed an Army in France has been the source of debate from almost the day of the invasion itself and to begin to understand it we need to look back at when Edward III came to the English Throne when Edward III became king of England in 1327 the Royal houses of England and France were well and truly intertwined so in 1328 when Edward’s Uncle Charles the fourth of France died Edward had a good claim to the French crown and the French nobility had a decision to make would they go with Edward or would they go with his cousin Philip of Vala well they chose the latter and Philip became Philip v 6 now in 1337 Philipe confiscated all of Edward’s French lands and that’s the beginning of what we now call the Hundred Years War it escalated quickly in 1340 Edward quartered his arms of the three English lepers with the Flur of France he was claiming to be the French King so in 1346 when Edward invades he’s not just on some chalc Adventure he’s coming to claim his land and his crown he then descended along the Norman Coast sacking and burning villages in castles pillaging and killing without opposition but of course SVA was just the beginning the English began their move South along the road that ran down the spine of the kotan peninsula heading through volia on the 18th sanom dumon on the 19th and caran on the 20th the speed of the English Advance was nothing short of frightening the French could do nothing to resist [Music] [Applause] [Music] the local populations had heard the English army coming from miles away and by and large they’d done the sensible thing and fled none of the towns was defended the gates were hanging open Edward’s men just marched on in but despite their King’s instructions they ransacked buildings and put them to the torch the Army’s blood lust was beginning to rise [Music] within a week of Landing the kentan peninsula had been left a smoking wreck and now the rest of the kingdom of France lay wide open to Edward and his army he could easily now Head West into Britany where he had allies or else he could continue marching through Normandy either swinging East towards beo or South to Sano it didn’t take long for him to decide that he would continue his March South it was probably a move motivated by nothing more than good old-fashioned greed sow was a thriving Merchant town and it was firmly in the English Army’s sights now Edward might have officially denounced the Looting but he would be able to cream off the profits of the pillage and that wouldn’t hurt with paying back the loans he’ taken out to finance the war and in any case the French were still nowhere to be seen when we saw that our enemy did not desire to come and give battle we burned and devastated the surrounding Countryside praise be to God but Edward’s confidence in the lack of a French reaction was perhaps misplaced the militia men who had faced off against the English army at sanva had been desperately breaking Bridges to stop the English advance and now the men under the command of Robert bertron decided to make a stand hoping for support from King Philipe and they would do so behind the huge walls of s low bertron was confident that his delaying tactics would have slowed the English Advance along the peninsula and that he his militia men and whoever else he could raise from the local population would be able to hold s low until Philipe could raise an army and come and rescue them after all it was much easier to defend a city than it was to attack one behind these massive walls the citizens and population of Sano would be safe it was a reasonable enough strategy stop the English at s low and they would be bottled up in the kentan peninsula or forced ah Head West to Britany crucially the path to Paris would be cut off but when bertron learned of the speed of the English army and that they were already rebuilding the final Bridge Over the River via to San low his blood must have run cold the English army was moving much faster than bertron had had anticipated there was no way he could make provision for a long Siege and there was no help that could possibly get to him quickly enough so he made the gut-wrenching decision to abandon the city there was no time for the citizens to escape they were left to the English on the morning of the 22nd of July the English army Drew up in battle formation ready to storm the city but with bertron gone it wouldn’t be needed word that s low had been abandoned by The Garrison obviously reached Edward and the Army but still the city wasn’t spared the chronicler Jean leel recorded what happened he wrote not many alive would ever believe the wealth of booty plundered there a great many wealthy burgers were taken prisoner and a lot of the common folk were killed when the town was first entered a good number of the towns women and their daughters were raped this wasn’t War it was Terror Edward himself refused to enter the city he knew his dogs would Burn It To The Ground despite his orders that night the sky would have glowed orange for over a week Normandy burned finally as Sano was being put to the torch Philipe v 6 who was still in the outskirts of Paris received news of the invasion he would need to react and fast but Philip had a problem his biggest army was hundreds of miles away in aquatan with his son John Duke of Normandy so Philip came here to sandini and raised the sacred French battle standard known as the oriflam it was a call to arms if his army in aquatan couldn’t be here to resist the English Philipe would raise another another one instead with Sano secured the English army could continue their Rampage across Normandy we can never know what Edward expected when he landed with his army perhaps he wanted to face Philip immediately or maybe he thought he could march on Paris to claim the throne he thought was rightfully his either way the treatment of the French population and their towns in the campaign left most people in no doubt Edward was now waging a violent destructive campaign one that became standard during the Hundred Years War he was leading a [Music] chuche Normandy was an abundant landscape perhaps the richest region in all of France and in July the Harvest was starting to come in perfect for a chevet I’m meeting Dr elar Who can tell me more about what this meant in practice do tell me what’s the purpose of a chevet the purpose is to destroy a land completely to destroy the V Villages destroy the crops to terrorize people to make them feel that they’re insecure and that their King their own King cannot protect them and that whoever’s commanding the chevet is the more powerful Lord yes so this is really old school warlord tactics right yes it’s old school but it’s also the best way to make war for Edward because it’s it’s the cheapest way to make make war the middleages Kings could not pay their men really efficiently so the destructions the cities it was a way of paying men and it’s not it’s it’s not difficult anyone can do it yes anyone can do it you need fire something sharp that’s it and a bad attitude MH so Chev is a campaign of total Destruction yes destroy everything take everything terrify people yes robbing raping destroying yes once Edward lands at s lug every town seems to be empty the gates are open the people are gone the gates are open the people are gone and it happens pretty much throughout the first week of his chevet right of his campaign is that just because people were scared why did they run away they were scared and they knew that they couldn’t fight against an army they they couldn’t and the Lords were not there right no one to protect them well flee it must have been pretty horrifying to be sitting somewhere like this in Normandy and hear the sort of of English horses the hoes the cries of Men smell of smoke yes what about the people on the chevet is this normal you know when I’ve been writing about this I try and put myself in the mindset of guys on the English side being sent into a village to rape and murder and kill and burn and inflict all of this Terror it seems really hard to imagine was this just sort of normal part of war in the Middle Ages normal part of war or normal part of life right sometimes we said we live in a in a violent Society but the middleages society was really violent this men there were maybe I don’t know maybe from they were Craftsmen from a village in England or something and um they were going in France and doing what they were to do there’s a tension there isn’t there in the campaign because on the one hand you have Edward issuing orders to his own troops saying don’t kill don’t rape don’t burn these are my subjects don’t go killing them please but on the other hand he’s got to know hasn’t he that you’ve got 15,000 kind of thugs and murderers and people who are just here because they want to make a profit how does that work I mean how can he expect that this strategy would work it doesn’t expect it doesn’t expect no it doesn’t expected but is a Christian King so he’s got to show something he’s got to to deal with the violence of his troops and it’s got to tell them well don’t do it you’ve got to behave like that Etc and because I don’t think that he wanted to kill um a lot of people no he wanted to to make them feel that it was really the powerful one now the Lord King continuously progressing and going forward took all the large towns through which he passed no one resisted and all the people fled Edward’s campaign so far had been smashing through wealthy Merchant towns and huge SES of Countryside Jean Lael suggested that the path of Destruction left by the the English army measured 40 m wide for the ordinary Soldier the scale of the devastation must have been incomprehensible even for Edward ransacking at this level was exceptional but on the 25th of July a new prize loomed into view one that could make or break his campaign the Magnificent city of K col was a glittering prize for the English filled with Wealth Beyond the imaginations of almost every man in Edward’s Army and for Edward it had great symbolic resonance as well this was where his ancestor William the Conqueror was buried and nowhere captures the magnificence and the importance of K quite like one of the abies William founded the Abbey [Music] oom the ab oom or men’s Abbey was part of the Improvement works that William made to the city in the 1060s when he made it a ducal capital and when William became king of England in 1066 the power and the wealth of K was turbocharged it was now no longer just a ducal capital but the preferred seat of the king of England this is still Williams final resting place he chose to be buried here in Normandy the duy where he was born rather than in England the country that he ruled and I don’t think the significance of that fact can possibly have passed Edward by so we can imagine him and his army marching ever closer to Kong seeing this glorious Abbey looming on the horizon his determination to take this place must have grown by the second but taking the city was going to be easier said than done because William didn’t just build a great Abbey when he improved the city in the 1060s but also one of the great Castle complexes of Western Europe if Edward wanted to capture the city of the Conqueror he would have to crack the castle [Applause] too for Philipe and the French what happened here at K was pivotal if the city and its Castle held out if they bogged the English down in a long Siege Philipe would be able to bring his new French army here and drive the English back to the coast but if con folded then the English chevet will continue and ruong even Paris would soon be in Edward’s sights Philipe was now commanding a northern French army one that was growing continually in strength but rather than committing them immediately to the aid of Kong he waited unfortunately in practice Philip’s wait and see policy looked quite a lot like dithering although he moved his troops north of Paris he wouldn’t bring them any further until he heard positive news from the siege for the time being the people of Kong were on their [Music] own the defense of Kong was left to the count of but just like at s low the speed of the English Advance left the French Defenders with little time to organize medieval archaeologist albang Goa is an expert on the castle at K I’m meeting him to discover more about the fate of the city in July 1346 as the English army swept through what’s the significance of K to Philipe and to the kingdom of France it was a quite a big city um maybe 20 30,000 people um and it was quite a rich city they traded Stones wine and drape drapery uh there was a harbor uh so was quite a quite a big big important city one of the most important uh in the Kingdom after Paris and Ru and it would be humiliating if it fell that was kind of the point because uh Edward tried to weaken Philip to weaken uh the lands he devastated the lands and also he tried to send a political message he said look the king of France is not able to defend his lands and his subjects so yeah it it was very very important here’s con today what would it have looked like in 1346 in 1346 uh there was the castle which was built in stone there was the old town of bua over there um the Abby of it was laam there there was also labo Dam on the other side of the city and there was Lil San which was uh the um the new town with um more wealthy population it was surrounded by Rivers l uh the river Odon and the canal and the river odong split the city in half it separated the new and the old town so the new town was effectively protected by rivers and a canal the old town did it have walls I mean the castle had stone walls surely the Old Town had walls as well yes uh it did uh there was some protection some defenses which were uh constructed by William the Conqueror but those were uh a bit old it was made of Earth and Timber and it was like 300 years old so um it was vaguely protected and Lil sanan on the other hand was protected by the rivers but no no fortifications whatsoever how did the people of Kong react when they heard the English were coming this way well I think uh they were probably terrified what was what was coming um first they try to improve the defenses of the city especially the Old Town which were whose protection were was quite old so they tried to make some quick batches uh to some walls where where it was needed as much as they could they set up barricades in the streets especially in the ill San which was not protected by fortifications and they dug uh ditches also but they didn’t have a lot of time why didn’t they all just run inside the castle surely this was the safest place to be the castle was well protected it was probably the safest uh safest strategy but I think they also tried to protect the city itself so they try to protect their homes and riches their their possessions The Assault on the city began on the morning of the 26th of July despite his better judgment the count of er had been persuaded by the wealthy citizens of the city to deploy their troops outside the city walls in their wealthy suburb of Il San it was a decision that would have Bloody consequences so we’ve now taken a walk along the ramp parts of the castle and we’re looking out over what would have been the new town in 1346 just tell me what it would have looked like well the new town uh begins behind the church there was the river Odon uh flowing uh behind behind that church but you can imagine you had uh houses wealthy houses uh for the inhabitants of K we’re imagining a river running along here a fortified barricaded Bridge with access to the new town was this the only way in to the new town there were more bridges to the new town and also the water was quite shallow at this time of the year so even if the bridge was still protected they could still cross the river when the attack began it most of the soldiers didn’t wait for a command from the King they just attacked absolutely they must have been really excited the ordinary soldiers about the prospect of the rich pickings over there in the new absolutely yeah first of all they they captured the Old Town quite easily probably there were there weren’t even one single defender in it probably and then then they assaulted the IL sanan which was the wealthy part of the city so yeah the soldiers didn’t even wait uh Edward’s orders and they just flooded uh the uh this part of the city to try and grab as much loot as possible bypassing the castle completely the English smashed into the barricade over the bridge leading to Il sanan it became became a gruesome front line as the French desperately tried to hold off the English hounds but it was quite disorganized so it allowed the French to defend themselves a bit more efficiently I suppose because the assault was so disorganized at first but then later um since the English were more numerous they eventually uh conquered the this part of the city so we’ve got really pandemonium there must have been smoke rising from the old town people assaulting the barricade people wading you know waste deep in relatively shallow water to swarm in it must have been Panic inside the new yeah I suppose it was uh there was many casualties uh from both sides but especially from French side and yeah you can just imagine probably yeah buildings being uh burned down to people being slaughtered some women were raped some sometimes they were killed as well so it was quite a violent episode of their history of Nory absolutely terrible episode [Music] was the fight was very Fierce and prolonged but praise be to God the town was at last taken by force without losing any of our men [Music] the sacking of K was truly Dreadful the chronicler Jean leel wrote it was a great Slaughter the people of K didn’t know which way to turn their houses smashed open and all their belongings plundered and images like this from Jean fasa’s Chronicle which shows English infantrymen stabbing the citizens of K with Spears and blood flowing in the streets we’ll never know for sure how many people were killed but it’s been estimated that by the time the English finally left half the population of the city lay dead watching K burn from the safety of his Camp the king must have been basking in his own success within weeks of Landing in France he had not only set a light one of the richest regions in the Kingdom but had captured one of the most magnificent cities in western Europe the city of his ancestor William the Conqueror for the ordinary men in Edward’s Army it was the ultimate payday they took everything they could gorging themselves on food and drinking as much wine as they could manage the sack of Kong and the terrible chevet the English launched across Normandy wasn’t some anomaly in the Hundred Years War it was the essence of Edward III’s campaign and that’s weird because the traditional history is one of heroism and chivalry and the brave English overcoming the perfidious French but even when you look at Medieval images like this one of The Butchery that took place at Kong you can’t help but think that if Edward III did this today there’d be calls around the world for him to be convicted of war crimes [Music] when Edward left Kong he sent back a letter to England giving detailed instructions for a new English Fleet filled with supplies and men to be sent to the French Port of leoy in picardi for some historians this finally marks a moment where Edward shows his hand clearly he had no desire to stay in Normandy and he also didn’t have his eyes on Paris at least for the time being we can only guess that with two weeks of complete success behind him he wanted to continue to reap everything he could and head towards his Flemish allies in the Northeast presumably this is a decision taken at Kong otherwise surely orders for a reinforcement Fleet would have been sent out before the invasion even left but I think we can sense a growing confidence among the English Edward knows the chevet is the best use of his men’s time and energy so after 4 days of rest and Recovery the English fan out again across the French Countryside spreading fire and [Music] Terror so was the good fat land of Normandy ravaged and burnt plundered and pillaged by the English Edward’s forces had sacked K but they couldn’t hold it the French troops who had stayed in the castle soon retook the city once the bulk of the English army had left but this was no longer a campaign about territorial control after all the English were destroying nearly everything in their path Edward was challenging Philip’s very status as the king and protector of France and Edward was now driving his dogs of war on towards an even bigger prize than Kong the Undisputed second city of France [Music] rule in 1346 Ruan was a city fat with riches Merchants traded textiles wine and wheat across Europe its Skyline was a sea of Glorious spires and it was here that Philipe finally made his move at the end of July 1346 he marched his troops into the city K might have fallen he couldn’t allow Ruan to suffer the same fate Philip must have been distraught at the sack of K but quietly relieved he’d held his army back in reserve even better he’d beaten Edward to rule and his men now stood in the English Army’s way finally Philip held some cards in his [Music] hand the source of Ran’s great wealth came from the mighty River Sen trade from deep within France could make it out to the Sea and to the rest of Europe easily through the city but the river would now also play a crucial role in her defense the city may have bristled with the men of Philip’s Army but crucially it sat on the right Bank of the river while the English were on the Left Bank any potential assault on ruong would have to cross the river first but for the English this was was a future nut to crack they were still a week’s March from ru and for Edward seemingly confident that Philip would not come and meet him in pitched battle it was another week to wreak havoc on French lands but despite Philip’s indecision to this point he now finally had a plan of his own I don’t think anyone would describe Philip v 6 as a military genius but even he knew what he needed to do as he moved his army here to Ruan he reinforced the garrisons of every river crossing and ordered the dismantling of every bridge between Paris and the Sea there was now nowhere that Edward III could safely get his army across the scene the English king was walking into a French trap all Philipe needed to do was B his time then strike in the next episode Edward finds himself in a race for survival the English army are pushed to their very limits and the two kings finally meet on the battlefield on the 12th of July 1346 Edward III launched one of the largest military invasions of the medieval period an English army 50 ,000 men strong cut a terrifying path of Destruction across northern [Music] France I’m Dan Jones and I’m following in the footsteps of those Essex dogs Edward’s ordinary soldiers and the focus of my latest book I’m retracing the course taken by the English army in one of the most dramatic military campaigns of the Middle Ages the French were nowhere to be seen looting was easy and the path stretched ahead to even greater riches Ru and Paris at the rate he was going Edward could be in both in a matter of weeks and he probably couldn’t help imagining himself grabbing the throne from Philipe and installing himself as the rightful King of France but things were about to change for Edward he’s got French nipping at his heels this whole time he’s on the Run he didn’t know it but exactly a month after he stepped into K his men would be exhausted on the verge of starvation and here about to do battle against an army twice their size in this episode we’ll see how Edward went from almost total Victory to staring defeat in the face find out how philppe of France turned the tide forcing the English king into a race to save himself and discover how the first great pitched Battle of the 100 Years War unfolded on the field of cresy [Music] [Music] on the 1st of August 1346 Edward III and his huge English army marched into this Grand cathedral city of Lu the people here knew better than to resist they’d heard what the English had done to places like SVA Sano and Kong ever since they’d arrived on the Normandy beaches 3 weeks earlier on the 12th of July but Edward III wasn’t just here so his men could plunder he was here to talk the pope sent two cardinals to meet with Edward but the English king was no fool in 1346 the pope was based in Aenon and he was heavily influenced by the French Crown rather than the neutral men of religion they claimed to be Edward knew these Cardinals were emissaries of Philipe the Cardinals begged him to stop they told him Philipe would Grant him his lands in gasan and in pon in the north of France but accepting those terms would mean Edward recognizing Philipe as the rightful King of France so he refused the Cardinals were ordered away the campaign would [Music] continue their March towards ruong continued at a frightening speed their confidence grew with every mile of French Countryside burned Edward started issuing proclamations to his men about philppe and the French army Philip’s a coward the French are cowards they’d rather see their country burn and face the might of the English army but when the mighty English army came here to Ruan they found a rather different reality Philip was with his men safe on the other side of the river and all the bridges were broken [Music] failing to get across the river at ruong Edward tried at elth then Pondel lash and then Lodo finding to his growing frustration that Philipe had effectively barricaded the English route we found all the bridges broken or fortified and defended so that in no way were we able to cross over [Music] now it’s perfectly plausible that he would have seen this as a minor setback in the campaign he’d seen weeks of unbridled success and even now Philip still didn’t engage him in battle but the task of crossing the sin was essential and that minor inconvenience soon grew into something much more serious for Edward and his army the lack of a bridge across the saan might not sound like a big problem but for Edward’s Army it had the potential to become a death sentence by the best Reckoning these 15,000 men had brought enough food to last them about 25 days beyond that they had to live off the land of course this was a chevet so the whole point was that everywhere they went they stripped crops and beans and peas and cheese and meat and anything else they could eat or drink but a chevet was like a plague of locusts it took everything so you could only go forward you couldn’t go back now if Edward’s men crossed the river they could start heading north and west to the coastal ports that faced England but if they didn’t they were condemned to keep heading south and east deeper and deeper and deeper into enemy territory and as they marched ever onwards into France the situation just got worse on the 9th the English arrived here at Veron to find the bridge shattered and as they moved up River it was the same every day on the 10th on the 11th on the 12th all the while the French on this Bank shadowed them mocking them for their inability to cross Edward was starting to get desperate Edward maintained his public profile of course telling his men of the cowardly Philipe who broke all the bridges so he didn’t have to face the English army but in private he must have known this was a canny move by the French King it’s a classic military tactic the Fabian strategy Philip knew his greatest Ally was time the longer he kept Edward in the field the weaker the English army would become their men would start to get hungry and sick supply lines would become stretched it would take them ever longer to escape ESC ape Now by contrast with each passing day the French army grew bigger and stronger so it might not have looked like much but day by day the tide was turning in favor of the French Edward ordered increasingly desperate raids across the river sending squads of men in boats to probe French defenses on the other side of the [Music] sen with every mile the English moved up River the more d danger they faced the options didn’t look good they would either starve or they’d be attacked by an army moving up from the south of France under Philip’s son or Philip himself would cross the river at Paris and trap them in a pincer movement Edward had to get across the river as soon as he possibly could after a week of desperate searching a suitable Crossing still hadn’t been found Edward was now just 15 mil from Paris but thoughts of marching into the City and seizing the throne couldn’t have been further from his mind there were just three potential Bridges left available the campaign that had started so incredibly well was on the verge of total defeat [Music] on the 13th of August the English arrived here at py as usual they found the bridge broken but its huge Stone supports were still in place now Edward had plenty of engineers in his army and he set them to work rebuilding the bridge and fast it wasn’t ideal but it was the only choice he [Music] had satisfied that he had finally pinned Edward down Philipe moved his army from its shadowing position on the opposite Bank of the river and around into Paris he was ready to spring the jaws of his trap and end Edward’s campaign once and for all but Edward’s Men set out to repair the bridge at the same time that the bridge was being repaired a large enemy Force appeared on the other bank to disrupt the work [Music] the engineers got to work laying huge wooden beams across the stone supports seeing what was happening a French militia gathered on the far side of the river try and block the path but a party of English archers and men at Arms danced across the beams and after a short but brutal fight drove the militia away behind them the engineers completed their task until finally against all the odds the English had their crossing of the say Philipe was unaware of the rapid English progress and on the same day he issued a challenge to the king of England he wanted to meet him on the battlefield at a place called anony to the south of Paris Edward had been extremely bold on his March up the sen telling telling his men he was happy to meet Philip in battle whenever the French king pleased that the French were cowards who were avoiding the English at all costs now it was time to see if his bite was worse than his bark we don’t know what Edward’s reply was all we do know is that when the French left Paris and headed to the proposed Battlefield at anony the English just didn’t show up instead under the cover of Darkness on the night of the 16th of August Edward LED his men across the river s and bolted North theirs was no longer a campaign of conquest or a chevet It Was a Race for [Music] survival Philip was incensed not only had Edwards slipped through his net he then snubbed the request to do battle after weeks of being called a coward this was too much Phil marched his army back through Paris to sandan where he addressed a furious crowd a mixture of terrified parisians and refugees fleeing the ashes of Normandy took to the streets demanding Justice they wanted Edward brought to battle and the English crushed to understand Philip’s next move I’m meeting Dr David Fason an ex expert in the 100 Years War and the cresy campaign why is it so important that Edward crosses the sand once Edward was moving rapidly from the S towards the S what does Philip do [Music] next Who’s in phip army Philip’s Army is bigger he should be favorite if there’s a battle with Edward [Music] sand is the sacred resting place for the kings of France and Philip came here knowing his legitimacy as a king was being tested to its limits we can never know for sure but it seems likely that when Philipe came to This Magnificent Basilica he would have prayed that Edward wouldn’t get lucky a second time that the English king would be made to pay for his actions not only the destruction of Normandy but for claiming the French crown for [Music] himself but while Philipe was praying here Edward and his army were hurtling North as fast as they could they already already made one lucky Escape they didn’t want to have to make another Edward’s men might not have understood it but they were on the [Music] Run exactly where Edward was heading is not clear it could well have been to his English army in Flanders or maybe to leoy where he had summoned an English Fleet or perhaps he he was heading for c one thing we do know is that he was moving fast when they arrived in Normandy the English army was marching at about 10 m a day with regular stops to rest and recover but after crossing the same that pace had risen to 15 m a day with no chance to rest what’s more they knew the French were chasing them so there was no time to stop to take the best plunder or seize the finest loot Provisions were running lower and lower the Army was getting weaker every day we have lived off the countryside with great difficulty and with much harmm to our [Music] men Philip might have been behind Edward but he still had an ace up his sleeve the geography of France might once again C come to his Aid after almost trapping Edward on the Left Bank of the sen he wanted to repeat the trick this time with the river Som he dispatched fast Riders North with a simple order destroy the bridges don’t let the English cross Edward must have known there was another River to Cross and he must have known that Philipe would try to repeat his trick of blocking or Breaking All the bridges all ideas of a profitable chevet now had to be abandoned so even as Edward’s son the black prince eyed up the rich city of B Edward flatly refused to allow the men to loot there was simply no time for the ordinary men of Edward’s Army the profitable early weeks of the campaign were now a distant memory they were being pushed to their limits short on food and now short on the loot that made it worth risk ring their lives coming to France in the first place keeping discipline in the ranks would be harder than ever Edward finally had to put his dogs on a leash despite his order Edward spotted 20 of his son’s men coming out of a rich Abbey their arms full of plunder he executed them all and left their bodies to hang by the roadside as a warning to any other English soldiers who might be tempted the threat to his army was growing by the hour he couldn’t afford to allow discipline to break his crown depended on [Music] it on the 21st of August Edward’s Army who had been on campaign for almost 6 weeks arrived at aren between the cities of Amon and abil and now ahead of Edward stood his next huge hurdle the river Som cross it and his route North to safety would be open fail and his army would be slaughtered by Philips I’m catching up with Professor Michael Livingston to find out how this last gasp attempt to escape went looking at well it’s not a river today it’s a canal it doesn’t look that deep or that wide what I what’s what’s the difficulty uh well at this point it wasn’t this obviously right you know this is a nice Canal as you said it’s beautiful it’s picturesque this is lovely at that point this was Marshland with a winding river through it and it’s tidal so it has a great deal of fluctuation as for how deep it’s going to be and you have to be able to navigate all this marsh land to even get to the river itself so from where we’re standing you need to imagine that you’ve got quite a distance of bad land on either side of this stretch of water that he’s somehow got to get across and he doesn’t even know how to do that he’s got to find a good crossing point you don’t want to Wade through water it’s a wet Gap crossing that’s that’s going to lead to bad things so you’re trying to find a bridge if you can’t find a bridge find a Ford uh you don’t want to float it you don’t want to walk across you’re going to lose too many men you’re going to lose supplies not good unfortunately a lot of the bridges are connected to towns that’s the reason the bridge is there and many of those towns Are Walled and he’s on the Run he doesn’t have time to besiege a city um he’s got French nipping at his heels this whole time so as they are getting here he starts to send out feelers right send out groups of men who are approaching the S at different points where can we find a weak spot some way to push across this and unfortunately they’re all coming back saying I can’t get across here I can’t get across here I can’t get across here and he’s also realizing at the same time not only is Philip behind him Philip’s in front of him too just how close were these two armies together because there’s this story that the French came in and literally a Edward’s dinner literally ate his dinner when when the English have to flee in the middle of the night and yeah he didn’t get a chance to finish his food and Philip comes in and eats his dinner did that happen I kind of doubt it but it does speak to how close they were there’s just a few miles between the armies at this point Philip’s got to think I’ve got him I finally have run this guy to the ground again right I’ve got him again and and Edwards got to think I I squeezed out of the last trap am I going to squeeze out of this one okay so given that it’s going to be such a drama such a hassle such a danger to cross the song why not just stand and fight well that’s a good question right why don’t you just fight it isn’t this what this is all about right it’s all going to culminate in this they talking about fighting for issuing challenges to each other why not just fight get it on because they don’t really want to fight so much as they want to win right so you know you I want to defeat my enemy but that’s the key I want to defeat them I don’t want to fight and lose and any battle is a gamble any battle can end in disaster through any number of chance events right and at this point it’s an unideal situation he’s tired he’s worn down and this landscape isn’t the best for a fight okay so let’s talk about the ordinary guys the they started with 15,000 there are nowwhat fewer than 15,000 men have been lost to disease lost to to engagements like a along the way but what’s the condition of Edward’s Army at this point tired tired tired they are exhausted I was tired when I got up this morning but how tired they have been pushed to their limits I mean if you look at the pace that they have had since they crossed the same they’ve been going at basically a double pace and this is at the end of long campaign at this point it’s not like they just started so they’re tired they’re worn down they’re hungry they’re scared of course they also know look in some degree our income is being hurt because we were getting a lot of money from looting and we’re not doing that now we’re we’re running the king of England and his army were in great Peril and seriously lacking victuals so that for 8 days they had but but little bread and no wine the French were now nipping at Edward’s heels forcing the English king to continue marching north towards the sea desperate to find a way across the river on the 23rd his army moved around abil still hunting for that elusive crossing point for Edward and his men time had all but run out so Michael Edward’s surrounded by Philip’s men the bridges are not available to him but he has to get across the Som so what does he do he finds an informant supposedly a prisoner that he has taken during the campaign has local knowledge of the area and knows about a secret Ford called the blanch Tac means white stain it probably is because there is an underlayment of chalk uh that gives firm footing to have a Ford in the first place right so you’re not Crossing on mud so there is this secret spot where you might be able to get across not a lot of minut at a time cannot have been wide it’s a local for 20 men maybe not going to be a lot we can’t see the blanch attack today can we we can’t we don’t know where it is uh you know the caning all this work it’s landscape’s too changed okay yeah but we think it’s somewhere right in here in fact I can show you on the map so Abbyville this is the walled City that’s where the bridge is he can’t cross it yeah and it’s just up the river here now the psalm as it’s coming down is getting wider it’s getting more marshy it’s getting more of a problem to cross but he’s been forced into this direction by the impending doom of Philipe probably he finds the crossing we think somewhere in this area this makes the most sense of geography makes the most sense of the little bit of Clues we have but yeah it’s all been erased at this point and how long does he have what kind of window does he have to get across the blanch tack when he moves his men there we don’t know for sure but because it’s a low tide forward that usually means you got an hour or two on either side of low tide it’s a very tight window but he’s got about 10,000 men fighting men fighting men yeah more besides and more besides that that he’s got to get across it wagons livestock he’s got a lot to get across there and unfortunately he’s surrounded by the French the moment he starts doing this it’s going to get noticed what he does then is decide I’m going to try and get there as quietly as I can so he actually moves camp in the middle of the night right he sets everything up like we’re still here leave watch fires going so that any fren who are watching still think he’s in Camp and then he sneaks out with his army sneaky as one can be with 10,000 men down here and waits so that he’s perched the moment he can cross this he’s going to start Crossing it there’s this incredible change in energy in the campaign isn’t there you’ve had the the chevet where it’s fire and burning and noise and Terror and now they’re creeping like mice in the night to get down to the blunch tag yeah well cuz they have no choice he doesn’t want to be attacked while he’s on the move and once this forward is open he’s got to start pushing across it because the moment he does moment the French know what’s happening they’re going to coales against him so when he gets to the bronch stack it’s it’s early light it’s probably just starting to get light just starting to get light what do they see are there Defenders lined up on the opposite Bank there are at least some people watching not necessarily because they’re watching this forward but they’re watching the entire Bank of the psalm to make sure that nothing gets across right you don’t want anybody escaping especially not Edward so they’re watching and as soon as they see the Army you can’t hide the Army in the brush you have 10,000 men wagons horses banners all this stuff they start sending out the call for reinforcements so in that sense Edward has a head start yes he’s there at the right time he starts let’s hypothesize getting people a across the blunch deack before there’s serious organized resistance on the other side right that’s good that’s good but it doesn’t last that long it does not last that long we’re not that far from Abbyville which is basically French HQ at this point so the coalescing of the enemy happens very very fast so there’s there’s a battle in a river yes what do you think the the fight actually looked like we’ve got this image here from fussa which shows the battle taking place you know we can see Knights on Horseback fighting in the water fantastic is this do you think the brond shack looks anything like this no but it’s wonderful right what I love about this is is you have a man who’s who’s uh fallen and is drowning yeah there was probably a lot of that uh this is not a good thing to be fing especially if you’re in kit this shows men fighting on Horseback in the water that’s probably not the case why if you were able to fight on the shore would you go into the water to fight you don’t want to do that you want to win so you stay on the highest ground firmest ground you can and just start shooting these crossbows would have been absolute chaos as all these bolts are hitting into the water hitting the horses driving them mad of course the poor men who are trying to get across there now the English are answering as best they can they’ve got long bows a longer range than a crossbow does have a longer range so they might be able to bring more to bear in that regard but once you hit crossbow range you’re in crossbow range and that last bit had to have been horrific as they tried to establish a beach head it is D-Day in a river you’re trying to put more men than could be moaned down by the artillery that’s right that’s right and once you get across it’s just hold and get another step hold get another step as men are pushing in behind you and the more that that beach head starts to spread the less fire essentially we’re getting right against those men who are trying to cross behind you so as the beach head gets bigger it becomes more secure and it gets easier to push more men in and at a certain point the French ultimately bolt they realize we don’t have enough men here right we this wasn’t our plan this is just coming to the fight we can’t hold against the number of men that Edward’s getting across and they route back to Abbyville the the waters probably ran red you know away from this spot it was absolutely horrible but the get across the crossing of the Som at the blanch Tac was one of the most astonishing military achievements in history a Crossing that should have been virtually impossible and now on the other side of the Som there was the hope of a desperately needed resupply Edward sent ra out into nearby Villages the English had had to dump supplies when they crossed the river and now Provisions were running dangerously low the king’s Big Hope was that the reinforcement Fleet he’ ordered weeks ago would be there to meet him at leoy at the mouth of the S he sent a welcome party out to meet the reinforcement Fleet in the hope that they’d bring back men and food and weapons but when the welcome party came back they were empty-handed the ships were nowhere to be seen for Edward this was another Grim [Music] blow the whole Army must have felt it was taking one step forward and then two steps back and now it faced The Impossible Forest of ccie here King Edward faced two choices head to the west of the forest and into marshy boggy land which would sap energy and allow Philipe to gain even more ground on him him or go east of the forest down faster and better maintained roads but closer to Philip’s fresher forces who could Ambush the English army Edward rolled the dice they would head to the east on the morning of the 26th of August Edward and his exhausted men were trying to find a way around the forest of Cy many of them were on their last legs the crossing of the sa the race to the som the miracle of the blanch Tac all of these had taken a heavy toll and now Philip was too close to be avoided it wasn’t a question of if there was going to be a battle but where for centuries the location of the battlefield has been locked in stone just to the north of the village of cesy but Michael’s work on the battle has thrown up the possibility that traditional history might be t totally wrong I’m going with him to his new site around 3 mil to the South so Edward is effectively in a race with Philip yeah heading north and he comes to this spot coming around this giant forest behind us and he realizes he’s lost the race he has lost the race and you point out the forest which is absolutely spot-on because it’s a huge natural obstacle that he can’t really go through he has to come around which brings him to this this point and yes it is here that he realizes Philipe has taken faster roads and is now in front of him and he’s got a lot of men probably 25,000 easily men wow once he gets word that Edward is hunkered in they immediately begin funneling down their own roads and they’re coming in two main contingents to this point one is Philip’s main force and they’re coming from that direction from the north coming down the road that we’re essentially stay standing on so they’re moving in this direction but simultaneous with that the other contingent is coming up a road in this direction and they’re all coming to meet here the fact that they’re split up becomes important later and what you know would the ordinary guys in Edwards Army have been able to hear the French coming see them coming what would it have looked like if we were standing here just in the rank and file so to speak you see the dust you’d see the dust you’d see the dust this is a lot of men kicking up a lot of dust and you would see especially from this direction and you’d see the glinting of metal you would see that that sort of reflective almost snake coming like oh my God here they come right banners up as soon as they could get in sight this is who we are it would have been colorful it would have been beautiful in its way aside from all the Carnage it was about to cause what are its advantages it disadvantages as a battle here is relative High Ground I know it’s not a a Mountaintop but this is high ground and you’ll take any High Ground you can get over an enemy it also has the forest here that Forest pulls in the fields this way there’s another Forest over here much much smaller that pulls it in this way so you have a constriction in the landscape which means that his rear if you like is relatively easy to defend relatively tight as is this direction right so doesn’t have to worry about being outflanked nobody’s going to be fighting him through the forest okay so he can simply guard the front of this little funnel guard the back of it and he’s in a pretty secure location probably can get water from the forest a it’s a really good spot given what he’s got to work with it also has a windmill on it which gives him a nice commanding view of the landscape around so that he can help control the situation how do you reinforce this area how do you prepare for a battle on this site well he does the smart thing Edward’s not an idiot he’s very very smart he’s taken the best position he can and he makes it even better there’s a natural fold in the landscape that kind of moves almost in a hemic circle out out this direction and he builds a top that a field fortification call it a wagenberg he had his army enclosed by a wagenberg because he very much worried expecting a battle but he was not able to further Escape what they do is they essentially take their wagons turn them sideways so the axles are facing upward and build a wall of it and they do that across this opening and across that opening so it’s almost like a makeshift Fort it’s a makeshift fortification it’s a field fortification and then you put men along the top yep they would have men along the top especially a lot of archers right they’re the ones are going to be useful here so you have a ton of archers around that wagenberg and he then goes one further and positions men in the forest line in both directions right so he’s got these wings of archers stretching out they’re going to help funnel and kill anybody who tries to hit the sides and bring everybody into the center the strongest point of this fortification and is there any way in or out of this wagon bug he puts one opening in it more or less dead straight that way he puts a big gap in it essentially saying come here attack me here here’s how you get to me and in front of that he puts his Vanguard dismount men at- arms and knights in all of their kit and array come at us this is all the banners the Prince of Wales is standing in that front line with his banners it’s absolute bait come and hit me please if we were in the French ranks uh what would we see as we approached the English defensive position well it depends on where you’re coming from but you’re going to be able to see this wagenberg you’re going to see that they’ve done this and then you’re going to see the men kind of on top of the wagenberg those in front you could not see these wings of archers that will become important later on huh but one of the other things is that you’re going to feel something as you’re approaching this spot and what we know is there are two different responses one part of the Army is like it’s about time we’ve chased them across France we got them finally and another part of the Army is like yes but is it wise to go fight them right now because we’ve got them cornered we can start them out essentially at this point they’re already desperate for food in fact we have reports of one high ranking member of the army once this field fortification is described to him says don’t go in we’ll all die really yeah we are the losers it will be impossible to defeat the English without suffering great damage ourselves but in the end the French are governed by their King Philip v 6 and he decides we’re going to attack maybe we actually have differing voices on this it’s very frustrating I don’t know who really drove that decision in the end Philip has governance over it right but was it his idea to go ahead and attack despite the danger signs or was it his generals everybody saying no no we’ve got to do this and him going along with that to look like he’s in charge very very uncertain we do know what happened they attack they attack they attack and where did they attack first they attack first actually on that side of the line and it’s very interesting what happens there can we go and see it we can absolutely go see it let’s go check it [Music] out after 6 weeks Edward III’s campaign came down to this a pitched battle between the two kings between Edward’s 10,000 Dogs of War and Philip’s 25,000 gleaming nights Victory would see Ste Edward’s reputation as a masterful Lord of War defeat could cost him everything we’ve now walked around to the right flank of the English forces where the Battle of cesy began the forest you see behind here this is that smaller Forest that he’s got holding this flank and he’s also got archers lining these trees in a big Wing out this direction over over to this side we have high ground and kind of an escarment a top which is the wagenberg so think about a wooden wall on top of that little Hill and actually that little hill now I’m standing here well it’s almost as tall as me so that’s 6 foot and then some taller and then you’ve got the wagenberg and then down here there’s this depression in the landscape which you can’t hardly see until you walk down here but all of a sudden whoa yeah I’m down I can’t see the road below this is a place on the map called The Garden of genoi what’s the first thing that the French army does to attack the English well they send in the genoise crossbowman they send in this this mercenary group of cross women right over this rise right into this called The Garden of genoise where we’re standing and their job is to launch a volley at this wagenberg soften it up right get all this weakness here and then Here Comes cavalry charge to just overrun them all is it a little strange to send in crossbow Men first it’s very strange normally you would not have these crossbowmen in this position to be even at the front of the lines they should be further back but because this Army has kind of split in two that’s approaching they’ve become the front of that part of the army and they’ve come into this fight without any their good gear on they don’t have their armor they don’t have these large pavis as they’re called it’s a shield almost the size of a man that you can Hunker behind to have protection while you reload they don’t have any of that because they don’t think that they’re going to get hit this is a soft target in their mind they don’t expect all this Longbow shot to hit them So the plan is crossbow men come in at the barricades here soften them up off you go and then in will come the the Cavalry smash it to pieces that sounds like a great plan doesn’t it bloody great pan except you don’t know this is here from that Direction you don’t know there’s this depression you don’t know that there’s this ridgel line and of course you don’t know that all these archers are here right so when the crossbowmen come in they sort of go out of view start shooting their one shot their first shot and are trying to reload now the ground is wet they’re having trouble loading and at that point all the long bowman stand up and loose every time the genoise shot a bolt from their crossbow that bolt would be answered by three arrows from their bows which formed a storm cloud in the sky well where do you go you turn and flee in that direction you run the same way you came okay well that’s that’s not so bad except what was planned to Here Come the Cavalry and they can’t see this as happen all they know is the crossbowman went up great big cheer of people being hurt right all kinds of shouting and screaming like oh the English are getting it now right and the Cavalry comes running up and what do they run right into the fleeing genoes which then become a moras of people right out here which is still within range of the Longbow so you’ve either been shot by a longbow or trampled by a Cavalry man or maybe both or maybe both and now the knights are getting it too easy target just a mass chaos of people and again nobody down below can see it here comes another wave they are eager it almost looks like to die as they come in wave after wave and the English are just having a time of our lives here it was here at Cy that the long gained its fearsome reputation and its full force was felt by the French the knights had no reply as French troops continued to pour forward the wings of archers shot in more and more deadly arrows one chronicler said they struck like lightning into their flanks so we’ve come round from the field of the genoes where the first Slaughter of the battle began but now we’re into the main action so what does this battlefield look like exactly right we’ve come around this way and now the main action is all going to be happening here the wagenberg opening is right behind you so this what we’re looking at is exactly where they want to be hit they want everybody to stream in here being shot the entire time whittel down hopefully nobody will get to that Vanguard line and all die in front of it it’s a beautiful plan well executed on a perfect landscape for it couldn’t be better what can I see what are the French doing out there essentially all hell breaks loose across this front as the French send everybody into this entire line it’s just a case of everyone go at once everyone hit it so when this entire line starts attacking and then another wave behind them it’s a bit of a mess and as each hour goes by that chaos is only getting worse and very quickly it’s becoming apparent that the French have no command and control Philipe does not have control of this battlefield which is the biggest problem he’s got is Philip fighting himself Philipe is fighting himself he has a number of horses actually shot down from underneath him he’s giving it his all but he’s lost command and control and at that point you’re sunk everywhere the French were like a defeated people and when the king of France and those in his company saw this he shouted at them Lords where are you do you not see your king fighting against his enemies on the field now when the English are lined up defending the Gap in the front of the wagenberg the strategy is to hold firm right but it doesn’t quite go like that what they want to do is hold position because they have a good position here it’s well defended and you know look if you want to keep running at me and get mowed down go for it you don’t want to mess this plan up in the middle of that line is the black prince and we presume he’s the one that decides to not hold position and actually charge out to meet the French why I don’t know I have to think that they screw this up so this is the black prince 16 years old 16 years old I think I’ve got a fair idea what what’s going on is that the black prince is 16 and he’s never seen a battle before and he gets the blood rushes to his head he gets excited I think that’s what happens too he just can’t hold his water and bolts out and the line comes with him the entire Vanguard pushes out and now this wonderful battle plan is messed up you can’t be firing in here just willy-nilly now your men are out there the black prince is out there let the child earn his [Music] Spurs so what happens at that point it is a melee and it is chaos out there and amazingly in that chaos the black prince is captured wow cuz the normal story is not like that at all the normal story he’s just in a bit of trouble maybe his standard Falls but he kind of gets back on his feet and becomes the glorious black prince he’s captured it’s an extraordinary moment which at this point hangs everything in the balance if he’s taken from this field it’s going to be a literal King’s Ransom to get him back well he’s going to be rescued though presumably who does that all that stuff about the king uh let the boy earn his Spurs not true he actually takes his entire third division opens another slot in the wagenberg and charges out and ends up sweeping across the entirety of this field in the fry so loud was the shouting so great was the noise in the blinter of lances that it seemed as if two mountains had hit each other how long does the battle go on for this day is only the first day right this battle goes until Nightfall Philipe is taken away and he’s taken to leoy which is the direction he had come from he’s taken that direction to spend the night but he had so little command and control over this battlefield that they didn’t call for a general retreat not that we can tell so these men continued to fight in pockets and here and there in the night into the night until Nightfall put an end to all the killing when the sun rose the next day the field here was shrouded in fog but out of the Gloom the bodies of the thousands of men who had fallen began to appear some pockets of fresh French troops arrived on the battlefield but the damage had already been done and the English swept them away this hadn’t just been a victory for Edward it had been a massacre through few men and men of no value that is to say The Archers the flower of the chivalry of France fell finally after nearly two months the English reached the coast again for many of the men in the Army it must have been a welcome sight but the campaign was far from over we have now moved towards the sea but we do not expect to depart the kingdom of France until we have made an end of our war on the 4th of September Edward and his men arrived outside the walls of Cal having finally received reinforcements of troops and supplies cresy had been a sensational Victory but also a hollow one winning calal would give it some purpose so the English dug in for a Siege and Philipe his spirit and his forces broken could only watch as for a 11 months they starved the city into submission for the ordinary men of Edward’s Army well they became part of the besieging force within a year their numbers had swelled to 50,000 in Late July 1347 the cesan were at Breaking Point Philipe mustered an army to try and relieve The Siege but he found the English were too well dug in Philip withdrew knowing he was about to lose the city on the 3rd of August 1347 C surrendered and this incredible sculpture by Rodan shows the moment that six Burgers wealthy leaders of the city came out to meet Edward with the keys to the city in their hands and nooses around their necks showing their willingness to be executed to save everyone who was left their lives were spared after Edward’s Queen philipper intervened but the city was still Tak the population was removed and English people were brought here instead C remained in English hands for more than 20000 years finally Edward had his [Music] victory C provided the English with a permanent foothold in northern France that would allow not only trade in and out of Europe but crucially would allow the stuff of War to easily flow onto the continent and sustain English armies it’s no stretch to say that the capture of C allowed the Hundred Years War to last as long as it did Edward’s cresy campaign and his march on Cal are part of what later became known as his anus marabis his miraculous year and at times it really seem to be miraculous but perhaps not always in the way Edward might have wanted us to think it’s been said that history is written by The Victors and Edward III’s cesy campaign could hardly be a better example the brutal treatment of the people of Normandy the Escape over the sen over the som the near starvation of his army all of this could be reframed because of his victory in battle the campaign and the Battle of cesy became an integral part of the founding myth of English nationhood it’s been fascinating Crossing northern France in the footsteps of Edward III’s Army and my imagined Essex dogs and thinking how history can turn in a moment in a single hot summer in France 1 46 so when we think back on this campaign perhaps we shouldn’t be basking in an English Triumph but instead wondering what might have been no glory at chy no ashing go no Joon of AR no 100 Years War thanks for watching this video on the history Hit YouTube channel you can subscribe right here to make sure you don’t miss any of our great films that are coming out or if you are a true history fan check out our special dedicated History Channel History hit. 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