1346 Battle of Crecy, Hundred Years War

After the Battle of Sluys in 1340, King Edward III of England returned to England where he had three million arrows manufactured as well as new silver coins minted and all other kinds of war materials prepared. He planned to invade France, and this time to get off the boats. Most sources agree that he also brought several primitive cannons that probably fired stones or iron shot.

If you liked this video you might also like the other Hundred Years War battles we have animated:

1340 Sluys Sea Battle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfSysxGQPnw

1415 Battle of Agincourt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8LZ5o39KkQ

On July 12, 1346 King Edward and his army of mostly longbow archers as well as his eldest son, the "Black Prince" Edward arrived at the coast of France and disembarked at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue without much resistance. They spent the next month marching towards Paris, pillaging as they went, before turning north and along the Somme River, pursued by a much larger French army led by King Phillip VI. With the French army was a large contingent of Italian mercenary crossbow archers who were all called Genoese by the French. Blind King John of Bohemia and a group of knights also joined the French army. King John would perish in the next day's battle. King Phillip would be wounded.

The English stopped and rested for a day near the village of Crecy, selecting a low ridge to form a line with two wedges of archers at each end, and the dismounted knights massed in the middle. The next day the French caught up and began to arrive in the plain at the foot of the hill. It was August 26, 1346.

After a brief thunderstorm, the crossbow archers bowstrings were wet, and loose. The English archers had kept their bows covered and dry during the rain. The French King ordered his army not to advance, and to stop and rest for the night before offering battle the next day. But French knights started to advance and even King Phillip changed his mind when he saw how impudent the English looked up on the small hill they occupied. So he ordered the crossbow archers to advance and begin firing. He told them to advance without first having their large wooden shields brought up from the rear of the army. So they advanced and released their first volley into the English lines without protection. Some sources say that they discharged their bolts early because they were startled by the firing of English cannons, which did little damage, but were an unfamiliar sound and sight to people of the time.

The crossbow bolts fell short of the English, and in response the English longbows began to unleash volley after volley of deadly arrows that fell into the line of Italian crossbow archers. The Italians broke and fled, until they ran into the lines of French knights behind them, who were disgusted by the archers' cowardice. Thanks to http://www.youtube.com/user/GaudrioleProduction1/about from France for providing the voice of the French knight who orders a massacre, and a charge right over the retreating Italian crossbow archers.

The French mounted knights charged the English lines in wave after wave, and the so did the dismounted men at arms. The English archers disabled the knights before they ever reached the English, by shooting the French knights' lightly armored horses instead of the knights, whose armor rendered them mostly impervious to the arrows.

Finally by evening King Phillip was persuaded to flee with some retainers, as the battle was lost for the French.

Видео 1346 Battle of Crecy, Hundred Years War канала Brick Dictator (Brictator)