Crécy 1346

A Tourists' Guide

Peter Hoskins, Richard Barber

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781473897755
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

On 26 August 1346, near the village of Crécy in northern France, Edward III's outnumbered English army confronted the French forces of Philip VI and won one of the most remarkable battles of the Hundred Years War. Edward's victory had a major impact on the course of the conflict, and it ranks alongside Poitiers and Agincourt as a landmark in the history of medieval warfare. And now, thanks to this detailed, highly illustrated guide, visitors can explore the battlefield for themselves and retrace the entire course of the Crécy campaign. Peter Hoskins and Richard Barber set Edward's victory within the context of the Hundred Years War and provide a graphic account of the battle. They include practical information to guide the motorist, cyclist and walker as well as descriptions of buildings, sites and monuments surviving from the period. The book is a mine of fascinating historical information, and it is based on the most recent scholarship and research. It will be an essential travelling companion for readers who are interested in medieval history and warfare.

Tour One

St-Vaast-la-Hougue to Caen

This tour starts at St-Vaast-la-Hougue, where Edward III and his army disembarked on 12 July 1346, and continues to Caen, plundered by the English army before they broke camp and moved on from the town on 31 July. It covers a distance of about 160km.

What Happened

Edward III had arrived at Portchester on 1 June 1346 and waited while his fleet gathered. By the end of the month around 1,000 ships had been assembled, enough to carry the army of around 14,000 men, comprising 2,800 knights and men-at-arms, 3,000 mounted archers, and 8,000 infantry, of whom 5,000 were archers. To provide mounts for the knights, men-at-arms and mounted archers, there would have been at least 10,000 horses to be transported. Medieval armies, however, included not just fighting men but also a wide range of camp followers and men of many civilian trades. With this army were miners, masons, carpenters, tent-makers, blacksmiths, farriers, surgeons, clerks and servants. The ships were provisioned for two weeks, sufficient for the passage to Bordeaux in Gascony. The expectation seems to have been that the destination was indeed Gascony, but this was a cover story to attempt to confound the French. The real destination was shrouded in great secrecy because a landing in Bordeaux would have been without risk of opposition, whereas a landing in French territory would be very risky if the destination were known and opposition could be assembled. Around 20 June Sir Hugh Hastings was appointed as the king’s lieutenant in Flanders and a small force marshalled to go with him. No secret was made of his destination, and his mission was to work with the Flemings who had declared that they would assist King Edward. As King Philip VI started to get wind of what was in store he turned to the Scots to try to persuade them to take action in the north.

The fleet sailed on 28 June, still under a cloak of secrecy as to the destination, and with the ships masters carrying sealed orders concerning the destination. These orders were to be opened in the case of the fleet being dispersed by adverse weather. Unfavourable winds disrupted the start of the expedition and the ships reassembled south of Portsmouth to await more favourable conditions. It was only on 11 July that the fleet finally set off for Normandy, anchoring off the beach south of St-Vaast-la-Hougue (Point 5) before dawn the next day. The bay south of St-Vaast is well sheltered, with shallow beaches which would have made the landings relatively trouble-free, although timing would have been important since high spring tides in particular cover the beach completely with the sea lapping against the rocky foreshore. First ashore were the Earl of Warwick and Godefroy d’Harcourt, who had been banished from France two years earlier and who held lands around St-Sauveur-le-Vicomte and towards Carentan on the Cotentin peninsula. They landed with 400 men-at-arms and 1,100 archers to establish and protect the beachhead for the subsequent disembarkation of the mass of men, horses, equipment and supplies.

There was no serious opposition to the disembarkation of the English army. The bulk of the French forces in Normandy were some distance away north of the Seine. The French king’s senior representative, the marshal Robert Bertrand, had summoned local men of military age to muster in their home districts. The muster in St-Vaast-la-Hougue had to be abandoned because of the English landing. In addition, a company of Genoese crossbowmen, who had been based at St-Vaast-la-Hougue since April, had deserted a few days before the landings because they were unpaid. Ships, including eight intended for the defence of St-Vaast-la-Hougue, were found abandoned on the beach and burnt by the English. Not only had ships been abandoned but also villagers fled and took refuge as the English approached, adding to the marshal’s problems in finding men. With all these difficulties his resources were very limited, and the best he could do was make a desultory attack with a few hundred men who were driven off by those from the English fleet who were already ashore.

The king landed at around mid-day on 12 July and, it is said, tripped and fell, hitting his head which provoked a nose-bleed. Some saw this as an ill-omen, but the king retorted that on the contrary it showed that the land was ready to receive him. Having climbed a hill nearby, the king knighted a number of young noblemen, including the sixteen-year-old Prince of Wales, the Black Prince, and the Earl of Salisbury. In addition, Godefroy d’Harcourt paid homage to Edward for his lands in Normandy. It has been suggested that these ceremonies were held in the church of St Vigor in the village of Quettehou (Point 4), which stands on the ridge 3km west of St-Vaast-la-Hougue. It has also been suggested that the king then moved north 3km to La Pernelle (Point 3), standing on one of the highest points on the escarpment with clear views north towards Barfleur (Point 1) and south to the landing beaches, to survey the surrounding countryside and the coastline.

On his first day ashore the king ordered that the people of Normandy and their property were to be respected. In particular, towns and manors were not to be burnt, churches and holy places were not to be sacked and the lives of the old, women and children were to be spared since they were his French subjects. Transgressors risked life and limb, and a reward of forty shillings was offered to bring before the king any offender caught red-handed. In theory the constable and the marshals should have enforced the king’s order, but in reality the army plundered and burned far and wide from the start and even as the king was looking out from La Pernelle he may well have seen the villages of Réville and Jonville, just to the north of St-Vaast, burning. On the following day, 13 July, St-Vaast-la-Hougue was burnt and the king moved to the nearby village of Morsalines, now a small settlement with a population of around 200, where he lodged in an inn. On 14 July elements of the army, together with some ships from the English fleet, reached the port of Barfleur, 10km north of St-Vaast-la-Hougue, and the town, further abandoned ships and the surrounding countryside were burnt and pillaged. Prisoners were also taken.

There was some sporadic and un-coordinated resistance, with the Earl of Warwick and his company, who were attacked while taking over an inn, amongst those who met resistance. However, the earl is reported to have fought honourably and driven off the enemy despite being outnumbered. Other inhabitants did not resist and withdrew to walled towns, joined a flood of refugees heading south or stayed put, accepting the arrival of the English as something they could not oppose.

There is a stretch of land immediately beyond the beaches about 800m deep and extending for 3km on both sides of Morsalines before the terrain starts to climb. This would have provided an ideal area to unload and organize stores, equipment, men and horses, and five days were spent here preparing for the coming campaign. These preparations included the baking of bread. In view of the scale of the operation five days was by no means a long period for completing the disembarkation and organization for the onward march. In addition, horses need time to adjust after a sea voyage and it would have been prudent not to have tried to move off too quickly. The Black Prince was to find to his cost in 1355 that pushing horses too hard after a sea passage could result in many deaths. The king’s plan was to march east, parallel to the coast, and then to move up the valley of the Seine to invade the Île de France. In doing so he probably intended to relieve the pressure on the small English armies already in France, but with an expedition of this size he must have had a grander objective in mind. It seems very likely from the outset that he wanted to draw Philip into battle. Furthermore, judging by the subsequent conduct of the campaign, his plan to join with Hugh Hastings and the arrangements he made for reinforcements to be sent to Le Crotoy, he may have had the County of Ponthieu in mind as the place for battle from the outset.

The army was divided in a conventional manner into three divisions for the march. The vanguard was under the nominal command of the sixteen-year-old Black Prince but in reality was led by the Earls of Northampton, the constable, and Warwick, the marshal, who were his senior advisers. The king commanded the centre and Thomas Hatfield, the Bishop of Durham, led the rear-guard with the Earls of Suffolk, Arundel and Huntingdon. Two hundred ships, the remainder being discharged from royal service, were to follow the army along the coast. Before setting out east, however, the fleet moved around the Cotentin peninsula, with landing parties destroying villages as they went. Of the castles in the area, only the garrison of Cherbourg stayed at its post and held out. In Cherbourg the twelfth-century Augustinian abbey of Notre Dame du Voeu, founded by Henry I’s daughter Matilda, suffered one of many assaults in its life and was burned by the marauding troops.

Edward’s army finally broke camp on 18 July and started out on its march, climbing away from the coastal plain and up onto the higher ground, passing through thickly wooded countryside, some of which remains in the Bois du Rabey astride the D902 to the west of Quettehou. The first destination was the undefended town of Valognes, 15km from Morsalines. The inhabitants came out to meet the king, pleading for him to spare their lives and property. The king stayed in a house of the Dukes of Normandy and the Black Prince in the house of the Bishop of Coutances. The king restated his orders for his men to respect the property of his Norman subjects, but again to no avail. The men took what plunder they wished and left the town in flames when they moved on next morning.

From Valognes the English moved on to St-Côme-du-Mont (Point 8), which stands near the river Douve, on 19 July. Around 15km southwest of Valognes lies St-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, the ancestral home of Godefroy d’Harcourt, and, with the ostensible aim of protecting the right flank, Godefroy d’Harcourt set off in this direction only to find that the castle was in ruins, having been destroyed by his arch-enemy the French marshal Robert Bertrand three years before. The remainder of the army set off more directly towards St-Côme-du-Mont and is reported to have passed Montebourg (Point 6) with its fine Benedictine abbey on its left, although there are accounts of the town being burnt and looted. On the road to St-Côme-du-Mont is Ste-Mère-Eglise (Point 7) which, apart from its church, was totally destroyed during the Hundred Years War, and subsequently rebuilt on adjacent ground. The march to St-Côme-du-Mont would have been easy going across the most gentle of undulating terrain with no rivers of any consequence to slow progress. There had been a bridge over the Douve just beyond St-Côme-du-Mont since at least the twelfth century which could have been of great help to the English if it had been intact. However, the bridge had been broken and had to be rebuilt overnight before the army crossed the river the following day and advanced on Car...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Advice for Tourists
• Edward III and the Hundred Years War
• Tour One: St-Vaast-la-Hougue to Caen
• Tour Two: Caen to Elbeuf
• Tour Three: Elbeuf to Poissy
• Tour Four: Poissy to Abbeville
• Tour Five: Abbeville to Calais via Crécy-en-Ponthieu
• Tour Six: A Guide to the Battlefield
• Further Reading