The Battle of Crecy
By The Elf, age 15
In the year 1346, a small force of Englishmen invaded France. Numbers were definitely not on their side; neither, in the opinion of the rest of the world, was weaponry, for they had very few horsemen. Thus, when on August 26 they were attacked by a French army by well over 100,000 soldiers, the results should have been decisive, as they were - but not in the way expected.
The English army had all the time they needed to prepare their position, and they did so, fencing in their baggage and organizing their troops - 11,000 with the young Black Prince, so called for his entirely black armor; 7,000 on the left, protected by a ditch; and 12,000 in reserve with the king.
The French, on the other hand, came to the scene of battle hungry and tired from a full day’s march. The order was given to halt, but due to their huge numbers, it was not passed on or obeyed. They continued forward all the way to the English lines.
Immediately, some French crossbowmen came forward to attack, but a small rain shower came at that moment, followed by the sun coming out behind the English. With their crossbow strings wet and the sun in their eyes, the French advanced very close before trying to shoot, and were met with such a hail of arrows that most of them instantly fell dead.
King Philip of France now gave an order, but not the one you might expect. He told his knights to charge right over the dying crossbowmen! This completed their destruction, and as they struggled, the English continued pouring arrows into the mix with their longbows . The other French divisions circled around this and attacked the Black Prince from both sides simultaneously.
Time and again they charged; time and again, their charges were stopped with pike and sword. Very soon, the French leaders were dead, and the remaining knights were now confused. But then another French division joined the fray, so it was now 40,000 men surrounding the Prince with only 7,000 foot soldiers (the rest of his archers had drawn back.)
At this time, the Earl of Warwick sent a messenger to the king, asking for reinforcements. After ensuring that his son was unhurt, King Edward offered the famous lines, “Let the boy win his spurs,” and remained where he was, giving all the glory to his son.
As the French charged again and again, fresh volleys continued to fall on them. An English longbow-man could fire around five arrows per minute with deadly accuracy, meaning 20,000 arrows were falling on the French every minute! No man or beast could stand this, and after Philip was wounded twice himself, they began to retreat.
Immediately, the English army gave thanks to God for their victory. There was no feast or celebration, just a simple mass giving the glory of the battle to the Lord.
The next day, however, was quite foggy, and many more French were killed by the victorious English when they stumbled upon each other in the fog.
In all, 33,000 French died, including 90 of the highest nobles, while the English lost only a few hundred foot soldiers. This battle began what took another hundred years to finish; namely, the discovery that the knight was not indestructible, and that one archer could be more than a match for one knight. This led to the end of the Middle Ages.
