Crécy 1346: Edward III's Longbowmen and the Rain-Soaked Genoese

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In July 1346 Edward III landed in Normandy with about 15,000 men and launched a chevauchée, a destructive raid that cut a path roughly 20 miles wide, looted Caen and came within two miles of Paris. Philip VI issued the arrière-ban, raised a far larger army, and stripped the countryside ahead of the English to trap them against the Somme. On the night of August 24 the starving English forced the tidal ford of Blanchetaque, wading in water up to their necks, and slipped away. Edward then chose his ground at Crécy-en-Ponthieu, anchoring his flanks on Wadicourt and on Crécy and the River Maye, and spent the morning of August 26 digging pits to break cavalry charges.

The French arrived late in the afternoon after a 12-mile march, jostling for the honor of the first strike, and attacked despite advice to wait for dawn. A summer storm broke; the English unstrung their bows while the Genoese crossbowmen, without their pavises, could not span their weapons in the mud. When the Genoese fell back, French knights under the Count of Alençon rode them down, then charged uphill from a standstill into the arrows. The French charged again and again until near midnight.

• Some 5,000 to 7,000 English longbowmen, each issued 72 arrows, could loose up to 10 bodkin-tipped arrows a minute against a crossbow's two.
• English bombards and ribauldequins made Crécy one of the first European battles with field artillery.
• The blind King John of Bohemia had his knights tie their bridles to his, and they were found dead together the next day.
• Philip VI lost two horses under him and took an arrow to the jaw, and the Prince of Wales was beaten to his knees before being rescued.
• English heralds counted about 1,542 dead French nobles, and Edward went on to take Calais, held by England for over two centuries.