Battle of Crécy

battle_name=Battle of Crécy

Aftermath

After the French left the field, the Welsh and English checked the wounded French, to see who was worth taking prisoner for ransom. Those knights who were too severely wounded to be easily carried off the field were dispatched with misericordias (mercy-givers) which are long daggers inserted through the unprotected underarms and in to the heart. This was against the chivalric codes of warfare since peasants, such as the Welsh, were killing knights, as were knights dying from anonymous arrows.

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This battle established the military supremacy of the English/Welsh longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights (due to significantly greater rate of fire and a longer range in the hands of a skilled archer), and was to alter significantly the way in which war was conducted for a considerable period of time thereafter. After the Battle of Crécy, Edward III went on to besiege the city of Calais, which surrendered to him shortly afterwards, giving the English base in northern France. The next major battle in the Hundred Years War, Poitiers in 1356, would see another defeat for the French, under very similar conditions.

Related Topics:
Longbow - Crossbow - Knights - Calais - Poitiers - 1356

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