Crécy, Battle of

First major battle of the Hundred Years' War, fought on 26 August 1346. Philip VI of France was defeated by Edward III of England at the village of Crécy‐en‐Ponthieu, now in Somme département, France, 18 km/11 mi northeast of Abbeville. The English archers played a crucial role in Edward's victory, which llowed him to besiege and take Calais.

Following a failed attack on Paris in early August, Edward was chased northward by superior French forces. His army had to fight across the ford of Blanchetaque on the river Somme before turning to fight some 8 km/5 mi north, in Ponthieu. He led some 10,000 men, including 2,000 men‐at‐arms, 5,000 archers and 3,000 infantry. Philip was said to have had 12,000 mounted men‐at‐arms, 6,000 Genoese crossbowmen, and perhaps 10,000 other infantry. However, he was unable to make effective use of his larger forces because they were strung out in a long line of march and difficult to deploy easily. First, the crossbowmen were outshot by the English, then a series of uncoordinated cavalry charges were flung against the defenders. Edward had disposed his archers and men‐at‐arms in mutually supportive battles that hurled back these attacks. Some 1,500 French knights were killed and Philip withdrew.

Edward's forces were arranged in three divisions, all dismounted, with Welsh archers and spearmen in the front ranks. The French arrived in the afternoon; their Genoese crossbowmen opened the battle, but rain had slacked their bowstrings and they were rapidly annihilated by the Welsh bowmen who had unstrung their bows and kept the strings dry. The French knights, impatient for victory, then rode forward but, clustered together by the confined battlefield, they were rapidly picked off by bowmen and spearmen. The battle then resolved itself into a series of charges – some historians say as many as 15 – by the French knights against the English lines, but they were eventually beaten off and before nightfall were in retreat.