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Conflict26 August 1346

Battle of Crécy

On 26 August 1346 the English army of Edward III, led by its longbowmen, routed the French knights.

The Battle of Crécy — English longbowmen (right) against Genoese crossbowmen (left), miniature in Froissart’s Chronicles, 15th century
The Battle of Crécy — English longbowmen (right) against Genoese crossbowmen (left), miniature in Froissart’s Chronicles, 15th century

Loyset Liédet · Public domain · Source

Edward III, who had landed in Normandy and was marching north, drew up his army on a ridge near Crécy. Philip VI’s French army was far larger, but the Genoese crossbowmen in the van broke under the rapid shooting of the English longbowmen, and the knights who charged again and again behind them fell to arrows and infantry. The English are said to have used early cannon as well.

The defeat of mounted knights by the bows of common foot soldiers showed that the feudal army built around knights was in decline. Edward III went on to besiege Calais, which he took the following year.

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States at the time
England · victor
France · defeated
Places
Crécy

People

  • Edward III1312 – 1377

    commander · King of England from 1327 to 1377 who claimed the French throne, began the Hundred Years’ War and won at Crécy

Before and after

Later
1429 Joan of Arc Relieves Orléans

Themes that include this event

  • Late Medieval Europe and the Renaissance1077 – 1517

    From Canossa to the eve of the Reformation — papal power at its height and in decline, towns and parliaments, royal power growing through the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Death, and the Renaissance and printing