The Crécy campaign was a large-scale raid conducted by an English army throughout northern France in 1346. It was part of the Hundred Years’ War, and ended with the capitulation of Calais on 3 August 1347. The English army was led by King Edward III, and the French by King Philip VI.
About Crécy campaign in brief
The Crécy campaign was a large-scale raid conducted by an English army throughout northern France in 1346. It was part of the Hundred Years’ War, and ended with the capitulation of Calais on 3 August 1347. The English army was led by King Edward III, and the French by King Philip VI. The status of the English king’s French fiefs was a major source of conflict between the two monarchies throughout the Middle Ages. French monarchs systematically sought to check the growth of English power, stripping away lands as the opportunity arose. By 1337 only Gascony in south western France and Ponthieu in northern France were left. Edward determined early in 1345 to attack France on three fronts: A small force would sail for Brittany, under the command of William, Earl of Northampton; a slightly larger force would proceed to Gas Cony; and the main force would accompany Edward to northern France or Flanders. The Truce of Calais was agreed; it ran for nine months to 7 July 1348, but was extended repeatedly over the years until it was formally set aside in 1355. The French decided to stand on the defensive in the south west, but they did not have the money to raise a significant army in each. They anticipated, correctly, that the English planned to make their main effort in northern France, and directed what resources they had to rely on there. Edward III’s army sailed on 29 June. It anchored in Sluys in Flanders until 22 July, while Edward attended to diplomatic affairs, while the French were scattered by a storm and found their way to English ports over the following week.
After more than five weeks, the men and horses had to be disembarked on board ship. There was a further delay while the King’s council debated what to do, by which time it proved impossible to take any action with the main English army before winter. During this time, the main army was dispatched to Brittany and GasconY. There, the English devastated much of Normandy, and stormed and sacked Caen, slaughtering the population. They then raided the suburbs of Rouen before cutting a swath along the left bank of the Seine to Poissy, 20 miles from Paris. Turning north, theEnglish became trapped in territory which the French had denuded of food. They escaped by fighting their way across a ford in the Somme river against a French blocking force. Two days later, on ground of their choosing, they inflicted a heavy defeat on the French at the Battle of CréCy on 26 August 1346, before moving on to besiege Calais. After an eleven-month siege, which stretched both countries’ financial and military resources to the limit, the town fell. This marked the start of the Hundred Years’ War, which was to last 116 years. The battle was won by Edward III of England, who was in breach of his obligations as a vassal to Philip VI of France.
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This page is based on the article Crécy campaign published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
