August 26, 1346 · Northern France Theater
August 26, 1346
At Crécy, Edward III's English army of roughly 12,000 met a French force perhaps three times larger and inflicted one of medieval warfare's most catastrophic defeats. English longbowmen, positioned on a ridge and firing at a rate of ten arrows per minute, devastated successive waves of French knights and Genoese crossbowmen. The French knights charged sixteen times and were repulsed every time. King John the Blind of Bohemia, allied with France, rode into the battle with his reins tied to those of his knights and died fighting. His crest — three ostrich feathers — was adopted by the Black Prince.
Commanders