Death at a Distance: The Bow and Arrow

^{Tartar archers. One man is using the strength of his legs to help him string his powerful bow. The other uses two rope loops to train himself how to position his hands.}

King Edward III had invaded France and was plundering the countryside.

His army consisted of 10,000 men. About one third of them were armored knights or men at arms with almost all the rest infantry archers. King Philip VI of France intercepted the English near the town of Crecy. Philip had about 12,000 men, 8,000 of them armored knights and 4,000 Genoese mercenary crossbowmen.

When they were well within range of their weapons, the Genoese opened fire. The English replied with two surprises. The first was the fire of the three bombards Edward had brought across the channel. These small, primitive cannons did little damage, but their flashes and thunder were terrifying to men who had never faced gunpowder weapons before. The second surprise caused far more damage. The English archers rained arrows on the Genoese, who thought they were beyond arrow range. The English outnumbered the Genoese, and they could shoot five times as fast. Terrified by the cannons and the hail of arrows, the Genoese fled.

The French knights then charged, riding through the retreating mercenaries. The French aimed for the dismounted English knights, standing between wedges of archers protected by lines of sharpened poles. One could gain more honor, the French believed, by fighting knights than by cutting down infantry varlets. The archers turned their attention to the French horsemen.

Few of the French knights reached within striking distance of the English.

The charge became a chaos of dead knights, dead horses, and wounded, mad‑dened horses crashing into other horses. The first wave of French cavalry was almost destroyed, but successive waves kept galloping up from the rear. By the end of the day, one third of the French army was dead. The English losses came to about 100. The Battle of Crecy introduced the English longbow to the continent of Europe and made England, for the first time, a major military power.