In 1204, King John had lost Normandy because previously the kings of England had held it. And so he's faced with this, he's quite young. Is he being well-advised? Does he know which side he's on? I think for the first three years of his reign he doesn't really know what to do but when he sees his power he starts to become much more interventionist. He's particularly ambitious against the Scots. That's where we see him first active in the early 1330s and it's in Scotland that Edward really serves his apprenticeship,. Winning a battle at Haliden Hill in 1333 that very much sets the tone for the use of ar
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the brutal events of 26 August 1346, when the armies of France and England met in a funnel-shaped valley outside the town of Crécy in northern France.
Although the French, led by Philip VI, massively outnumbered the English, under the command of Edward III, the English won the battle, and French casualties were huge. The English victory is often attributed to the success of their longbowmen against the heavy cavalry of the French.
The Battle of Crécy was the result of years of simmering tension between Edward III and Philip VI, and it led to decades of further conflict between England and France, a conflict that came to be known as the Hundred Years War.
With
Anne Curry
Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the University of Southampton
Andrew Ayton
Senior Research Fellow in History at Keele University
and
Erika Graham-Goering
Lecturer in Late Medieval History at Durham University
Producer Luke Mulhall