He was pulled off the field by Jean de Beaumont. He'd probably already aware that his close friend, John the King of Bohemia, had been killed and probably his brother, Count of Alonsoin, he'd been killed as well. A whole crowd of French nobility were killed. And so when Philip leaves the battlefield and then goes to Ami-Ann afterwards, not Paris, that wouldn't be a good idea at this stage. Well because I mean his reception would have been appalling. Because he's a loser. But in France they would find it very difficult for some months to raise a new army. Fortunately he's got an army that John of Normandy is bringing up from
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