Crécy-en-Ponthieu, le champ de bataille de 1346

Crécy-en-Ponthieu

On 26 August 1346, Edward III, who had crossed Normandy burning as he went and forced the Somme two days earlier at the ford of Blanquetaque, chose to wait here, on a slope overlooking the valley of the Maye, for the army that Philip VI had gathered at Abbeville. His men-at-arms fought on foot, the archers on the wings, behind ditches and wagons. The French arrived in disorder, late in the day, after a march through a storm; the Genoese crossbowmen, sent forward, were crushed under the arrows, and the knights, charging through them, broke wave after wave into the night. The king of Bohemia, John of Luxembourg, blind, had himself led into the fight tied to his squires and died there; the count of Alençon, the king's brother, died; Philip VI fled towards Amiens. Jean le Bel, and then Froissart who copied him, tell the story of the battle; a Florentine chronicler, Villani, is the only one to mention bombards there, and the matter is still debated. The numbers, long read from the chronicles, have been brought down by historians to a dozen thousand English and perhaps twice as many French; the dead, almost all on the French side, were counted in thousands, including more than fifteen hundred knights and squires. The battle opened the road to Calais for Edward, who laid siege to it on 4 September. The field has remained a field: ploughland, a vanished mill, a cross.

Wikipédia — Crécy-en-Ponthieu ↗

Getting there : By the D 928 from Abbeville or the D 111 from Hesdin; park in the town. The mound known as Edward III's mill, at the north-eastern exit towards Wadicourt, carries a wooden observation tower that is freely accessible; a panel there explains the disposition of the armies. The Bohemia cross is a little further on, at the side of the road to Fontaine-sur-Maye. The Centre historique Crécy la bataille, avenue des Fusillés, presents a bilingual chronological trail on the Hundred Years' War and the battle of 1346; it is open from Wednesday to Sunday, with hours that vary with the season. Allow an hour and a half for the centre and the site.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound