Crécy: longbows annihilate French chivalry
August 1346
On a sloping field in Picardy, English archers loosed clouds of arrows into mounted French knights tangled with their own Genoese crossbowmen. Sixteen French charges, sixteen failures. By dusk twelve hundred knights and thousands of footmen lay dead. The Black Prince won his spurs that afternoon. Edward had broken the back of feudal cavalry warfare.
In context
Also in 1346 (3 other events on record)
- Plague reaches Crimea via Mongol siege · Central Asia · Disaster
- Edward III lands at La Hougue with his army · Europe · War
- Neville's Cross: David II captured · Europe · War
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in War
Era
Late Middle Ages (1301–1500), one of 874 events from that era on Saeculum.