Edward III lands at La Hougue with his army

July 1346

The English king beached at the Cotentin Peninsula with twelve thousand men and his sixteen-year-old son the Black Prince, wading ashore into Normandy's July heat. He intended a chevauchee - a wide-ranging raid burning crops and villages to draw Philip VI into battle. Within six weeks, Philip would oblige him at Crecy with catastrophic results for France.