1346
Crécy: longbows annihilate French chivalry
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.
Plague reaches Crimea via Mongol siege
Janibeg of the Golden Horde, besieging the Genoese trading post of Caffa, watched plague erupt in his camp. According to one chronicler, the Mongols catapulted infected corpses over the walls - perhaps history's first instance of biological warfare. Genoese ships fled with the contagion in their holds, carrying it through Constantinople and into the Mediterranean.
Edward III lands at La Hougue with his army
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.
Neville's Cross: David II captured
Invading Northumberland to relieve French pressure, the king of Scots was wounded by two arrows in the face and taken prisoner near Durham by the English northern levies. He would spend eleven years in English captivity. Scotland, ungoverned, drifted; the Hundred Years' War had spilled across the Tweed in expensive new ways.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1346?
Saeculum lists 4 curated events from 1346. The most significant is Crécy: longbows annihilate French chivalry: On a sloping field in Picardy, English archers loosed clouds of arrows into mounted French knights tangled with their own Genoese crossbowmen.
What era was 1346 part of?
1346 falls within the Late Middle Ages (1301-1500). Plague, papal schism, and the seeds of nation-states.
Which regions saw notable events in 1346?
The curated events from 1346 span Europe and Central Asia.