By Christopher Miskimon
On August 26, 1346, the British army had ceased its northward retreat as its leaders decided to make a stand against the pursuing French forces. A brief rain deluged the battlefield as the two armies formed up, tamping down the dust armies raise as they move and allowing the various banners and heraldric devices to be clearly seen. The battle began with an archery duel between France’s Genoese crossbowmen and English and Welsh longbowmen. The crossbowmen quickly lost the exchange and fled. Subsequent French cavalry charges fell prey to English arrows, French mud and terrible close combat. The fighting continued until midnight, finally ending as the defeated French gradually gave up the field. An outnumber English army decisively defeated its French enemy and changed the outcome of the Hundred Year’s War.
The author is an authority on the ancient and medieval periods, with many books and scholarly articles to his credit. This new book adds to these accomplishments with fascinating new research which demonstrates how much of what was thought to be understood about the battle is mistaken. Archived manuscripts, satellite imagery, and traditional archaeological field work were all used to draw new conclusions about Crecy
Crecy: Battle of Five Kings (Michael Livingston, Osprey Books, Oxford UK, 2024, 303 pp., maps, illustrations, appendix, notes, bibliography, index, $22, SC)
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