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The Battle of Blanchetaque was fought on 24 August 1346 between an English army
under King Edward III and a French force commanded by Godemar du Fay. The battle
was part of the Crécy campaign, which took place during the early stages of the
Hundred Years' War. The English army had landed in the Cotentin Peninsula on 12
July. It had burnt a path of destruction through some of the richest lands in
France to within 20 miles (32 km) of Paris, sacking a number of towns on the way.
The English then marched north, hoping to link up with an allied Flemish army which
had invaded from Flanders. They were outmanoeuvred by the French King, Philip VI,
who garrisoned all of the bridges and fords over the River Somme and followed the
English with his own field army. The area had previously been stripped of food
stocks by the French and the English were essentially trapped.

Hearing of a ford at Blanchetaque, 10 miles (16 km) from the sea, Edward marched
for it and encountered the blocking force under du Fay. Once the ebbing tide had
lowered the water level, a force of English longbowmen marched part way across the
ford, and, standing in the water, engaged a force of mercenary crossbowmen, whose
shooting they were able to suppress. A French cavalry force attempted to push back
the longbowmen but were in turn attacked by English men-at-arms. After a disorderly
mêlée in the river, the French were pushed back, more English troops were fed into
the fight and the French broke and fled. French casualties were reported as over
half of their force, while English losses were light. Two days after Blanchetaque,
the main French army under Philip was defeated at the Battle of Crécy with heavy
loss of life. Edward ended the campaign by laying siege to Calais, which fell after
twelve months, securing an English entrepôt into northern France which was held for
two hundred years.
Since the Norman Conquest of 1066, English monarchs had held titles and lands
within France, the possession of which made them vassals of the kings of France.
The status of the English king's French fiefs was a major source of conflict
between the two kingdoms throughout the Middle Ages.[1] English holdings in France
had varied in size over the centuries, but by 1337 only Gascony in south-western
France and Ponthieu in northern France were left.[2] Following a series of
disagreements between Philip VI of France (r. 1328–1350) and Edward III of England
(r. 1327–1377), Philip's Great Council in Paris on 24 May 1337 agreed that the
Duchy of Aquitaine, effectively Gascony, should be taken back into Philip's hands
on the grounds that Edward was in breach of his obligations as a vassal. This
marked the start of the Hundred Years' War.[3]

Early in 1345, Edward determined to attack France on three fronts: a small force
would sail for Brittany; a slightly larger force would proceed to Gascony under the
command of the Henry, Earl of Derby; and the main force would accompany him to
either northern France or Flanders.[4][5] The French anticipated, correctly, that
the English planned to make their main effort in northern France. Thus, they
directed what resources they had to the north, planning to assemble their main army
at Arras on 22 July. South-western France and Brittany were encouraged to rely on
their own resources.[6]

The main English army sailed on 29 June 1345 and anchored off Sluys in Flanders.
Edward was unexpectedly threatened with the loss of his Flemish allies, and to
avoid this was forced to attend to diplomatic affairs.[7] By 22 July, although the
Flemish situation was unresolved, men and horses could be confined on board ship no
longer and the fleet sailed, probably intending to land in Normandy. It was
scattered by a storm and individual ships found their way to various English ports
over the following week where they disembarked. There was a further week's delay
while the King and his council debated what to do, by which time it proved
impossible to do anything major with the main English army before winter.[8] Aware
of this, Philip VI despatched reinforcements to Brittany and Gascony.[9] During
1345, Derby led a whirlwind campaign through Gascony at the head of an Anglo-Gascon
army.[10] He heavily defeated two large French armies at the battles of Bergerac
and Auberoche, captured French towns and fortifications in much of Périgord and
most of Agenais and gave the English possessions in Gascony strategic depth.[11]

John, Duke of Normandy, the son and heir of Philip VI, was placed in charge of all
French forces in south-west France. In March 1346 a French army numbering between
15,000 and 20,000,[12] enormously superior to any force the Anglo-Gascons could
field, including all the military officers of the royal household,[13] marched on
Gascony. They besieged the strategically and logistically important town of
Aiguillon,[14] "the key to the Gascon plain",[15] on 1 April.[12] On 2 April the
arrière-ban, the formal call to arms for all able-bodied males, was announced for
the south of France.[12][16] French financial, logistical and manpower efforts were
focused on this offensive.[17]

Meanwhile, Edward was raising a fresh army, and assembled more than 700 vessels to
transport it – the largest English fleet ever to that date.[18][19] The French were
aware of Edward's efforts, but given the extreme difficulty of disembarking an army
other than at a port, and the existence of friendly ports in Brittany and Gascony,
the French assumed that Edward would sail for one of the latter; probably Gascony,
to relieve Aiguillon.[20] To guard against any possibility of an English landing in
northern France, Philip relied on his powerful navy.[21] This reliance was
misplaced given the difficulty naval forces of the time had in effectively
interdicting opposing fleets, and the French were unable to prevent Edward
successfully crossing the Channel.[21]

Prelude
The campaign began on 11 July 1346, when Edward's fleet departed the south of
England. The fleet landed the next day at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue,[22] 20 miles (32
km) from Cherbourg. The English army is estimated by modern historians to have been
some 15,000 strong and consisted of both English and Welsh soldiers combined with a
number of German and Breton mercenaries and allies.[19][23] It included at least
one Norman baron who was unhappy with the rule of Philip VI.[23] The English
achieved complete strategic surprise and marched south.[24] Edward's aim was to
conduct a chevauchée, a large-scale raid, across French territory to reduce his
opponent's morale and wealth.[25] His soldiers razed every town in their path and
looted whatever they could from the populace. The towns of Carentan, Saint-Lô and
Torteval were destroyed as the army passed, along with many other smaller places.
The English fleet paralleled the army's route, devastating the country for up to 5
miles (8 km) inland and taking vast amounts of loot; many ships deserted, having
filled their holds.[26] It also captured or burnt over 100 ships; 61 of these had
been converted into military vessels.[24] Caen, the cultural, political, religious
and financial centre of north west Normandy, was stormed on 26 July and
subsequently looted for five days. The English marched out towards the River Seine
on 1 August.[27]

A map of south-east England and north east France showing the route of the English
army
Map of the route of Edward III's chevauchée of 1346
The French military position was difficult. Their main army was committed to the
intractable siege of Aiguillon in the south west. After his surprise landing in
Normandy, Edward was devastating some of the richest lands in France and flaunting
his ability to march at will through France. On 2 August, a small English force
supported by a large number of Flemings invaded France from Flanders. French
defences were completely inadequate. On 29 July, Philip proclaimed the arrière-ban
for northern France, ordering every able-bodied male to assemble at Rouen, where
Philip himself arrived on the 31st.[28] He immediately moved west against Edward
with an ill-organised and poorly-equipped army. Five days later he returned to
Rouen and broke the bridge over the Seine behind him. On 7 August, the English
reached the Seine, 12 miles (19 km) south of Rouen, and raided up to its suburbs.
Philip, under pressure from representatives of the Pope, sent envoys offering peace
backed by a marriage alliance; Edward replied that he was not prepared to lose
marching time to futile discussion and dismissed them.[29] By 12 August, Edward's
army was encamped at Poissy, 20 miles from Paris, having left a 40-mile-wide (60
km) wide swath of destruction down the left bank of the Seine to within 2 miles (3
km) of the city.[30][31]

On 16 August, Edward burnt down Poissy and marched north. The French had carried
out a scorched earth policy, carrying away all stores of food and so forcing the
English to spread out over a wide area to forage, which greatly slowed them. Bands
of French peasants attacked some of the smaller groups of foragers. Philip reached
the River Somme a day's march ahead of Edward. He based himself at Amiens and sent
large detachments to hold every bridge and ford across the Seine between Amiens and
the sea. The English were now trapped in an area which had been stripped of food.
The French moved out of Amiens and advanced westwards, towards the English. They
were now willing to give battle, knowing that they would have the advantage of
being able to stand on the defensive while the English were forced to try and fight
their way past them.[32]

Edward was determined to break the French blockade of the Somme[33] and probed at
several points, vainly attacking Hangest and Pont-Remy before moving west along the
river. English supplies were running out and the army was ragged, starving and
beginning to suffer from a drop in morale.[34] On the evening of 24 August, the
English were encamped north of Acheux while the French were 6 miles (10 km) away at
Abbeville. During the night Edward was made aware, either by an Englishman living
locally or by a French captive,[35] that just 4 miles (6 km) away, near the village
of Saigneville, was a ford named Blanchetaque (so named for the white stones lining
the river's bed). Edward immediately broke camp and moved his whole force toward
the ford.[36][37]
When the English arrived at the river they discovered that the French had defended
the ford strongly. Guarding the far side of the crossing were 3,500 soldiers,
including 500 men-at-arms and an unknown number of mercenary crossbowmen[38] under
Godemar du Fay, an experienced French general. A contemporary chronicler described
this as an elite unit.[39] The ford was 2,000 yards (1,800 m) wide and as it was
only 10 miles (16 km) from the coast, it was strongly tidal, only passable for a
few hours twice each day.[36] When the English arrived at dawn, the tide was high
and not expected to drop to crossable levels for several hours.[40] The French
force was drawn up in three lines along the sloping north bank, with the best
soldiers, the 500 men-at-arms, positioned in the centre.[41]

At about 9:00 a.m., a force of English longbowmen, led by Hugh, Baron Despenser,
[36] started across the ford, 12 abreast on the narrow causeway. They came under
crossbow shot, but continued until the water was shallow enough for them to be able
to reply.[42] The numbers shooting from each side at this stage are not known, but
the longbowmen had the advantages that those to the rear were able to send arrows
over the heads of those in front of them, and that they could shoot three times
faster than the crossbowmen. The English archery proved more effective than the
French crossbow shot. As their crossbowmen were overcome, some French men-at-arms
mounted and entered the river in an attempt to ride down the longbowmen. The
English had their own force of mounted men-at-arms standing in the river behind
their longbowmen, probably led by William, Earl of Northampton,[33] and seeing the
French mounting, they made their way through and around the ranks of archers and
engaged the French on the water's edge in a disorderly mêlée.[42]

The opposing cavalry having moved into contact at walking pace, casualties were
few. The greater pressure of the English forced the mêlée onto the French bank of
the river. The dismounted French men-at-arms were pushed back by the mass of
retreating French and advancing English men-at-arms, making space for the English
longbowmen to gain the riverbank. The longbowmen were themselves being forced
forward by more English cavalry advancing behind them. More and more English were
fed into the bridgehead and after a short, sharp struggle, the French broke,
fleeing for Abbeville, 6 miles (10 km) away. It seems that most of the knightly and
noble French participants, being mounted, successfully escaped. The French infantry
were unable to outrun the pursuing English cavalry and suffered heavy casualties.
[43] As was usual, no quarter was offered to the common soldiers.[44] Godemar was
seriously wounded, but escaped.[45]