Chapter 11
The longbow had as yet been employed principally in defensive warfare and against an enemy inferior in cavalry to the English. But when Edward III led his invading force into France the conditions of war were entirely changed for the English. Now they were up against a country to be invariably superior in the numbers of their horsemen, so while the tactics of the archer were to remain defensive, they also had to be varied to meet the new threat. But the yeoman with his longbow was soon to find that the charging squadron presented an even better mark for his shaft than the stationary mass of infantry formed by the Scots schiltron. At the beginning of the Hundred Years War, in the early 1340’s, the Continental world had not yet learned that it was almost hopeless for cavalry to try to force, in a frontal attack, a position defended by men-at-arms supported on their flank by archers.
The French had learned nothing from what had already transpired in Scotland and at Sluys and Cadzand; in fact they learned nothing from the battles that were to follow and were still making the same mistakes eighty years later! When the now well-tried technique was used in a battle near Morlaix in 1342, a few years before Crécy, it seems to have taken the French completely by surprise, as it did a short space of four years later on the fatal field of Crécy.
Morlaix was the first pitched land battle of the Hundred Years War; it proved that Bannockburn and Halidon Hill had taught the English something. In fact Halidon Hill formed the prototype for Morlaix and all the other great battles of the war – except the last. The Earl of Northampton, with an army of about 3,000, was besieging Morlaix in September 1342; he was suddenly threatened by a relieving army of between 15,000 and 20,000 under Charles de Blois. Realising that he must not permit his army to be caught between Charles on the one side and the town on the other, Northampton marched out to find a suitable position in which he could accept battle. He was looking for a ridge or hill which would allow of a position with a forward slope giving a long view to the front, preferably striding the road upon which the enemy was expected to approach. If he had a wood in his rear, then it was ideal, for the position could not be effectively flanked by cavalry and the wood was a useful baggage-park.
On the road to Lanmeur, about four miles from Morlaix, he found what he sought – a position astride the road on the beginning of a gentle slope into a dip about 300 yards in front, with a wood immediately in rear of the position. The English line, about 600 yards in length, was about 50 yards in front of this wood, with a trench dug about 100 yards from the wood. Taking a lesson from the ‘pots’ of the Scots at Bannockburn, the English covered the trench with grass so that it served as a booby-trap for the enemy horsemen. The English men-at-arms were dismounted and in the centre of the line, with the archers stationed on the flanks. The Count of Blois drew up his army in three huge columns, one behind the other with a space between each; the leading column, formed of local levies, being dismounted.
The French advanced straight down the hill, into the slight dip and up the other side towards the waiting English. As soon as they were within range, the column was sent reeling back down the hill by a hail of arrows; they did not even reach the hidden trench. The second column, of mounted men, were launched at the English; they rode forward colourfully, impetuously and unsuspectingly, to plunge into the hidden trench in a tangled confusion of horses and men. Here they were bedevilled and distracted by arrows as they tried to sort themselves out and get back into some sort of order; but the attack had lost its momentum, it had come to a halt. With the exception of about 200 horsemen who did go forward and reach the English line, to be killed or captured, the second attack dribbled back.
Now a pause ensued, whilst the French licked their wounds and considered their next course of action. Northampton prayed that they would retreat, but to his dismay they showed no signs of this and he could see their third column, bigger than his whole army, drawn up on the ridge facing him. The English commander knew that he was still in peril although he had already repulsed two columns each greater than his own small force. More worrying, his archers were desperately short of arrows and had no further source of supply. The third column showed signs of movement, it began ponderously to lurch forward. The English murmured in apprehension – they could see that the battered and almost filled-in trench would be of little aid to them on this occasion. Moreover, the French mass was large enough to extend beyond the English flanks and so threaten the position from the sides.
Northampton courageously decided upon a manoeuvre almost unprecedented for the era: he withdrew his force in order back into the shelter of the wood so that they formed a hedgehog or defensive line along the edges of the trees, facing in each direction. Reserving their scanty ammunition until the French came close, the English managed to prevent them from penetrating their new position at any point. Marksmanship was the order of the day and the droning of massed arrows was replaced by single ‘whirrs’ as individual shafts found their marks and, with a crash, a French man-at-arms would collapse from his startled horse.
Night was approaching, and the Count de Blois, discouraged and with his men deserting on all sides, began to withdraw slowly back to Lanmeur. Seeing this, Northampton gathered together his small band and, in a defensive formation, left the wood to return to the siege of Morlaix. He had the great satisfaction of knowing that he had achieved his purpose of setting to flight the relieving army, although it outnumbered him by four or five to one. But, more than that, he had perpetuated, knowingly it must be assumed, future tactics from the lessons learned at Bannockburn and Halidon Hill – the men-at-arms fighting dismounted, the trench in front forming an obstacle (a marsh at Halidon); the defensive position on a ridge, the skilful use of the archer’s fire-power in co-operation with supporting heavy troops. All these factors co-ordinated to defeat the mounted attack, together making notable a battle claimed by those who fought in them all to have been even more desperately contested than Halidon Hill, Crécy or Poitiers.
The defeated Charles de Blois is again encountered in June 1346, when, with a force greatly superior in numbers, he came up with Sir Thomas Dagworth’s small army at St. Pol de Léon, north-west of Morlaix, on 9th June 1346. As at Morlaix four years previously the first attack of Charles was repulsed, then his second line came in to overlap the tiny English force on three sides. The English held their ground and poured in such deadly hails of arrows that the French were sent reeling back; after a little of this they fled from the field. There is no record that Charles was dismayed by the disastrous repetition, the further exhibition of the power of the English longbow coming just in time to add to the morale and prestige of the archers at Crécy.
Siege of Mortagne.From Chronique d’Angleterre ( c.167-87) by Jean Wavrin.
Edward III, Electrotype from the gilt copper tomb effigy (c. 1377 – 80) after the wax funeral effigy in Westminster Abbey. National Portrait Gallery.
Effigy of the Black Prince (d. 1376), Chapel of St. Thomas Becket, Canterbury Cathedral. The limbs are enclosed in plate armour; the surcoat displays the fleur-de-lis of France and the lions of England.
Entwistle Photographic Services
Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (d. 1439). From his monument in the Lady Chapel, St. Mary’s Church, Warwick.
John Lord Montacute who fought at Crécy. From his monument in the nave of Salisbury Cathedral.
Ralph, Neville, Earl of Westmorland, who fought at Agincourt. From his monument in Staindrop Church, Durham.
Henry V. Artist unknown. National Portrait Gallery
The Dean and Chapter of Westminster
Tilting helmet by tradition worn by Henry V at Agincourt, flanked by his saddle and shield, bought for the King’s funeral in 1422. From the Chantry Chapel, Westminster Abbey.
Wallace Collection
A bascinet – the headpiece, par excellence, of the Hundred Years War – shown with and without its visor. The pointed apex to the helmet was designed to offer a glancing surface to a blow.
Yew bow found during the excavations at Berkhamsted. It is four feet long and dates back to the time of the Hundred Years War. British Museum
This Gothic armour (c. 1475 – 85) shows a ‘barded’ horse. Wallace Collection
Sir Laurance Olivier’s concept of the English archers at Agincourt. A scene from the Two Cities film Henry V.
Copyright The Rank Organisation
Captain Jack Churechill shoots for Great Britain in thr World Archery Championiships,Oslo, August 1939.Less than a year later he used the long-bow in action agains the Germans.