Y’arrr, raise the Black, for it be Talk Like a Pirate Day! And black it be, for that is the color of Piracy; that crime against all mankind, of wanton rampaging and pillaging by the cruelest of men what ever sailed the salt-sea, y’arrr… But 362 years before the death of Blackbeard, it was the Black Prince who defined an era. Five miles outside the French city of Poitiers, Edward of Woodstock, heir apparent to the throne of England, led 6000 Welsh, English, and Gascon troops in a desperate stand against more than 14000 French soldiers, personally led by King John II.
The Commanders
Edward, the Black Prince
Edward was born on the 15th of June, 1330 as the eldest son of King Edward III of England. At the age of 7, he was named the first Duke of Cornwall and was Guardian of the Kingdom at age 8. He was knighted by his father at the age of 16, just before the Battle of Crecy – the first major land battle of the Hundred Years War. In the battle, Prince Edward had commanded the English vanguard. His father left the battle early, placing Edward in command, to credit his son with the overwhelming victory. It was an auspicious start to a stunningly successful military career.
The nature of Edward’s moniker as the Black Prince is complicated, and it’s exact origin lost to time. While Edward did not wear black armor (as often believed), he did carry a black ‘peace shield’ when participating in tournaments of arms. It seems more likely however, that he earned the name for his wicked black heart – the ruthlessness that he showed to the French during his campaigns. Paradoxically, Edward was regarded as one of the most chivalrous men of his era.
By the time the Black Prince launched his chevauchee in August of 1356, the war between England and France had been raging for 19 years. Landing in Gascony in the Southwest of France, the Anglo-Gascon force marched north from Bergerac to Bourges, burning a bloody swathe across the French countryside. Only the mighty river Loire could halt the prince’s advance, preventing him from linking up with two English armies marching South on the river’s far bank.
The Hundred Years War was defined by the tactic of the Chevauchee – the pillaging raid. The HYW was not fought for territorial expansion in the traditional sense, but between rival claimants to the throne. The goal therefor, was to undermine the rival’s authority, and drain his coffers by taking hostages and other material goods, while avoiding costly pitched battles.
Flying columns of a few thousand soldiers would rampage across the countryside – fed by forage and paid by pillage. They were mounted to maintain mobility, and would spread out far and wide to loot and burn whatever they could. Only when an enemy was close by would they join together for defense.
These hit-and-run campaigns were almost impossible to defend against without a far-reaching full-time army that could guard the border everywhere at once. This imbalance is what allowed the smaller and less populous kingdom of England to prevail year after year against the much larger kingdom of France.
John II of France John the Good
Born April 26, 1319, John was 9 years old when his father, Philip VI was crowned King of France. Philip’s ascension came as a surprise: all three sons of predecessor Philip IV had died without male heirs, and Philip’s daughters were passed over. This meant that Edward III of England – father of the Black Prince – was also passed over. Edward was Philip’s grandson through his daughter, Isabella. Thus, the ascension of Philip had instigated the Hundred Years War.
John inherited a kingdom in crisis. After his father’s crushing defeat at the Battle of Crecy, the French had been ravaged by the Black Death. John took the rebuilding of the French army as an opportunity to reorganize it, and pushed the Military Ordinance of 1351. The comprehensive ordinance was the first of its kind in France, and focused on centralizing command, establishing the Montre system of equipping troops, improving pay and logistics, establishing the Royal Companies as a means to rein-in the Free Company brigands, and to improve the discipline and accountability of the nobles.
The costs of these reforms rankled the nobles, but they were even more outraged at John’s upending of the feudal order in favor of meritorious leadership and centralization into the framework of a ‘national’ army. Rivalries, such as the one between Charles of Navarre and Phillip of Orelans undermined the king’s authority.
Prelude: Talleyrand’s Appeal
The insubordination of his feudal lords, depletion of royal coffers and French manpower, meant that John II had been unable to oppose the Black Prince when he razed France from Gascony to Narbonne and back in the previous year. Now, with Edward stopped at the banks of the Loire, it was vitally important that John put a stop to the Prince’s reign of terror.
John had come to appreciate the speed of the English chevauchee, and deployed a very mobile army of his own – able to ride around the Anglo-Gascons and successfully cut off their retreat.
With the Black Prince now pinned against the Loire, Pope Innocent VI sent Cardinal Talleyrand to negotiate a 2-day truce between the Prince and John. The Prince was eager for battle, but agreed to the truce. Instead of waiting however, Edward used the opportunity to maneuvered his army south in forced marches towards Chatellerault. John shadowed the Black Prince every step of the way; the proximity of his French army keeping the Anglo-Gascons from spreading out to pillage the countryside for food and supplies. At Chatellerault however, John’s scouts lost contact with the marauding Prince, and John continued on unaware of where the Anglo-Gascons’ positions.
As John meandered blindly towards Poitiers, sweeping the countryside for the English army, Edward used the opportunity to ambush his forces. Catching 700 men of John’s rearguard near Savigny-Levescault, Edward slaughtered 240 of them. Contemporary accounts claim that the French were “without helmets,” which historians have taken to mean that they were caught unarmored and completely by surprise.
With the two opposing armies now in contact once again, John drew up his forces around the city of Poitiers, in battle order and cutting off Edward’s route back to Gascony. The Black Prince encamped his army on a wooded hill in the Foret de Nouaille and began to ready their defenses. Pits and trenches were dug, barricades erected – but the army was dangerously low of food, and already out of water for their horses. Instead of the expected French charge, they were once again greeted by Cardinal Talleyrand.
This time, the Black Prince stated that he was willing to grant many concessions to the French, if they would allow his army safe passage back to Gascony. Edward lied, however, when he said that the truce would need to be ratified with his father the king. In reality, the king had already empowered Edward to strike whatever bargain he felt was necessary in such an event as this. Assured, Talleyrand the communicated the Prince’s proposal to John.
The French camp was outraged. The nobles could not stand to have Edward cornered like this, and let him slip away without a battle. The urged John to march out from Poitiers and attack the Anglo-Gascon army; and then they could negotiate terms.
The Battle
The English Deployment
Edward was a shrewd tactician, and had chosen his ground carefully. Edward arranged his forces along the brow of the hill. On the left, the hill dropped off into marshy terrain. On the right, it was bordered by the ancient French hedgerows known as bocage.
The Prince had at his disposal 3000 Men at Arms, and 2000 English and Welsh longbowmen, plus a further 1000 Gascon infantry mostly armed with crossbows. Two-thirds of the Men at Arms were also Gascons. He deployed them in the traditional English pattern, with the center held by Men at Arms, and the flanks occupied by the longbowmen.
At Edward’s left hand was Thomas, Earl of Warick. Warwick had been the Prince’s guardian at the battle of Crecy, and now had as his deputies John the Earl of Oxford, and the Gascon Jean, Captal de Buch. Warwick commanded 1000 Men at Arms, mostly from the Gascon contingent. The extreme left was held by 1000 Longbowmen in the marshes.
The right was William, Earl of Salisbury and his deputies Robert the Earl of Suffolk, and Maurice, Baron of Berkeley. Like Warwick, William commanded 1000 Men at Arms, and 1000 Longbowmen. Mirroring Warwick, the Longbowmen were placed on the extreme flank; this time on the right, in trenches and behind the bocage.
Higher up the hill, overlooking Warwick and Salisbury, Edward commanded the remaining 1000 Men at Arms, and the 1000 Gascon crossbowmen; the Archers being deployed completely on the flanks. As deputies, Edward had his close friend John Chandos, Viscount of Saint-Saveur and Sir James Audley. Both men were founding members of the Order of the Garter. Edward held his personal forces in reserve.
Against this force, the French brought to bear some 15000 men. 11000 Men at Arms, including 500 mounted knights wearing the latest Full Harness, backed by 2000 crossbowmen and a further 2000 footmen. It was the French tactic to attack in waves.
the First Wave
The English slept upon their arms, waking some time before dawn to the sound of marching men. It was not the French, but their own troops. Historians are divided on this maneuver, and whether it was an English redeployment or the return of the chuckwagons to the English laager.
Witnessing this march, the leader of the French first wave – Walter, Count of Brienne, Constable of France – ordered his men to advance. He believed that the English were withdrawing, and that this attack would be a pursuit. The constable ordered forward his cavalry. The 500 mounted knights had been divided into two squadrons, each led by a Marshal of France and tasked with clearing the deadly longbowmen on the English flanks. Behind the cavalry followed 2000 Men At Arms, the 2000 Footmen, and nearly all of the crossbowmen.
Marshal Arnoul d’Audrehem led his cavalry against Warwick’s archers. The French cavalry were unable to charge into the marshy ground where the longbowmen were sheltering. For their part, the longbowmen were unable to get close enough to the well-armored French knights to pierce their armor, without leaving the safety of the swampy ground. It was Warwick’s deputy Oxford, who realized that the French horses were only armored on the forequarters; gathering some of his archers he skirted the marsh in order to open fire on the French knights from behind. The horsemen suffered heavy casualties and withdrew, leaving the wounded Marshal Audrehem to be captured.
On the English right, Marhsal Jean de Clermont found Salisbury’s men defending the thick hedgerows. The only way through was a narrow gap, passable by 4 horses abreast and defended by Men at Arms. Already committed to the attack, Clermont’s knights spurred their destriers into a charge. The English archers poured their arrows into the attacking cavalry; with arrows raining down at a rate of 50 a second. The arrows rang off the French armor, and the cavalry crashed into the Men at Arms defending the gap with only minimal casualties. In the ferocious melee which followed, the French knights were halted, while archers behind the hedgerows and Edward’s reserve of crossbowmen further up the slope of the hill targeted the Footmen following slowly through the gap.
The first attack had been stopped, to the credit of the longbowmen. They were fresh, and had full quivers of arrows (24 each). Constabl Brienne had been slain in the fighting, as well as Marshal Clermont. Marshal Audrehem was captured. Also captured was the chatelain d’Emposte, a relative of the Cardinal Talleyrand who had negotiated the truce. Edward was furious and rashly ordered the man beheaded; before being persuaded to rescind that order by his advisors.
The English did not pursue the broken French. The Black Prince was well familiar with the French wave tactic, and ordered his men to hold their positions. Wounded men were cleared away, and arrows brought forward from the rear. The archers also ran forward to gather their arrows from the field.
The Second Wave
The second wave was 4000 French Men at Arms Afoot, under the joint command of John’s own son and heir Charles, and John’s uncle, Peter, the Duke of Bourbon. This was to be 19 year old Charles’s first taste of battle.
The 4000 armored men advanced, stepping over the bodies of the first wave and catching-up some of the fleeing survivors. Once again, the English and Welsh longbowmen pelted the advancing French as they crossed the 500 yards between the armies. At 250 yards, longbow arrows begin to penetrate all but the strongest armors, and the casualties began to mount.
Finally, the French reached the hedgerow and forced their way through in hand-to-hand fighting. At one point, the French were able to break through one of the gaps in the hedgerow, and drive back the Anglo-Gascon defenders on the right. Commanding from horseback behind his troops, the 60 year-old Earl of Suffolk shouted for his archers to redeploy and target the gap, and mowing-down the first ranks of French men at arms to force the breach, until reserves from Edward’s force could plug the gap.
An English chronicler records:
Man fought frenziedly against man, each one striving to bring death to his opponent so that he himself might live.
Edward committed nearly all of his reserves to this desperate struggle. His deputy, Audley, was wounded in the body, head, and face but doggedly fought on for the English.
On the French side, the Duke of Bourbon was killed. Talleyrand’s nephew Rover of Durazzo also lay dead. The Dauphin’s standard fell also, and was captured. The Dauphin himself was accompanied by his younger brothers Louis and John, and all three were urged by their advisors to retreat to safety.
After two hours of savage melee, with their leaders killed or retiring and their standard captured – the French drew back. Their surviving officers signaled the retreat, and the French Men at Arms began their march back across the field.
The Third Wave
John’s brother, the Duke of Orleans, commanded the third wave. Seeing the Dauphin and his men marching back across the field, the Duke took roughly half of his men and simply rode away.
On the left of the Anglo-Gascon line, Warwick’s division broke ranks to pursue the retreating Dauphin. Motivated by the possibility of ransoming any prisoners, many of the English surged forward and fell upon the exhausted French. Warwick’s flank had been the least heavily engaged – the remainder of the English line was too exhausted to chase down the Frenchmen.
Seeing Warwick’s men hot on the heels of the Dauphin, the remaining 3rd wave that hadn’t quit the field with the Duke of Orleans made a feeble charge forward. Perhaps 1600 Men at Arms advanced to drive the English away. The attack was easily repelled, but was sufficient to screen the Dauphin’s safe return to French lines.
The customary three waves of a French attack had been defeated. The Black Prince held the field, and the longbowmen busied themselves picking their way through the dead and dying Frenchmen strewn before them. The archers mercilessly knifed any Frenchman they could lay hands on, while scavenging for whatever valuables they could find.
The Fourth Wave
Across the field, a blazon of brilliant red broke out. John, at the head of 400 hand-picked Men at Arms of the Order of the Star, had ordered the Oriflamme to be unfurled. Following behind them were a further 2000 Men at Arms and a large number of Crossbowmen, all fresh. As John strode across the battlefield, the survivors of the earlier waves rallied to their king, until 4000 men marched on the English line.
Seeing this, the Anglo-Gascon force waivered. They were exhausted, and most were wounded. The reserves were spent and the archers and crossbowmen were low on ammunition. Worse still, the Oriflamme meant no quarter – no prisoners – on pain of death. Edward, the Black Prince, was overheard offering a prayer to Almighty God.
The Gascon, Jean, Captal de Buch mounted his horse along with his 160 surviving men, and rode for the rear. The wounded Audley was helped into his saddle by loyal retainers, grimly determined to make directly for John’s entourage – a suicide mission as he had no more than 400 men, and possibly as few as 4.
Worried that his men were faltering, the Black Prince ordered a general advance. The Anglo-Gascons rose up out of their trenches and fighting positions, clambered over the hedgerow, and resolved to take the French head-on.
With the English army advancing to meet them, the French crossbowmen hurried forward into the space between both armies and began to target the hated longbowmen. Despite the French being covered by their heavy pavises, and the scarcity of ammunition after the morning’s heavy fighting, the longbows were able to keep the French crossbows suppressed until the Frenchmen drew aside to allow their Men at Arms to pass. Their ammunition expended, the longbowmen slung their bows and drew their swords and hand-axes, joining the ranks beside the surviving English Men at Arms.
The two lines came together with a crash of metal-on-metal and the shouts of men. The French battered the English line, driving them backward towards their starting positions. Warwick’s division joined into the fighting after its pursuit of the French, and briefly was able to stabilize the line. John was leading the French from the front, and Audley took this opportunity to make his charge at the French king. Audley finally collapsed during the fighting, although four of his esquires were able to recover him and carry him to the rear.
When it looked like the Prince’s army might finally break, there was a cry from the rear of the French formation – it was Jean. He had worked his way around both armies, through the marshy ground on the English left. Now, his archers dismounted and began firing their remaining arrows almost point-blank into the backs of the French, where the exhausted survivors of the first waves had joined their king’s advance. At the same time, Jean personally led 60 mounted Men at Arms into the French rear.
Then the standards wavered and the standard-bearers fell. Some were trampled, their innards torn open, and others spat out their own teeth. Many were stuck fast to the ground, impaled. Not a few lost whole arms as they stood there. Some died, swallowing in the blood of others, some groaned, crushed beneath the heavy weight of the fallen, mightily souls gave forth fearful lamentations as they departed from wretched bodies.
– Geoffrey le Baker, English chronicler
Panic erupted across the French line. Those who fled first were mostly able to make it to their horses, and escape. The remainder were pursued and forced back by the Anglo-Gascon force until they came to a loop in the course of the River Miosson, the Champs d’Alexandre. There, they made a final stand. The 400 hand-picked troops who formed King John II’s personal guard were mostly from the Order of the Star, sworn never to retreat in the face of the enemy. The fighting here was the most ferocious of the day, but gradually, the French were cut down or forced to surrender. John, and his youngest son Philip, were forced to surrender along with 2000-3000 surviving French Men at Arms and a further 500 French footmen.
Aftermath
Of the 16000 Frenchmen who had marched to Poitiers, 2500 Men at Arms were killed, as well as 3300 of the common footmen. French casualties were nearly 50% and included the king of France, his youngest son, the archbishop of Sens, Marshal Audrehem, and the seneschals of Saintonge, Tours, and Poitou – all captured. Among the slain were the king’s uncle, the Grand Constable of France, the Bishop of Chalons, and one of Talleyrand’s nephew.
Also amongst the slain was another of the age’s most lauded knights – Geoffrey de Charny. Charny had been the King’s standard bearer, and a founding member of the Order of the Star. He had defended the banner to his last breath. Before the battle, Charney had been with King John and Talleyrand during the truce negotiations, where he had tried to avert the bloodshed of the day:
But their counsel I cannot relate, yet I know well, in very truth, as I hear in my record, that they could not be agreed, wherefore each one of them began to depart. Then said Geoffroi de Charny: “Lords,” quoth he, “since so it is that this treaty pleases you no more, I make offer that we fight you, a hundred against a hundred, choosing each one from his own side; and know well, whichever hundred be discomfited, all the others, know for sure, shall quit this field and let the quarrel be. I think that it will be best so, and that God will be gracious to us if the battle be avoided in which so many valiant men will be slain.”
– Sir John Chandos, English Knight
Charny was given a hasty burial in a nearby Franciscan convent, before his body was exhumed in 1370 and reinterred in the Church of Celestines in Paris.
After the battle, Prince Edward returned to camp where he inquired after his friend, Audley, who had so recklessly charged at King John in the final moments of the battle. Against all odds, the man had survived. For his bravery, Edward granted him an annuity of 500 marks. Audley divided this prize among the four loyal esquires who carried him from the field – attributing his success in the battle to the four young men. Hearing this, Edward granted his friend a further annual rent of 600 marks. Audley would live another 12 years, dying at the age of 51, and being buried at Poitiers.
Edward’s campaign has been called “the most important campaign of the Hundred Years War” by historians. With the capture of King John II, peace negotiations began almost immediately, but took 4 years to conclude. Finally, the Treaty of Bretigny was signed in 1360, ceding fully one-third of France to England to be ruled by the English crown. Fighting would resume by 1369, and the war would drag on for another 84 years. Eventually, France would be victorious – undoing all English gains in the country, and leaving them in control only of Calais.
Wargaming Poitiers – a Scenario for Crowns
At the simplest level, the battle of Poitiers could be refought using the Battle Lines deployment, with the Rear Guard scenario, with the modification that the defender cannot deploy units into the Objective Zone. Rather, the attacker may deploy up to half of their units in the Objective Zone.
The objective for the English is to simply survive for 10 turns. The English cannot survive a route, and so the English succeed on all Rout Tests they are required to take.
This battle is played in phases, with one phase per wave of attack (we are skipping the abortive 3rd wave attack, so that the battle encompasses waves 1, 2, and John’s final charge). Phases begin on Turn 1, Turn 5, and Turn 8.
At the end of each phase, players:
- Must: Return all units to their Deployment Zones. On Turns 5 & 8, the French may deploy all of their units into the Objective Zone
- Must: Recover 1 previously spent Favor, if able.
- May: Recover wounded models – English units roll 1d10 for each model removed as casualty, up to their starting number of models. On a result of a 6+ the model is returned to the battlefield. French units above half their starting number of models refill automatically. Mounted units cannot be recovered.
- May: Recycle destroyed units – After refilling units, any units below 50% of their starting number of models may be voluntarily destroyed. Any French units destroyed this way, or removed as casualties during play – may be recycled at a cost of +1 Renown to the English player. The English player is allowed to recycle 4 units at no cost, over the course of the game, to represent their limited reserves.
- May: Recover Ammo – English units that have expended Ammo Tokens may roll 1D10 to recover ammo tokens at the end of the phase. Tokens are recovered on a roll of 7+
- English May: On Turn 8, the English may replace one unit of Men at Arms with Mounted Men at Arms, representing Audley’s dour charge. Furthermore, the English may remove one unit of Men at Arms and one unit of Longbowmen from the table, representing Jean’s encircling force. At the end of each subsequent turn, roll 1d10 and add the current turn number. On a result of 12+ the removed units may be deployed anywhere on the French half of the table, but not less than 8″ from a French model.
- French May: On Turn 8, the French may replace their Retinue unit with King John II of France. The unofficial stats for King John are included below.
The French do not roll Rout Tests until the English have 4x or more Renown than the French.
Historical Forces
It can be difficult to represent the historical forces for a game like this, especially with the limitations of the standard Blood & Crowns force lists. Use the following guidelines for creating your English and French forces for the Battle of Poitiers
Terrain
Terrain for the battle is fairly open. The left board edge as viewed from the English side of the table, should include areas of marshy terrain, which is a combination of Light Wood and Muddy Field. The remainder of the table can be broken up with Hedges, particularly along the right side of the English deployment zone. The English deployment should also contain a hill.
So – do you think you have what it takes to replicate the heroic stand of Edward, the Black Prince? If you do, then you can take advantage of Firelock’s Talk Like a Pirate promotion – spend $50 on their site (including Crowns books or minis) and you can pick up an exclusive peg legged captain for Blood & Plunder!