Battle of Poitiers (1356)

Countryside preceding the battle

The raid carried out by the Prince Noir passed by Bourges and Orleans. To continue it more effectively, Jean II the Good gives up half of sound Ost to keep only the riding , more rapids. After having sought the adversary, the French ost is found fortuitously vis-a-vis him in the south of Poitiers, whereas it turns over to Bordeaux charged with spoils.

Before the battle does not start, the cardinal of Talleyrand-Périgord, Légat of the pope Innocent IV tries a mediation and obtains a 24 hours truce.

The Anglo-Gascons, very largely fewer and threatened of surrounding and famine, offer to return the spoils and not to carry the weapons during seven years against the kingdom of France.

But, with the royal council, prevails the idea to benefit from the gathering of an army, obviously more powerful than the other, not to let escape the occasion to make an example of these ravageurs of the kingdom. Thus, it is stated under the conditions of rendering that the Prince Noir will have to be constituted captive with king de France. Not being able to accept these terms, the heir to the throne of England is solved to fight battle.

The English accept the combat of bad liking, the way of the Guyenne being crossed them.
The battle proceeding on a ground rough and cut hedges, Jean II the Good decides that the combat will be done with foot.

Unfolding

In the small hour, a movement of the English lets think that they try to pass their spoils on other side of the Miosson to the Gué of Omme. The two commanders of the French Avant-garde have an adverse opinion on this movement: the marshal Jean de Clermont apprehends a trap, whereas the marshal Arnoul d' Audrehem estimates that the passages should immediately be occupied. The tone goes up, they defies and, without taking the orders of the king, charges every man for himself.

The load of Audrehem on a way bordered of hedges ( Maupertuis , a bad passage) is destroyed by the Welsh archers masked behind the bushes. The Constable Gauthier VI of Brienne joint with the marshal of Clermont to charge on the count with Salisbury. Both are killed. The avant-garde is decimated.

The two bodies of battle engage then in a disordered way, disorder accentuated by the traps prepared by the English. The battle turns to the advantage of Prince Noir.

When he sees the failure of the marshals, the king of France launches out in the battle which is transformed soon into a movement of individual combat where disorder and then the distress reign. “Since the loss or the catch of the two marshals, the death of the constable, the royal army was dislocated gradually. ”
There exists, for the army which belonged to the feudal round of applause, the right recognized by the royal decree of April 30th 1351, for the lords bannerets, to separate (to get clear) of a battle considered to be lost and useless to continue. This departure must be done by deliberation of the same banner and in order. It does not merge with the escape, but is explained by the concern of avoiding being done captive and pouring a ransom which was extremely expensive. It is prescribed to prevent of its departure.
Whereas the king did not give yet the attack with the large one of his troops, those Ci give up it. Jean II the Good thinks whereas the defeat is possible, and saves its sons by sending them to Chauvigny: the Dolphin Charles, the duke of Normandy and the Duke of Anjou. Jean Chandos sees it by far, recognizable with its coat of arms flower-of-lysed and shows it to prince de Galles: - we towards your adversary Address the king of France, because in this share to lie all the fate of the work. Well sçait that by valiancy, he will not flee.

Jean the Good, on a rise in the ground called the field Alexandre, surrounded by his the more faithful, goes down from horse and makes put, with all, foot with ground. Then, seizing a battle-axe, it awaits the attack.

Admittedly, Philippe VI, his father, had not made any cowardice, when after being itself valiantly beaten, it was let involve out of the field of Crécy by the companions who remained to him.

The gasoline of the capacity of kings de France is supposed being of divine ascent. A nonchivalrous attitude would discredit the branch of Valois already overcome in Crécy. However Philippe VI, his father, had been selected as king with the detriment of Edouard III however grandson of Philippe Beautiful the. Jean the Good having put his children at the shelter thus chooses a heroic sacrifice.

It is here that the comment of J. Turner-Aumont takes a direction esoteric. It is the sacrifice of the king.

" Pressed of all shares, it fights until the exhaustion of its forces and one can wonder in which weak measurement, the soft food of the ransom could retain the hand of these avid warriors, but savage, very bloody of the blows which the king carried to them. The voice of his/her son junior 14 years old, Philippe Bold the which had returned to slip at its sides still resounds in the French epopee: - Father, you keep on the right! - Father, you keep on the left! " The popularity and the consideration of the overcome king were unanimous. They are attested by the most convincing facts: voluntary gifts for the ransom in times of cruel economic crisis; companies of delivery; literature without publicity, prestige in Avignon, the glare of the funeral in 1364.

With two miles from there draws up the new whole Château of Chambonneau. Prince Noir takes it by bluff. It is on the first floor of the keep (still existing) that is held the first meal of captivity of the king and his son on September 19th at the evening. In front of them, an English captain wounded in the combat and dying man with Chambonneau, return the heart in the arms of Prince Noir. It is about the lord Dandley. (These precise details are given by the letter of condolence addressed on September 20th, 1356 to the Dandley widow.)

Assessment

Jean the Good is made prisoner, and the English requires an enormous ransom of 4 million ecus of gold for its release. Its prestige is with highest contrary to that of the French nobility. The king being captive the kingdom will sink in the civil war. The general states of language of oil are joined together shortly after. They decide to release Charles II the Bad, king de Navarre, cousin and brother-in-law of the captive king, in the hope which it protects the country in the defeat. But the Navarrese comes into contact with the English to adapt new strongholds.

Lastly, in 1360, the Treated of Brétigny, negotiated by Jean Chandos English side, and by Bonabes IV, lord de Rougé and on Derval, French side, returns freedom to king Jean the Good against a ransom which, brought back to 3 million ecus of gold, will not finally be versed entirely. Moreover, France gives up with the English the part of the kingdom corresponding to the old possessions of the Plantagenêts in Aquitaine, that is to say almost all the south-west of France.

Lastly, the effectiveness of the Welsh archers, after Crécy, pushes with the creation of units of archers by the future Charles V. Those are dissolved under the pressure of the nobility, but the idea is taken up one century later (and after Azincourt) for the creation of the companies of ordinance in 1445 and the francs archers in 1448.

External bonds

The battle of Poitiers and its effects on the site of the Ministry for the culture and the communication, the French government

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