Featured Article Summary #209

The Black Prince’s chevauchée of 1356 was a large mounted raid carried out by an Anglo-Gascon force led by Edward, the Black Prince, between 4 August and 2 October 1356 during the Hundred Years’ War. After earlier limits on fighting caused by a truce and the Black Death, the French king John II decided to restart full-scale war in 1355, and in response the English launched major attacks. In 1356 the Black Prince aimed to repeat a damaging raid but as part of a wider plan to pressure the French from multiple directions. Starting from Bergerac, about 6,000 men swept north, destroyed towns, and sacked French territory, but they failed to link up with other English forces and later faced the much larger French royal army. Although the French managed to cut off the Prince’s army, they attacked anyway, leading to the Battle of Poitiers, where the Anglo-Gascons defeated the French and even captured King John and one of his sons. After a truce and John’s ransom, fighting resumed later and most English gains were lost, with the war finally ending in 1453 with a French victory. After 1066, English kings held lands in France, which made them vassals of the French king. In 1337 Philip VI agreed to take Edward III’s French lands back, starting the Hundred Years’ War, with Gascony the last major English possession. Gascony was extremely valuable for tax from wine, but Edward and his allies had limited resources to defend it, while a series of wars, a truce, and the devastation of the Black Death repeatedly disrupted fighting until full war resumed in 1355, when both sides began major offensives. Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince, arrived in Bordeaux on 20 September 1355 with 2,200 English soldiers, and was soon given wide authority as the king’s lieutenant in Gascony. He then led a major mounted raid in the autumn that caused heavy damage across French territory while the French avoided a decisive battle, and by December his forces had returned after marching a long distance. After Christmas, the English took many towns and fortifications, while unrest and financial problems weakened the French response; Edward also shifted another planned raid to Normandy under Lancaster, captured Verneuil, and drew King John away from preparing for a larger English campaign in the south-west. In May 1356 the French called up all able-bodied men, but few were eager and the army was short of money, so wages could not be paid. The French force was also poorly organized, made up of many small groups that did not know each other or their commanders well, and the younger John, Count of Poitiers, was put in charge in Languedoc to prevent the Black Prince from repeating the previous year’s raids. Meanwhile the Black Prince strengthened his army with extra longbowmen, supplies, and reinforcements, then gathered Gascon leaders to gain support for a campaign funded by a special tax. The Anglo-Gascon forces assembled at Bergerac, while other English armies were planned to meet on the Loire, with Edward, Lancaster, and the Black Prince each advancing from different directions. In Normandy, John tried to restart the siege of Breteuil but made little progress because it was well defended and well supplied, and his mining efforts failed. Many Gascons joined the campaign around Bergerac, so John de Cheverston left 2,000–3,000 men to defend the province while the main force of about 6,000 fighters (with 4,000 non-combatants) headed north on 4 August 1356. They looted and destroyed towns as they advanced, often facing little resistance, and successfully captured several castles. Meanwhile, the French siege of Breteuil failed twice, but John eventually bribed the garrison to leave, freeing French forces to concentrate against the Black Prince. As the Anglo-Gascons pushed toward Bourges and then north toward the Loire, they struggled to cross because the river was too swollen and bridges were destroyed, and they learned from prisoners that the main French army was moving toward Orléans and aiming to fight near Tours.