One of the most famous battles of the Hundred Years War, Crecy saw the creation of the legend of both King Edward III and his then sixteen year old son Prince Edward, centuries later called “the Black Prince”. Some 9000 English soldiers, including a large contingent of archers with dismounted men at arms inflicted some 10,000 casualities on a French army of 30,000 mounted men at arms and crossbowmen. It was one of the battles that signaled the end of the dominance of knightly cavalry in favor of strategically placed archery and infantry. Prince Edward was put in charge of the English vanguard and with his senior advisers and men repeatedly held off French attacks, thus, as the story goes, “winning his spurs” by King Edward’s reckoning.
From Battles of the Medieval World:
