X. CHAP. replied the crowd; "we must have an account of it immediately, lest you escape to England, whither you have already sent your treasure." Arteveld then wept, and reproached them with "having made him what he was, and now wanting to kill him. Recollect that your trade was lost when I took the government, and that I recovered all for you,-procured you abundance, and work, and peace; and for all the great good I did you, God knows I obtained little profit." Such reproaches were not calculated to move the mob, which clamoured but the more. Arteveld tried to escape to a neighbouring church; but his enemies seized him in the street, and slew him without mercy. Edward's first movement was to take vengeance on the Flemings for the death of their leader; but the towns of West Flanders convinced him that they regretted the act of the people of Ghent as much as he did. The reverses which the French monarch suffered in Guienne had been thus compensated by Edward's loss of his Flemish ally, and, at the same time, by the death of John of Montfort. That prince, after his escape from the Louvre, had led succours from England to Brittany, but was able to do little towards changing the aspect of affairs or the relative position of parties, when he died at Hennebont. All the efforts of Philip were directed towards repelling Lord Derby. The French king assembled his estates in the north and in the south, but more to appease discontent than to command succour or adhesion: he merely proposed continuing his present levies of money, on the understanding that they were to cease at the peace. An army was collected and sent, under the Duke of Normandy, to the south. He recovered Angoulême, and laid siege to Aiguillon, an important fortress not far from Agen; but Sir Walter Manny and Lord Pembroke were within the walls, and infused such spirit into the garrison that during four months it defied the Duke of Normandy and his army, said to number 100,000 men. The obstinacy of the siege as well as the defence induced the English king to march to the succour of his general, for Lord Derby at Bordeaux had no force sufficient to encounter the Duke of Normandy. An expedition was fitted out at Southampton, consisting of 4000 men-at-arms and 10,000 archers, besides the Irish and Welsh. The Prince of Wales and numbers of the English noblesse accompanied the king, and scarcely any strangers, except Geoffrey of Harcourt, one of the Norman barons who had escaped when Philip decapitated so many. It was the intention of the king to land on the Garonne, and march to the relief of Aiguillon; but the wind was unfavourable for crossing the Bay of Biscay, driving back the fleet to the coast of Cornwall, and keeping it there a whole week at anchor. Geoffrey of Harcourt, during the suspense, urged Edward to give up the Gascon expedition, and land in Normandy. That duchy, Harcourt promised, was quite undefended, its only soldiers having marched with the duke to the south, and being before Aiguillon. The people of Normandy were not used to war, and the towns were completely open in consequence of the long peace. Caen itself might be captured without opposition, urged Geoffrey of Harcourt. The king liked the counsel, and ordered the fleet to sail to Normandy: it reached La Hogue on the 12th July, 1346. All the towns of that angle of France, known as the Cotentin, surrendered, and Edward advanced against Caen. News of his landing had reached Paris, and Philip instantly despatched his constable, who was the Count d'Eu, and the Count of Tancarville, to Caen, with as many men-at-arms as they could collect. As the English approached the town, the counts were for defending the river that ran through it, and abandoning the portion beyond it; but the townsfolk declared they would rather go out and fight. The commanders did not like to check such ardour; but when CHAP. X. X. in the field, the citizens saw the enemy approaching On Amongst other captures made at Caen, was that of a singular document, which will be found in Rymer. It is an agreement made at Vincennes, in March 1338, between the king's eldest son, the Duke of Normandy, and the men of the duchy, who were to aid him in the conquest of England, and for this purpose were to serve him ten weeks without pay, and were to derive other advantages. This document admirably served Edward's purpose in rousing the spirit of the English to support him in the war. His successes and his plunder were, however, alone sufficient to effect this purpose. leaving Caen, the English marched to Louviers, even then rich in cloths, and offering ample plunder. Evreux they found too strong, and Rouen was defended by King Philip, so that the English could only burn some houses on the south side of the river. They then proceeded up the left bank of the Seine, burning all the towns by the way, Pont de l'Arche, Vernon, and Meulan, till they came to Poissy. Philip followed them on the opposite bank of the river, and flung himself into Paris. All the disposable force of France was still in the south, whilst Edward was at Poissy. His son, the Black Prince, advanced to Saint Germain-en-Laye, first occupied the royal residence, and then burned it. From thence the English scoured the plain of Paris, burning Nanterre, Ruelle, St. Cloud, Boulogne, and even Bourgla-Reine, on the other side of the capital, and the tower of Montjoye, that was built on the bridge of Neuilly. ་ "All this devastation, so little in comparison of what followed," says the continuator of Nangis, "might have been seen by whoever ascended the towers of Paris." King Philip mustered his chivalry, and summoned his good townspeople to rally round him at St. Denis, whilst King Edward held high court in the abbey of Poissy, during mid-August. Philip learned that it was the intention of Edward to proceed from Poissy to Tours, and he hoped to muster a sufficient force in time to intercept him, and proceeded to Antony for this purpose. But Edward decamped from Poissy, and struck northward through the district of Beauvais, ere Philip was aware. Here he surprised the townsfolk of Amiens on their way to join the king, and many of them were slain. The English then marched past Beauvais to Poix, where John Chandos saved the daughters of the count from outrage. The difficulty for Edward was to pass the Somme, for the French army had swelled to proportions far exceeding his own, and its detachments held all the right bank of that river. Some of his officers tried to pass at Picquigny, but in vain. Edward, therefore, came to Abbeville, and from thence followed down the course of the river to the sea, in search of a ford. There existed one at Blanche Taque when the tide was at the lowest. Philip sent 12,000 men under Godemar du Fay, to guard the other side; whilst he himself should follow in the rear of the English. Edward obtained guides to lead him through the ford, which was below St. Valery, and opposite Crotoy.* His army passed without difficulty during the night, and in the morning rushed upon the soldiers of Godemar with such vigour as to put them to a total rout. Philip arrived soon after at the ford, but the tide had flowed, and he was obliged to return with his army to Abbeville. Edward encamped first at Rue, and In the year 1858 a roadway has been completed across the mouth of the Somme. CHAP. X. then proceeded to Crecy, feeling somewhat encouraged by being on his own soil of Ponthieu, which county belonged to him by right of his mother. The English king was well aware that Philip, then at Abbeville, with an army far superior to his own, could not but advance to attack him. The English fleet was not upon the coast, and Flanders was far too remote. His resolve, therefore, was soon taken, to accept the offered battle, whatever the disproportion between his force and that of his foe. It was on Friday, the 25th of August, 1346, that Edward pitched his camp, and halted his army, at Crecy. It was the fête of St. Louis, and Philip, out of respect for that monarch's memory, stopped at Abbeville, resolving on the following day to march to the English and attack them. Both kings began the morning of Saturday in the same manner. They heard mass: Edward on the field of Crecy, Philip in the abbey of St. Pierre, at Abbeville. The English king had ordered a park or enclosure to be formed behind the spot where he intended to fight. This he surrounded with his waggons, and placed not only his baggage within it, but the horses of his army. His knights and nobles were thus to fight on foot, there being but 4000 of them to resist 12,000 French men-at-arms. Villani makes the English far superior in the number of their archers, those of Philip being but Genoese, whom he had brought from the fleet under Doria and Grimaldi. But the French communes of Picardy swelled the number of the French infantry; and on this occasion it would appear as if they consisted of the armed citizens themselves, and not bands of mercenaries raised by their contributions. At all events the French, far outnumbering their antagonists, were a disorderly and undisciplined host; whilst the English were professional soldiers and old campaigners, obedient to their chiefs and their sovereign. Edward drew up his army in three lines, or battles. |