However, it would be hard to think of a worse time to take up the
position. When Edward III’s son and heir, the Black Prince, launched
a series of devastatingchevauchéesout of Gascony, King John responded
by gathering an army to force a showdown. The two hosts met just
outside the city of Poitiers, on 19 September 1356. Although there is a
great deal about the battle that remains open to debate, it is clear that the
French army was noticeably larger than the English–perhaps even twice
the size. It was drawn up in a sophisticated formation, which shows that
the French had made an effort to learn the lessons from Crécy, a decade
earlier. The main body of the army was dismounted, and ready tofight
on foot. This did not apply, though, to the phalanxes led by Walter and
the marshals of France, Arnoul of Audrehem and John of Clermont.
When the English made an early move that looked like an attempt to
withdraw, Walter and the marshals were tempted into a rash cavalry
charge. Moreover, their advance was excruciatingly slow, as they
attempted to push their way through a morass of thickets that protected
the English. The real damage was done by a hailstorm of arrows, as the
longbowmen capitalized on their advantage to move around the sides
and take the horsemen in theflanks. It was the start of a rout far worse
than Crécy, and it culminated in the capture of the French king
himself.^186 The fate of the phalanxes is clear enough:‘in the midst of
[all] this, the valiant duke of Athens, constable of France, was killed, as
were Sir John of Clermont, marshal of France, and more than a hundred
knights and squires, and the other marshal, Arnoul of Audrehem, was
gravely wounded’.^187 It is worth noting that the Florentines’hatred
pursued Walter, even to the end. Boccaccio records what is surely a
calumny: that Walter’s throat was cut by one of King Edward’s
Florentine auxiliaries, shortly after the duke had attempted toflee.^188
The body was brought home, as Walter had requested, to be buried with
his daughters in the monastery of Beaulieu.^189 The epitaph was not quite
right, but near enough: ‘cy gist très-excellent prince monseigneur
Gautier duc d’Athènes, comte de Brienne, seigneur [sic] de Liche, et
(^186) For recent, detailed accounts of the battle, see Rogers,War Cruel and Sharp, 372–84;
D. Green,The Battle of Poitiers(Stroud, 2002); and F. Bériac-Lane and C. Given-
Wilson,Les prisonniers de la bataille de Poitiers(Paris, 2002). Afine short summary can be
found in Ormrod,Edward III, 350–3.
(^187) The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel, ch. 94.
(^188) For an English translation of Boccaccio’s account, seeThe Fates of Illustrious Men, tr.
189 L. B. Hall (New York, 1965), 228–34.
For this, see Archives départementales de l’Aube, 2 H 48; and‘Le testament de
Gauthier VI de Brienne’, clause 1.
The Thickets of Poitiers 181