POITIERS, BATTLE OF
. Poitiers was the site of a major English victory in the Hundred Years’ War (September
19, 1356). In 1355, peace negotiations between France and England broke down. In
response, Edward, the Black Prince, led what has come to be known as the grande
chevauchée from Bordeaux to Narbonne and back. This expedition, a great success with
considerable booty taken, added to the difficulties faced by the French king, John II, then
embroiled in a political controversy with Charles the Bad, king of Navarre.
The English took advantage of John’s continuing political problems the following year
when they planned a threefold attack on north-central France. The Black Prince was to
lead his troops from Bordeaux; Henry, the duke of Lancaster, was to lead his from
Normandy; and Edward III was to lead his from Calais. The French army, in an effort to
protect this part of France, including Paris itself, moved to stop the English advance and
met the Black Prince’s force outside of Poitiers on September 17, 1356. The English
army numbered 6,000, the French 20,000. As at the Battle of Crécy (1346), it looked as if
the larger French numbers might easily defeat the English. Early on the morning of
September 19, after a day of maneuvering and attempts by papal mediators to arrive at a
peaceful solution, the battle began. The English, being the smaller army, dismounted and
took a defensive position behind a hedge facing the road to Poitiers. The French also
dismounted, formed into four divisions, and faced the English troops. After some
ineffective English archery fire, the first French column, led by the dauphin, later Charles
V, attacked the English line. The two armies engaged in hand-to-hand combat until the
dauphin’s soldiers were forced to retreat. Other soldiers then fled the battlefield, leaving
only John II’s own force, the largest and freshest of the French contingents, to continue
the battle. John moved his troops forward, but at the same time the Black Prince
remounted his army and began his own offensive attack on the French, who were
unprepared for this mounted assault. Hit with both a frontal and a flank attack, they were
caught by the English knights in complete disarray. French losses were high, numbering
nearly 4,000 dead or captured. Among those captured was John II himself.
Kelly De Vries
[See also: EDWARD, THE BLACK PRINCE; HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR; JOHN II
THE GOOD]
Barber, Richard. Edward, Prince of Wales and Aquitaine. London: Lane, 1978.
Burne, Alfred Higgins. The Crécy War. London: Oxford University Press, 1955.
Carpentier, Elisabeth. “L’historiographie de la bataille de Poitiers au quatorzième siècle.” Revue
historique 263 (1980):21–58.
Hewitt, Herbert J. The Black Prince’s Expedition of 1355–1357. Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 1958.
Oman, Charles W. A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages. 2nd ed. 2 vols. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1924, Vol. 2, pp. 160–78.
The Encyclopedia 1407