Black Prince. After an uphill charge through continuous English archery fire, with their
lines confused and in disarray, these knights encountered the English soldiers. Despite
constant pressure on the English line, the knights were unable to pierce it and the attack
failed, with the French suffering heavy casualties. By midnight, the French army,
including the king, retreated from the battlefield. The English rested for a few days, then
marched to Calais, which they besieged for nearly a year before capturing it.
Kelly DeVries
[See also: CALAIS; HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR; PHILIP VI]
Burne, Alfred Higgins. The Crécy War. London: Oxford University Press, 1955.
Favier, Jean. La guerre de cent ans. Paris: Fayard, 1980.
Oman, Charles. A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1924,
pp. 124–47.
Perroy, Édouard. The Hundred Years War, trans. W.B.Wells. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode,
1951.
CRÉTIN, GUILLAUME
(ca. 1460–1525). One of the Grands Rhétoriqueurs, Crétin was a prolific author of épîtres
and other poèmes de circonstance, texts addressed to nobles in an attempt to please or
curry favor. He composed many religious poems and even undertook a verse translation
of Gregory of Tours, which he was unable to complete. Crétin also wrote a Débat de deux
dames sur le passetemps de la chasse des chiens et oyseaulx, a text that continues a
poetic debate begun some time before: is it better to hunt with dogs or with falcons? This
composition was published only after Crétin’s death. He was much admired in his day,
and his style, particularly his rimes équivoques, was praised by Crétin’s most influential
contemporaries.
Norris J.Lacy
[See also: GRANDS RHÉTORIQUEURS; OCKEGHEM, JOHANNES;
VERSIFICATION]
Crétin, Guillaume. Œuvres poétiques de Guillaume Crétin, ed. Kathleen Chesney. Paris: Didot,
1932.
Zumthor, Paul, ed. Anthologie des Grands Rhétoriqueurs. Paris: Union Générale d’Éditions, 1978,
pp. 175–203.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
. Fifth-century Gaul saw the opposition between the Roman and the barbarian, especially
Frankish, criminal-law systems. In Roman society, criminal justice was the affair of the
state and the responsible individual. The state prosecuted individuals accused of crimes
against the state and public order (treason, sacrilege) or against property (theft) and
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