MIDIEVAL WEAPONS AND COMBAT - The Longbow (MIDDLE AGES BATTLE HISTORY DOCUMENTARY)

The bow, the longbow, holds a special significance in the hearts of Englishmen. It's the weapon of the underdog against the oppressor. Agincourt, the band of brothers, the few against the many. It's the honest weapon of the common man. It was the weapon that took on the might of feudal France and shook it to its core. The skill and courage of English bowmen changed the face of war on the medieval battlefield. And at the heart of this military revolution was a simple stave of wood fashioned into the most beautiful, deadly and perfect weapon. The defining campaign for the longbow took place at the beginning of the Hundred Years' War. In 1340, Edward III laid claim to the French throne and launched a series of dramatic raids into northern France. These raids were called chevauchées. The principal weapon was fire. Hit-and-run lightning attacks. What the English king was doing, what Edward was doing, was he was saying to the French, look, your king's not protecting you. He's not looking after you. Where is he? Where is his army now? If you swore loyalty to me, things would be better. But most of the French didn't see it that way. On the continent, the English were seen as the dregs of humanity, brutish and ignoble. And most of France had no wish to have Edward on their throne. But he was determined to fight for the French crown. In July 1346, Edward sailed with an invasion force to France. He had an army of 14,000 men, the largest army that had ever set sail from England at that point. And in that army, more than half of them were archers. In fact, 7,500 were archers. Six weeks later, this relatively small army stood against a massive French force, withstanding wave upon wave of heavily armoured knights on the battlefield of Crecy. Though heavily outnumbered, the English army was battle-hardened and highly disciplined. The Battle of Crecy was the greatest test of nerve and skill that the longbowmen had ever faced. English armies of the later Middle Ages were famed for their longbowmen. Their prowess was brought about by a culture of constant practice. The English archers at Crecy would have practised just like this. Today, I'm shooting with a fraternity of St George, a group who keep that tradition of community shooting alive. They're shooting at the marks, and this is a key skill to medieval military archery. The marks are set out across country at different ranges, and the skill of the archer is to read the landscape, which falls and dips, often deceiving the eye, and to range his arrows. They're trying to get as close as possible to each mark. Medieval English archers were renowned for their skill. To be battle-ready, it was essential that they were accurate over all sorts of terrain. Just look at this forest of arrows behind me. That's the strength of military archery. Lots of archers all shooting together, all ranging together, and dropping their arrows into a killing zone. This is just with 70 archers shooting three arrows. Imagine an English army with 7,500 archers. The effect is devastating. Every arrow had to count. A single arrow is a complex, carefully crafted and expensive missile. At Crecy, the English would be up against the full might of the French armoured cavalry. How effective would their arrows be against these steel-clad knights? How much punch does an arrow need to penetrate armour? To find out, I've come to the ballistics test site at the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham. It's where the British army still tests its small arms today. I've invited champion bowman Mark Stretton to come along. It takes 150 pounds power to draw his bow fully, which is at the extreme top end of the sort of bows used at Crecy. On the firing range, a Doppler radar records the exact speed the arrow is travelling, precisely measuring the rate at which it decelerates. Excellent result. You've got a reading? We have. Fantastic. My God. It's very good. What does that mean? Well, we've got... From the bow here, we're going off at round about 52 metres a second. And right up here, after 800 milliseconds, we're going down to 42 metres a second. So we're actually losing quite a lot of velocity. So it's decelerating quite quickly. But how significantly does this rapid loss of speed affect the arrow's ability to punch through armour? Here we are back at the laboratory. And what we're going to try and do now is find out what this arrow would have done to a piece of armour. It's munition quality. That's to say it's steel, but not specially hardened steel. And we're going to be able to shoot the arrow from an air cannon, very controlled conditions. The cannon's been calibrated so we can replicate different velocities and therefore replicate the arrow being shot at different ranges. We'll start at the furthest range and find out what this will do. Our first shot is equivalent to a range of about 80 metres. It's made a dent, but I don't think that's penetrated. It's bounced out. The second shot is equivalent to only 30 metres away. It's just punctured the armour and at most would have only bruised the knight. The third shot is going to be equivalent to a range of just 20 metres. Here, the knights were almost on top of the archers. So significantly bigger hole. Oh, yes. Yes, that's done a lot more damage. Look at that. It's really gone through. Yeah, it's gone past the shoulder and gone right in there. So that's at close range, that's 20 metres. There we go. And it's gone into the akerton. This has really made a difference in springing the arrow out. But the arrow has gone in there, it's penetrated deep. That's one very ill man. These tests suggest that it was only at close range that an arrow could be relied on to penetrate the armour of an advancing French knight. And yet, in 1346, at the Battle of Crecy, the flower of French nobility lay dead and dying at the feet of the English archers. Just what was it that made these men so effective? Not all longbows were the same. There are clues that many had a more sophisticated shape than the simple curve that is so familiar today. In the centuries prior to the Battle of Crecy, the English had gone on crusade, where they'd encountered different bows and different tactics. Archers in the East fought in a completely different way to their European counterparts. They fought on horseback. They rode into battle and shot their bows from their horses. Wave after wave, with hit-and-run tactics. Shoot their bows and turn away, come back again for a second wave. They used a completely different type of bow. It was made of different materials and it was a different shape. It was curly. The limbs were reflexed. Maybe this influenced later European design. No medieval English bows of any shape have survived to the present day. The only evidence we have dates from Tudor times. When Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose, sank in 1545, the oxygen-free atmosphere of the Solent's bed preserved a treasure trove of Tudor artefacts. Collections manager Andy Elkerton has beautiful everyday objects from tankards to shoes which have survived intact. That just shows the state of preservation. That you've got something leather, organic material that would normally... Truly, it's absolutely remarkable. When the ship went down, it was a living community. The crew were on board there. Their personal possessions, professional effects. The ship's equipment's there, the weaponry's there. And as you know, the longbows are there. Henry VIII was a passionate archer and he made sure his flagship was manned with the finest longbowmen in the land. These are their bows. 137 of them. Their finely tapered ends suggest they were of a very particular type to an expert who has studied them closely, bowmaker Chris Boyton. When I first saw these bows, I was initially a bit puzzled by the fineness of the tips. And generally, when people make bows, replicas, their replicas end up with tips which are slightly thicker than this. And it's often been my view that the bowmakers in this period and earlier actually turn the tips or reflex them away from the back of the bow. Because this is the belly of the bow, so the bow actually... This is the way it bends back, so that recurve is that way. Yeah, bending out and snapping forward like a snake. Medieval manuscripts support Chris's theory. Reflex bows, bows that curve back at the tips, are often illustrated. This extra curvature makes the bow's limbs spring back faster, propelling the arrow with greater velocity. Bowmaking was a major industry in the Middle Ages. The best straight-grain timber for bows came from Southern Europe. Hundreds of bowyers had their workshops near the port of London. I've commissioned Chris Boyton to make me a reflex bow like the ones on the Mary Rose. He's ordered a magnificent piece of yew, the ideal wood for bowmaking. The actual piece of wood is fairly hefty, but the kind of bow that we're making and the actual draw weight of the bow, it should be just perfect for what we're going to do with it. Yew has a natural lamination. Two different types of wood bonded organically together in the same tree. The darker, honey-colour is the heartwood. It forms the plump, rounded belly of the bow. It naturally resists compression. It's the powerhouse of the bow. Then on the back of the bow, we have this creamy sapwood. It's the spine that holds it all together. It resists tension and stops the bow breaking. Once the bow has been roughed out, the reflex curves must be put in. First, the ends of the stave are boiled to make them flexible. Bending it over the former is going to be a critical moment. I'm going to move quickly now, Chris. Straight on the end. Nice and tight. I'm starting to bend now, whilst you're just tightening up. OK. OK, that's fine. OK, nice and gentle. That's really bending nicely. Just tighten down. Maybe a bit more yew. I'm going to put some rubber binding around this end to hold it down. That will slowly bring it down to the right. It's really holding. That's lovely. Fantastic. It's such a beautiful curve, isn't it? That's it. Are you optimistic this is going to hold? We'll see. I'm just pleased that the thing has gone round the former without breaking. The archers Edward III took to France in 1346 were masters of their trade. These men trained hard to become fast and accurate. But how difficult is it to learn to shoot the longbow proficiently? Fingers on. Prepare to draw. I want to find out how well these beginners will do in just two days of learning the basics of battlefield archery. When you're shooting a bow, you don't pull it back with your arm. There's an expression, bend in the bow. You're actually inside the bow. You're doing it with the muscles of your back and your shoulders. This is hard, physical labour. And you're really using your whole body. So get a good stance that you can put some musculature into it. What military archery is all about is getting volume of arrows in the air. And so, actually, what the most important thing is, is the knocking. And that was the thing you were all worst at. What you need to be able to do is you need to be able to get those arrows on the string quickly. And you don't actually need to look down to do that. Place. Push. Pull. I find it quite awkward with the arrow having to do the knocking thing. And it's quite clumbersome. The arrow keeps falling out. It's not right, and you pull back, and boom, it goes off. Draw. Wait for it, lad. Draw. Loose. Preferably on the same day, Hinton. In his workshop, Chris is testing my new bow on the tiller to check its draw weight, the power needed to pull the bow to full draw. Look at that. I can't ram. That's a thrilling action, isn't it? Chris, that is the most exquisite bow I have ever drawn. I can't wait to put an arrow on it. But now, I'm going to take it away. Thank you very much. Thanks, Mike. Are you sure you wouldn't like to leave the bow in? Because I really like that one. To ensure they had a ready supply of excellent bowmen, English kings of the Middle Ages passed a series of laws enforcing archery practice. In 1252, Henry III ordered that every man between the ages of 15 and 60 had to practise the longbow every Sunday. And Edward III even made the playing of handball, bandyball and football illegal because they distracted young men from their archery. He needed quality archers for his campaigns in France, and they needed to practise. It's the second day of the novice's training. So, as ever, youth has found idle ways to pass its time. Very disappointing. Clearly, you think you're good enough. I would like to see how much you've progressed. So, could you take your bows again? Knock. Draw. Loose. Honestly, that was really good. I'm genuinely impressed. Really clean looses, and that's in, you know, less than 24 hours. So, I mean, it's not the dark arts. Clearly, a bit of intensive training and you can get a body of archers together. Loose. These definitely feel like weapons now. Looking at them, you think they're toys. Growing up with just smaller ones, but these are killers. Serious killers, definitely. The archers Edward III took on campaign were lightly armed and highly mobile. What I've got here is the sort of kit that a medieval archer would take on campaign. First, of course, I've got my bow, my trusty bow, and a canvas bag waxed or oiled to protect it from the weather. Similarly, my arrows in a waterproof bag. I have a rosary because I'm very religious, and a hagstone, a saint's stone, because I'm very superstitious. I have weapons. I have a falchion, a broad cutting sword because any battle ends with hand-to-hand fighting, and the bowmen had to do their work along with the other soldiers. I have food. Cheese and bread, apples and smoked fish. Simple things which I've probably looted on the way from the local villagers. All this is very light, portable gear, and so the archer was a very mobile soldier. But what is known about the individual archers that Edward took with him? Who were these longbowmen who would be so effective at Crecy? Hundreds of archers were recruited here, in the Peak District. In the church at Whaley Bridge lies the grave of one of them. William Jodwell, the archer, died 1375. There we have evidence of a man who actually lived and fought in the armies of Edward III and the Black Prince. And a man who was the founder of a dynasty. There's a whole list of Jodwells here. Roger Jodwell, his son, fought at Agincourt. This was a man of substance, a man who was the founder of a dynasty. He was no humble peasant. This unique document, dating from 1355, shows that William Jodwell, the archer, was a man of considerable importance. While on campaign in France, he was given this pass, granting him leave from active service by royal warrant. It has the Black Prince's private seal on it, an indication of how valued these bowmen really were. William Jodwell was probably a high-ranking archer, and most likely a mounted archer, rich enough to take his horse with him on campaign. The great advantage of a mounted archer is mobility, ideal for raiding situations, and also for deploying quickly to the battlefield, where they could keep up with the knights. And there, they could dismount and fight alongside the knights, each giving protection to the other. Tactically, on the open battlefield, the mounted archers fought on foot alongside the infantry archers. On the Cressy campaign, Edward took 2,500 mounted archers with him, and 5,000 regular archers. And the regular archers were paid just four pence a day, quite a good wage. But the mounted archers got six pence a day. And that, together with the spoils of war, with the plunder they could get from looting, made them really quite prosperous men. Northern France was full of rich pickings. By August, the English army had filled their saddlebags with loot. They'd caused havoc, sacking Caen and skirting around Paris. Now, they were heading for Calais and home. But King Philippe of France had assembled an enormous army of over 20,000 men. He was hot on their heels. Philippe was determined to cut the English off from their ships. They'd blocked Edward's escape by destroying all the bridges over this river, the Somme. And by the time the English got here, they could hear the distant rumble of the French army, sounding like thunder. The English were trapped. In August 1346, Edward III's army was trapped. According to the chronicler Foisard, King Philippe of France's massive army of over 20,000 men was closing in fast. The French had burned all the bridges over this river, the Somme, and there seemed no way home for the English without a fight. Then, one day, they captured a Frenchman, a man called Gobain-Agas. And for a bribe, he told the English of a secret crossing place, a place where, at low tide, there was a man-made causeway, a place called Blanchetac, near Seine-Ville. At low tide the next day, at dawn, the English army crossed. They could only cross 12 abreast, and the chroniclers tell us that the Longbowmen went first. The water was chesty. We can imagine them with their bows above their heads, keeping them dry. But on the other side were the Picardy militia, led by Godem du Fay. And among his troops were some 600 Genoese crossbowmen. The Longbowmen would have been sitting ducks as the bolts from these weapons feathered the water as they were trying to cross. They couldn't turn back because of the main French army behind them. But how did they manage to cross in the face of so much resistance on the other bank? There's a tantalising clue in a manuscript that sits in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It shows the mounted archers still on their horses, galloping and splashing across the ford, shooting their bows as they went. If Froisard's account is true, then maybe the English mounted archers drove back the Picardy militia like this at Blanchetac. The French were hard on their heels. They'd just nipped the English baggage train. But main English army got across. On August 24th, 1346, the English army avoided total annihilation by just a matter of minutes. The French had to go round the long way, and the rest of the story happened two days later. Pitched battle lay ahead at Crecy. But the Longbowmen would not be the only archers on the field. In continental Europe, a different type of bow was far more popular, the crossbow, a mechanical weapon that was easier to shoot than the longbow. Philippe II of France had up to 6,000 professional crossbowmen in his army. The bow part of the early crossbow was made of wood. It had to be quite long to prevent it from snapping, making it cumbersome. The exotic Byzantine princess, Anna Komnena, who wrote an account of the First Crusade, described the European knights as lying on their backs, and spanning the bow by putting their feet on it and drawing it back, so they really could get a power advantage by using their legs and their whole bodies. So this really was relatively powerful. And then they could get up and shoot it. The Europeans' experience in the Crusades, however, introduced them to a new type of bow technology, one that allowed them to make shorter and more powerful bows. It was a composite technology, a technology which used different materials. This is a cross-section of a 15th-century crossbow. And these little squares here are horn, and this area around the outside is sinew. Horn is a material that is good for compression. It takes great compressive strain, and that is the power of the bow. To hold it in place, they used sinew. This stuff is like the neck tendon of an ox. But if you hammer it, then what happens is you start to get something very fibrous. It really becomes... The more hammering, the more fibrous it gets. In fact, until it gets like this. Just like modern fiberglass matting. And just like modern fiberglass, it's held together with a type of glue, a type of resin. And the type they used was this. These are the swim bladders from fish. And you boil them up and they make the most wonderful glue. So this elaborate technology allowed the crossbow to go into the next generation. But now, with these more powerful bows, they needed to devise spanning devices. One of the earliest was the belt and claw. So they would wear this hook around their waist, and they simply had to bend down and they could lift it with their whole body and place it on the string like that. And there it is, ready to shoot. They were incredibly ingenious, always coming up with new mechanical devices for spanning ever more powerful bows. This one's a goat's foot lever. Later came the more elaborate rack and pinion. But perhaps the most exotic of all, it's called the windlass. And it really is a fairly time-consuming business. You've got to really wind this up, but it does enable you to use bows of mighty weight. This really will span a very powerful bow. And by the 15th century, improvements in steel technology allowed bows to be made with steel prods. And they were the ones that had, by far, the mightiest punch. But by comparison with the longbow, the crossbow was an extremely expensive and elaborate piece of kit. This was not the weapon of the common soldier. It was the weapon of highly professional and specialised mercenaries. So we have the old controversy, which is best, longbow or crossbow? Longbow's going to shoot faster. We know it's going to shoot faster, but I think it's been very over-exaggerated how much faster, especially with something like a belt and claw. So I'm going to give you 30 seconds. I think that last 30 seconds, with a big onrush of night, is the critical time when you're under major pressure. I'll say, go, start with an arrow and a bolt in your hand, and then I'll give you 30 seconds and stop when I say stop. Stand by and go. The longbowman has his arrows in the ground by his side. This means they're quick to get at, much quicker than taking them from a quiver. And what's more, they're contaminated with bacteria, making any wounds more likely to be infected. The crossbowman is behind a large shield called a pavise. It gives him cover while he bends down to load his weapon. Stop. So, Gordon, you got nine off. You got four off. It was hard work. You're a wizard, aren't you? Very hard work, yes. But you got four off, which is eight crossbow bolts in a minute. I mean, that's faster than anyone's ever suggested before. The longbow could shoot twice as fast and more than twice as far, but at close range, the crossbow was deadly. The French didn't arm their commoners like the English, so instead of using local archers, the French hired in Genoese mercenaries. They were known to be the best crossbowmen in Europe. These mercenaries were a central part of the French battle plan at Crecy. The idea was the Genoese would form a covering screen for the knights while they prepared for their great chivalric charge. The 20,000-strong French force was too large to cross the tidal ford at Blanchetac, so they went the long way round via Abbeville. By now, the English were waiting for them at Crecy. The English arrived at the Crecy Ridge the day before the battle. It gave them time to rest. They could sleep that night. And Edward could plan his positions, deploy his troops on this slope, the perfect terrain for an army defending a position. The next day, the French took a long time to make their way from Abbeville. And during the day, the English had time to eat, so they were refreshed and fed. The French didn't arrive until late afternoon. Just before they arrived, there was a violent storm. It soon passed, and the sun came out and warmed the English backs. A bright sun that glared in the Frenchman's eyes. To investigate what happened next, I've moved down into the valley, retracing the steps of the French advance with historian Andrew Eyton. The French are coming from Abbeville, looking where to set out the army, and, whoa, they come across this. And you cannot take a horse down that. Now, that's new to me. Was this here at the time? They're confronted by the bank at Crecy, a topographical feature that has never been discussed before in the literature. According to the scientific evidence, it's been there for tens of thousands of years, and so it's not a product of agriculture. It's a natural feature of the landscape, and it must determine the dynamics of the battle in a dramatic way, because, as you say, the French advancing right across the valley simply couldn't have gone straight over and then up the other side. The French were forced to enter the valley through this narrow gap below the English position. It made it extremely difficult for them to deploy effectively. It's a very confined area. They're being funnelled. Indeed. And it is absolutely dictating the terms of this battle. He's got the ground, they have to take the battle to him, and he's saying where you've got to approach from. Indeed. He's selected the site, which is good for his defensive position, but it is also determining the approach of the opposition. Up on the hill, the English had a clear view of the chaotic French advance. The choice of ground was already dictating the perfect terms for the longbowmen. Edward's chosen ground that will give himself and his archers the best advantage and limit the possibilities that the French have to deploy their own men. And it forces the French to bring the battle to the English. Indeed. And how do you think the troops are actually deployed? I mean, we read of this idea of the hearse, which has been variously interpreted into wedge formations, etc. What we should be thinking in terms of is a deployment mixing men-at-arms and spearmen with archers. So if I'm shooting next to you there, you're defending me against the big charge? If the cavalry get too close, you have a very solid defence of pikemen. And indeed, this may well be the way we should interpret Froissart's famous hearse, as derived from the French word hérésson, which is hedgehog. Whilst the English forces were carefully deployed and highly disciplined, it was a totally different story at the bottom of the hill. Philippe's forces were being pushed forward by thousands of troops flooding in from Abbeville, eager to engage the English. Outraged by the violence of the English campaign, the French carried the Oriflame flag, signifying no quarter to the enemy, no prisoners would be taken alive. In the vanguard of the French army were Genoese mercenaries, crossbowmen, and they were being pushed forward by the big press of knights behind, an irresistible pressure pushing them into a far more forward position than they were ready for at that point. The function of the crossbowmen at this period is to make a covering screen, a defensive position from which the knights on their horses could charge forward and retreat to. Behind their shields or pavisses, the crossbowmen should have been able to provide cover while the huge French army deployed. But at Crecy, their pavisses were left back on the baggage tray. They didn't have them. They were vulnerable. They could feel the sting of the longbow arrows. They'd been pushed by the men behind, far more forward than they wanted to, and they were in range of the longbows. They couldn't reach them with their crossbows. They did the only sensible thing a professional soldier would do in such circumstances. They made a tactical retreat. The withdrawal of the Genoese mercenaries was seen by the French as an unforgivable betrayal. Hot with pride and anger, the Duke of Alençon cried, ''Kill me, this rabble!'' And the French knights set about slaughtering their own crossbowmen. Before the battle had even begun, the French had killed some of their most valuable men. It left the English longbowmen as the only archers on the field. But their greatest challenge was still to come. Ahead of them was the might of the French army. 12,000 mounted men-at-arms and knights. And they were about to bring their great chivalric charge up the hill. It was an ultimate test for the longbow. The English longbowmen at the Battle of Crecy were about to face their greatest challenge. Over 20,000 Frenchmen were preparing to charge. The French knights were confident they could crush the lightly armed English front line, and our tests suggest that the English arrows could only penetrate armour at very close range. Heavily outnumbered, what would the English tactics be? So, Andrew, we're in the English positions here on the hill, and you would reckon the French would be coming from that direction? Yes, they would have arrived at the bottom of the valley, Vallée des Clercs, and would be confronted by the English position directly in front of them. And before them would have been the first of the English battles, that led by the Black Prince, and we're standing towards the right end of the line. And the big question that we need to puzzle over is at what range does the longbow become effective? And there's a lot of factors to feed into that question. One of which, of course, is how long is it going to take a French cavalry charge to cross that bit of ground? And with the help of old Cleo here, who we've borrowed, we're going to have a bash coming from that little ridge there, which would be extreme longbow range, and see how long it takes. Do you have a timepiece, too? You know, I do, yes. I have a stopwatch here, and we'll time the ride. This simple experiment will tell us how quickly the French charge could reach the English positions. Go! Ha! Quite soft going for the horse. It's soft, loamy soil, on chalk hills, it's well-drained. Ha! We think at the time of Chrissie it would have been like this, just after a crop. Now we're coming through the crop. It's really pushing on here. Bit on, girl! And we're upon you. How long did that take, Andrew? Forty seconds. Forty seconds. Just 40 seconds. It doesn't sound like much, but look at the maths, and it's terrifying. Our bowman can shoot 12 arrows in 40 seconds. 7,500 bowmen could shoot 90,000 arrows during that first French charge. Draw! Lift! Draw! But how many would have hit the mark and caused real damage? It all rather depends on where the arrow hits... ..and at what range. To get an idea of the consequences of an arrow storm, I've had these life-size targets made. Gentlemen, you can see these targets ahead of you there, representing knights on horses at different distances. So what we want to do is see how well you can hit them, changing the range as we go. We need a little bit of military urgency with this, as if it's in a battle situation. So don't fuss too much about aiming. But the result is important. Knock! Draw! Loose! At 100 metres, fewer arrows hit home. They're coming, they're coming! Change range! But at close range, it's a different story. Well, he's not very well, is he? He's really taken a lot of hits. But, you know, I don't think as many of these hits are as deadly as they look. There's some in the shield, some have missed him over the neck, there's one in his lance. The ones that really count are down here. These ones, in his legs, that would bring a horse down instantly. It's not fleshy. That's going to drop the horse. Ones like this, in the flank, I'm not sure how much damage that would do. But it is a very sobering thought to see how quickly a knight and horse can become a pincushion at close range. As the first great French charge swept up the hill at Crecy, there was little doubt the experienced English archers were aiming for the horses. They were by far the softer targets. The King of France himself is recorded as having two horses killed beneath him. Our tests have shown that the knights in their armour were much better protected. They were only really vulnerable at close range, as the arrows hit home at over 140 miles an hour. But once the mounted knights were unhorsed, their formation broken, they were easy prey. The pride of France was hacked to pieces by sorties of English men-at-arms. Carnage must have been immense. Yes. The French came, what, 16 times? Well, some of the chroniclers suggest it went on well into the night, into the early hours of the following morning. I think perhaps the most evocative description of the carnage below this position here, the position of Edward the Black Prince's battle, is to be found in the King's own newsletter after the battle. He says that more than 1,500 French knights and noblemen were killed in a small area where the first onslaught took place. Because, of course, once they start to go down, they actually start to make a barricade in favour of the English. So it's a stopping point. It halts the charge. You get carcasses and bodies. A series of sort of mounds of dead and writhing carcasses, very difficult to get through, so you're going around them and providing new targets for the archers on the hillside above them. It's a horrific scene down there in Vallée de Clare after a matter of minutes. But not only did they lose the battle, not only did they lose such terrible loss of life, but it was a real slap in the face for the class. In many ways, one can characterise the Battle of Crecy as a confrontation between two political communities. By the end of the battle, the English political community was still intact. Only two knights are known by name to have been killed in Edward's army. Certainly no noblemen. On the French side, the nobility had been devastated. It is estimated that the total French casualties were up to 10,000. They included some of the most important people in Europe. The flower of the French aristocracy lay dead in the valley. Perhaps the most effective summing up of this from the French perspective is to be found in the Grand Chronicle, where he says it's a great shame that so many French noblemen had been killed, had been brought down by men of no value. That is to say, archers. The Battle of Crecy was an extraordinary victory, founded on the perfect combination of expert archers, supreme bows and the right tactics. It marked the height of the power of the longbow. But already at Crecy, a new sound filled the air. The sound of the weapon that was eventually to replace the bow. The gun.