ANST - FW: Musing on September 17th -- That's Poitier, Sidney!

[j'lynn yeates]

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- -----Original Message-----
From: Ellsworth Weaver [mailto:astroweaver at yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2000 23:55
To: 2thpix at surfari.net
Subject: Musing on September 17th -- That's Poitier, Sidney!


Dear Folk,

On September 17 (some say the 19th), 1356, the Black Prince met with
King Jean II of France. Somebody was not going to go home alone. Some
were not going home at all.

We are talking about the ever-popular time known as the Hundred Years
War. It was a tussle for the English lands in France. Remember that
the
Plantagenets, leading off from William the Bastard or Conqueror (you
choose) right up to Henry V, had been kings of England but also major
land holders on the continent.

A great excuse for war was the claim of the kings of England to the
French throne. Edward III of England (remember he was son of the
executed Eddie II of "Eddie and the Cruisers") claimed that he was
the
legal heir to the French throne through his mother, Isabella, sister
to
King Charles IV of France, who had died in 1328. Isabella had been
responsible for her husband’s death and the succession of her son.
She
was a pretty danged strong-willed woman, a "perilous beauty" in Brian
Jacques’ terms. The French, however, said that the crown could not
descend through the female line and gave the throne to Philip VI,
cousin to the deceased king. You see, that kind of politically
incorrect thinking can get someone in trouble.

Edward’s peevishness toward Philip was chronic because France had
helped Scotland in the wars waged by Edward and his father against
the
Scottish kings for the throne of Scotland. Plus, there was the matter
of Flanders. England and France both wanted exclusive trading rights
with the Flemish merchants.

Although there had been some chest thumping and some pushing earlier,
most folk date the start of the War as May 24, 1337 when Philip VI
grabbed the duchy of Guienne from the English. Edward owned that land
fair and square. True, he owed allegiance to Philip for it. Does this
sound confusing? Try being one of the English monarchs at the time.
They were tops at home but across the channel they were beholding to
some Frenchman.

In 1338 Edward III declared himself king of France. Now that was just
the thing to cheese off Philip. Edward decided it was time to go look
at his new kingdom and scheduled a tour de France starting up north.
There were some opening greetings exchanged between French and
English
soldiers but no one won anything like a major battle. The sailors did
better for the English at a battle off the city of Sluis in the
Netherlands in 1340. Them Limey swabbies proved themselves and for
quite some time afterward the English owned the English Channel. Note
it is not called the French Channel, eh?

A boring three year truce was called for in 1343 but Edward decided
to
trek back to France just to see if he could. Well, on August 26, 1346
Edward found out he could when he caught the French  at the Battle of
Crecy and then took the city of Calais after a year long siege.

Another boring series of truces kept everyone pretty much alive from
1347 to 1355. King Philip was a notable exception who expired and
left
the shoving match to his son Jean II. Now Edward III’s son, Edward
the
Black Prince (not to be confused with the Black Death although both
had
the same effect), was in charge of slicing and dicing on his side. He
took Bordeaux in 1355 and used it as a base to go out raiding most of
southern France. The wine was good, the women fair, the purses rich.
Later in 1355 King Edward and the Duke of Lancaster went to Calais.
There were English in the south and now in the north. King Jean
raised
his own army in defense.

In 1356 the Black Prince decided to meet with Lancaster so he set off
from his new home in Bordeaux, packed some wine and cheese, headed
across the Loire river to link up. Of course the English had to do a
tad of freelancing raping and pillaging along the way. What good is
being a soldier without it? There really wasn’t much strategy
involved
here.

King Jean just followed the smell of burning villages and the hordes
of
folks fleeing until he found Edward the Black Prince’s troops.  The
troops were kind of laden heavy with all that treasure and were slow
moving by now. The French destroyed the bridges over the Loire which
made Edward’s retreat kind of iffy. In a way that aided the English:
if
you cannot retreat, you tend to fight that much harder. Myself, I
would
have appeared to allow one bridge to stand. Tee-hee.

Prince Edward settled on a position approximately two miles south of
Poitiers. He chose a wooded slope protected on the west by marshes
and
on the north and east by hedges. Edward divided his force of
approximately 7,000 men into three units, all of which fought on
foot.

Before the battle could start, Cardinal Tallyrand tried to work out a
peace arrangement. A truce was called on September 16, and the French
began to make demands. Everyone disagrees as to what Prince Edward's
bargaining position was. He either offered to surrender Calais and
the
other English possessions in France or simply stated that he had no
authority from his father to make any deals whatsoever. Regardless,
he
was not able to satisfy the French, whatever their demands were.

There is also some dispute as to whether or not the Prince tried to
strategically withdraw, polite term for "sneaking off", after the
negotiations had failed and before the battle in order to escape to
Bordeaux with his truckloads of lava lamps and costume jewelry.
Strangely, the French seemed to just while away the hours during this
negotiation and not even surround the English. I guess they thought
they had caught these chicken hounds dead to rights. The French had
about 20,000 more men than the English.

The French were not able to use these numbers effectively. First off
they listened to Sir William Douglas and had most of their troops
dismount. Hey, the English had won with these tactics. True, they did
so only on the defense. Would that make a difference? The French had
a
contingent of Genoese crossbowmen whom they actually hated and just
scattered them throughout the troops. Maybe it was so the French
could
keep an eye on them. King Jean picked 300 elite knights to go ride up
and kill those silly English bowmen. The rest of the troops were
split
three ways: Jean’s 19 year old son the Dauphin, the Duke of Orleans
(Jean’s brother, also inexperienced), and the King who led the
biggest
group.

Things went badly for the French cavalry. The English hid their
archers
beneath hedges and in marshes and popped the French in the flanks and
rear. That was hardly playing fair. The cavalry retired, riding over
the infantry trying hard to charge. Although the Dauphin’s forces
tried, the English held the hedges and with a mobile force of 400
extra
guys they could reinforce any weak spots.

The Dauphin’s forces decided to go back a bit. That gave the English
time to pick up arrows, retrieve the wounded, have a spot of tea and
some nice sandwiches. Somehow, and it may have been that someone told
the Dauphin not to stay on the battlefield or maybe something else
weird happened but the Dauphin left. His troops followed him away
from
the battle. Duke of Orleans’ men saw this and they left, too, without
even throwing a blow or insulting the English.

What would you have thought, said or done if you had been King Jean?
Here his son and brother both lead their troops away from the battle
leaving you alone with the English. Okay, his force still outnumber
the
English. Forward France! The English almost messed their armor when
they saw the force coming to bash them. There were a lot of
battlefield
conversions and conversations with the Lord, you can bet. Edward sent
a
Gascon named Captal de Buch with 60 men and 100 archers to sneak out
of
camp and swing around the slope to come out of the thickets and hit
the
French from the flanks and rear. Got the picture?

The English main force massed up, ran down the hill toward the
French.
The French charged the English. Just as they were back to back and
belly to belly, teeth and eyeballs flying all over, the little
contingent lead by Captal de Buch opened up on the French from
behind.
"Alors! Where are these arrows coming <gack!>?" Yep! The French ran
away toward Poitiers thinking that they had been trapped. King Jean
and
his retinue which included his son stayed to be knocked down or
captured by the English. The English wound up slaying many of the
fleeing French because the folk of Poitiers had locked their gates
and
were not about to allow a battle to continue inside their walls. The
ground outside the gates was slick with French blood.

This was not the end of the 100 Years War. Actually when it was all
over, England had lost Edward III and his son the Black Prince, and
all
of the English claims to land in France. This was only a brief high
spot in that war. Bragging rights to those English who were there,
doncha know? To beat England took the strength of a farm girl who
heard
voices and dressed in men’s armor. But that is another story.

What have we learned? Bordeaux is a great place to hangout? Black
Plagues and Black Princes can really ruin your day? Stiff-necked
knights can be loosened by some English acupuncture? To win a battle
is
not to win the war? How about always leave your enemy a route of
retreat?

So if you are off pin-cushioning a few nobles (like I got to try this
weekend with Baron Akmir; thanks, Excellency), raiding and pillaging
a
few French towns, or just locking your doors to a running away army,
and you want to send these off to someone, do so but leave my name
and
sig attached.

Showing folk the arrows of their ways,
J. Ellsworth Weaver

SCA – Sir Balthazar of Endor
AS – Polyphemus Theognis
TRV – Sebastian Yeats


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