210 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



1 1 



[period II. 



it was necessary for him to convert his lancers into heavy 

 armed pikemen and form them in his line of battle as 

 infantry. 



In rear of his army he inclosed a large park or en- 

 trenchment for his baggage-waggons and horses, for he 

 determined that all his army should fight on foot that 

 day. His troops were drawn up in three divisions ; the 

 first line under command of his son, Edward the Black 

 Prince, the second under the Earl of Northampton, the 

 third under the king himself. The men-at-arms were in 

 the centre, the archers on the flanks, and it seems that at 

 the opening of the action they were extended across the 

 front of the men-at-arms. In this order they calmly 

 awaited the French monarch, who was advancing with 

 an immense army many times greater than that of the 

 English.' 



The French were ranged in three lines also. It is the 

 first battle fought in France of which history has left us 

 complete details of the formation. The front line, accord- 

 ing to Froissart, consisted of 15,000 Genoese crossbow- 

 men ; the second line, under the command of the Count 

 of Alen9on, comprised 4,000 gendarmes and a large 

 number of infantry ; the third line, under King Philip, 

 consisted principally of the French noblesse and chivalry. 



The Genoese arbaletriers opened the action by advan- 

 cing and shooting their bolts against the English. A 

 shower had relaxed the string of the crossbows so that 

 the missiles fell short. The English yeomen, who had 

 been able to keep their bowstrings dry, at once opened 

 up with terrible volleys of their clothyard shafts which 

 fell like hail. When the Genoese felt these arrows, which 

 pierced their arms, heads, and armour, some cut their 

 bowstrings, others flung their crossbows on the ground, 

 and all turned about and retreated. The French had a 

 large body of men-at-arms on horseback supporting them. 

 When the king saw his mercenaries giving way, he called 

 out in anger to his cavalry to charge them, which was 

 done, and a struggle took place between the two parties 

 of the French army which threw them into confusion. 



' Froissart, i. ch. 127. 



