Absolutely delicious delight! King Edward puts two ancient enemies to flight!
As he surveyed the battlefield at Crecy with its thousands of French corpses, Edward would have said:
‘How sweet it is! Oh how so very sweet!
To watch Philip’s army beat such a hasty retreat!’
An English commander realising that the king was not in his tent asked a servant: ‘Perchance, where art his majesty?
The servant replied:
He’s out in the field, busy counting the French dead!
The king is upset that so many of the French actually fled!
Edward III counting the French dead at Crecy.
Determined to capitalise on his incredible victory at Crecy, Edward moved north to the French port of Calais. Edward began the siege of the port in September and the inhabitants would hold out stoically for nearly a year. Whilst watching Calais’s walls, he got more good news from England in October. The king of Scots, David II, had invaded England as part of his alliance with Philip VI. King David expected to attain a great victory over the English while Edward’s back was turned in France. However, English forces inflicted a heavy defeat on the Scots at Neville’s Cross near Durham and had captured King David. Edward was ecstatic, and Philip VI totally despondent. Edward had vanquished two ancient enemies in a matter of days.
David II of Scotland meets with Philip VI of France.
The battle of Neville’s Cross, October 1346.
Edward would have remarked:
‘So you thought that you could attack my realm while I was away in France, Davy boy!
But your cheeky, sneaky attack has brought you only deep bitterness, not great joy!
Now you are going to be paraded through the streets of London astride a big black horse!
Whilst the people of London, shout insults at you until they cry themselves hoarse!’
True to his word, that is exactly what happened.
The siege of Calais.
Edward was determined to take Calais, because as a port it would give him a vital gateway into France to advance his campaign against Philip VI. Edward, a man who knew the importance of pageantry, arranged his army before the city walls where the inhabitants could see them. The steel armour of the knights glistening in the sun would have made for a splendid but formidable sight. The archers holding up their longbows which had felled the French military elite at Crecy only weeks before were a grim reminder of what might lie in store for themselves. At the head of the English host, the royal standard bearing the lions of England quartered by the golden lilies of France, was held aloft for all to see.
The Calais garrison under the command of Jean de Vienne was determined to resist the siege and awaited an army from Philip VI which never came. After a while the English proved successful in preventing supplies getting into the port by either land or sea. As time went on, famine set in and the besieged were reduced to eating any vermin that they could find. On June 25th in desperation, de Vienne wrote a letter to Philip VI which stated that:
‘we can find no more food in the town unless we eat men’s flesh…this is the last letter that you will receive from me, for the town will be lost and all of us that are within it.’
The English intercepted the letter, and Edward, after reading its contents stamped his own royal seal upon it and sent it on to Philip. On August 1st 1347, with no help forthcoming from King Philip, de Vienne and the city burghers decided to surrender Calais to Edward. Edward agreed to spare the lives of the people of Calais on condition that six of its leading citizens (burghers) would submit themselves to him attired in white shirts with each of their necks adorned with a noose. They would then be hanged in full view of the population of Calais. Again, it was stereotypical of Edward’s highly developed sense of political showmanship. A piece of macabre theatre which would incite a grim thrill amongst his own men and also engender a feeling of utter shame and despair in the hearts of the vanquished French.
The burghers of Calais submitting to Edward.
However, it is said that Edward’s wife Queen Philippa of Hainhault interceded on behalf of the six condemned burghers. It is said that she implored the king to spare their lives but the king, not wishing to deny his men a promised performance, initially declined the Queen’s request.
Queen Philippa implores the king to spare the lives of the burghers of Calais.
At the Queen’s insistence, the king reluctantly relented and the burghers were spared. It has been suggested that Edward intended to spare their lives all along and that the Queen’s act of mercy was in fact a starring role in a scene of contrived drama.
Edward evicted the entire population of Calais who were then replaced by English settlers. The port of Calais became an English colony which would act as a springboard to mount further attacks upon the French.