There
were some of the Frenchmen of Artois and Picardy that were as
glad to joust in the water as on the dry land.
were some of the Frenchmen of Artois and Picardy that were as
glad to joust in the water as on the dry land.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v10 - Emp to Fro
This volume is not known to exist,
nor any copy of it. The Queen made him a clerk of her chamber.
He had abundant opportunity in England to gratify his curiosity and
fill his note-book, for the court was full of French noblemen, lately
come over as hostages for King Jean of France, who was captured at
the battle of Poitiers.
In 1365 he took letters of recommendation from the Queen to
David Bruce, King of Scotland, whom he followed for three months
in his progress through that realm; spending a fortnight at the castle
of William Douglas and making everywhere diligent inquiry about the
recent war of 1345. In his delightful little poem The Debate be-
tween the Horse and the Greyhound,' beginning, "Froissart from
## p. 6037 (#631) ###########################################
FROISSART
6037
Scotland was returning," we have a lifelike figure of the inquisitive
young chronicler, pushing unweariedly from inn to inn on a tired
horse and leading a footsore dog.
In
Between his thirtieth and his thirty-fourth year he was sometimes
in England and sometimes in various parts of the Continent.
August 1369, while he was abroad, his patroness Queen Philippa
died. She had encouraged him to continue his researches and writ-
ings, and he had presented her with a second volume, in prose, which
has come down to us as a part of the chronicle. He admits that his
work was an expansion of the chronicle of Jean le Bel, Canon of
Saint Lambert at Liège, for he says:- "As all great rivers are made
by the gathering together of many streams and springs, so the sciences
also are extracted and compiled by many clerks: what one knows, the
other does not. "
On hearing of the Queen's death, Froissart settled in his own coun-
try of Hainault. There he won favor from princes, as was his custom,
by giving them manuscripts of his chronicle, which was growing
apace. By the middle of 1373 we find him become a churchman and
provided with a living, in which he remained ten years, compiling
fresh history and correcting what he had already written and put in
circulation. A little later, 1376 to 1383, he made a more thorough
revision of his chronicle, going so far as to modify its spirit, which
had been favorable to English character and policy, and make it
more agreeable to partisans of France. Although Froissart was not a
Frenchman, his writings are all in the French language, which was
of course his native tongue.
About the beginning of 1384 he was made a canon of the Church,
at Chimay, a small town near the French frontier, and in this region
he observed the military movements then going on there, and re-
corded them immediately in Book ii. of his chronicle. Four years of
quiet were however too much for his mobile and energetic spirit;
and in 1388, hearing that the Count Gaston de Foix, in the Pyrenees,
was a man likely to know many details of the English wars in Gas-
cony and Guyenne, he set out to visit him, taking among other pres-
ents a book of his poetry and two couples of hounds. When he still
had ten days to travel he met a gentleman of Foix, with whom he
journeyed the rest of the way, beguiling the time with talk about the
sieges the various towns upon their route had suffered.
"At the words which he spoke I was delighted, for they pleased me much,
and right well did I retain them all; and as soon as I had dismounted at the
hostelries along the road which we traveled together, I wrote them down, at
evening as in the morning, to have a better record of them in times to come;
for there is nothing so retentive as writing. "
## p. 6038 (#632) ###########################################
6038
FROISSART
Count Gaston received him hospitably, and filled his three months'
sojourn with stories of great events. Then Froissart visited many
towns of Provence and Languedoc. These peregrinations furnished
much of the material for Book iii. Little more is known of his life,
except with respect to a visit to England which he made in 1394,
and which enabled him to collect material for a large part of Book
iv. , the last in the chronicle. He is supposed to have died at Chi-
may, later than 1400, and perhaps, as tradition asserts, in 1410.
It is an engaging picture, this, of a genial, sharp-eyed, some-
what worldly churchman, riding his gray horse over hill and dale in
quest of knowledge. We can fancy him arriving at his inn of an
evening, and at once asking the obsequious host what knight or other
great person dwells in the neighborhood. He loses no time before
calling at the castle, and is gladly admitted when he tells his well-
known name. He is ready to pay for any historical information with
a story from his own collection. He is welcome everywhere, and for
his part does not regret the time thus spent, nor the money,- sev-
eral fortunes, by his own count,- for he has the light heart of the
true traveler. It is always sunshine where he goes. The clangor
of arms and the blare of trumpets hover ever above the horizon.
Around the corner of every hill sits a fair castle by a shining river.
From town to town, from province to province, his love of listening
draws him on. To realize the charm of journeying in those days,
we must remember that the local customs and qualities were almost
undisturbed by communication; two French cities only a score of
miles apart would often differ from each other as much as Nurem-
berg does from Venice.
"And I tell you for a truth," we read, "that to make these chronicles I
have gone in my time much through the world, both to fulfill my pleasure
by seeing the wonders of the earth, and to inquire about the arms and advent-
ures that are written in this book. "
So to horse, good Canon of Chimay! Throw aside books; there is
news of fighting in the South; after the battle, soldiers will talk.
There have been deeds of courage and romance. Hasten thither,
while the tale of them is new!
If he were not so celebrated as a chronicler, Froissart would be
known as one of the last of the wandering minstrels. He had the
roving foot; he lived by charming the rich into generosity with his
recitals. And he wrote much poetry, which is little read, except
where it has some autobiographical interest. We possess the long
poems, 'L'Espinette Amoureuse,' 'Le Buisson de Jeunesse,' 'Le Dit
du Florin,' and several shorter pieces, with fragments of his once
famous versified romance Méliador. '
## p. 6039 (#633) ###########################################
FROISSART
6039
His great prose work, while professing to be a history, in distinc-
tion from the chronicles of previous writers, is however not an
orderly narration, nor is it a philosophical treatment of political
causes and effects. It is a collection of pictures and stories, without
much unity except the constant purpose of exhibiting the prowess of
knighthood. There is not much indication even of partisanship or
patriotic feeling. Froissart generally gives due meed of praise to the
best knight in every bout, the best battalion in every encounter,
regardless of sides.
The subjects treated are so numerous and disparate that no gen-
eral idea of them can be given. They cover the time from 1326 to
1394, and lead us through England, Scotland, Flanders, Hainault,
France, Italy, Spain, and Northern Africa. Among the most interest-
ing passages are the story of King Edward's campaign against the
Scots; his march through France; the battle of Crécy; the siege of
Calais; Wat Tyler's Rebellion, which Froissart the well-fed parasite
treats with an odd and inconsistent mingling of horror and contempt;
the Jacquerie, which he says was the work of peasant dogs, the scum
of the earth; the battle of Poitiers, with a fine description of the Black
Prince waiting at table on poor captured King Jean; and the rise
and fall of Philip van Artevelde.
Froissart's chronicle used to be regarded as authoritative history.
But as might have been expected from his mode of inquiry, it is full
of geographical, chronological, and other errors. Getting his infor-
mation by ear, he wrote proper names phonetically, or turned
them into something resembling French. Thus Worcester becomes
"Vaucestre," Seymour "Simon," Sutherland "Surlant," Walter Tyler
"Vautre Tuilier," Edinburgh "Hedaimbourch," Stirling "Eturmelin. "
The persons from whom he got his material were generally partisans
either of France or of England, and often told him their stories
years after the events; so that although he tried to be impartial
himself, and to offset one witness by another, he seldom heard a
judicial account of a battle or a quarrel. He seems to have con-
sulted few written records, though he might easily have seen the
State papers of England and Hainault.
It is useless to blame him, however; for the writing of mere his-
tory was not his purpose. With all his fine devotion to his life
work, a devotion which is the more admirable when we consider his
pleasure-loving nature,- with all his attention to fairness, his great
concern was not so much to instruct as to delight, first himself, sec-
ondly the great people of his age, and lastly posterity, on whom he
ever and anon cast a shrewd and longing glance. To please his con-
temporaries, he several times revised his work. Posterity has nearly
always preferred what might be called the first edition, which is the
most unconscious and entertaining, though the least precise.
## p. 6040 (#634) ###########################################
6040
FROISSART
But if we must deny him much of the value as a political his-
torian which was once attributed to him, we may still regard him as
a great authority for the general aspect of life in the fourteenth
century. Manners, customs, morals, as well as armor and dress, are
no doubt correctly portrayed in his book. We learn from it what
was deemed virtue and what vice; we learn that although religion
was sincerely professed by the upper classes, it was not very success-
fully practiced, and had amazingly little effect upon morals. We are
struck, for instance, with the absence of imagination or sympathy
which permitted people to witness the horrible tortures inflicted on
prisoners and criminals, although their minds were frequently filled
with visions of supernatural beings. Froissart unconsciously makes
himself, too, a medium for studying human character in his time, by
his negative morality, his complacent recording of crimes, his uncon-
cerned mention of horrors. Yet from his bringing up as a poet, and
his scholarly associations, and his connection with the Church, it is
likely he was a gentler man than nine-tenths of the knights and
squires and men-at-arms about him.
There is an indifference colder even than cynicism in his failure
to remark on the sufferings of the poor, which were so awful in his
age. It is the result of class prejudice, and seems deliberate. The
burned village, the trampled grain-field, the cowering women, the
starved children, the rotting corpses, the mangled forms of living
and agonizing foot-soldiers,-- all these consequences of war he sees
and occasionally mentions, yet they hardly touch him. But he is
forever mourning the death of stricken knights as if it were a woe-
ful loss. Yet for all his association with the governing class, we
never find ourselves thinking of him as anything but a commoner
raised to fortune by genius and favor. He has not the distinction of
Joinville, who was a nobleman in the conventional sense and also in
the truest sense.
Froissart's merit, then, is not that he is a great political historian,
nor even a great historian of the culture of his time. He did not
see accurately enough to be the first, nor broadly and deeply and
independently enough to be the second. But kindly Nature made
him something else, and enabled him to win that name "which hon-
oreth most and most endureth. " She gave him the painter's eye, the
poet's fancy, and it is as the artist of chivalry he lives to-day. His
chronicle may be often false to historical fact, it may not display a
broad and sympathetic intelligence or a generous impatience of con-
ventionality, but it does please, it does enthrall. It is one of those
books without moral intent, like the Arabian Nights, which the boys
of all ages will persist in reading, and which men delight in if they
love good pictures and good story-telling. No more lasting colors
have come down to us from Venetian painters than those which rush
## p. 6041 (#635) ###########################################
FROISSART
6041
out from the words on his pages. His scenes do not take shape in
our minds as etchings or engravings, but smile themselves into being,
like oil-paintings. Sunlight, the glint of steel, red and yellow ban-
ners waving, white horses galloping over the sand, flashing armor,
glittering spurs, the shining faces of eager men, fill with glory this
great pictorial wonder-book of the Middle Ages.
GeoMi Lion Harper
THE INVASION OF FRANCE BY KING EDWARD III, AND THE
BATTLE OF CRÉCY
From the Chronicles': Translation of John Bourchier, Lord Berners
HOW THE KING OF ENGLAND RODE THROUGH NORMANDY
WHEN
THEN the King of England arrived in the Hogue Saint-Vaast,
the King issued out of his ship, and the first foot that he
set on the ground he fell so rudely that the blood brast
out of his nose. The knights that were about him took him up
and said, "Sir, for God's sake enter again into your ship, and
come not aland this day, for this is but an evil sign for us. "
Then the King answered quickly and said, "Wherefore? This is
a good token for me, for the land desireth to have me. " Of the
which answer all his men were right joyful. So that day and
night the King lodged on the sands, and in the mean time dis-
charged the ships of their horses and other baggages; there the
King made two marshals of his host, the one the Lord Godfrey
of Harcourt and the other the Earl of Warwick, and the Earl of
Arundel constable. And he ordained that the Earl of Hunting-
don should keep the fleet of ships with a hundred men of arms
and four hundred archers; and also he ordained three battles, one
to go on his right hand, closing to the seaside, and the other on
his left hand, and the King himself in the midst, and every night
to lodge all in one field.
Thus they set forth as they were ordained, and they that went
by the sea took all the ships that they found in their ways; and
so long they went forth, what by sea and what by land, that they
came to a good port and to a good town called Barfleur, the
## p. 6042 (#636) ###########################################
6042
FROISSART
which incontinent was won, for they within gave up for fear of
death. Howbeit, for all that, the town was robbed, and much
gold and silver there found, and rich jewels; there was found so
much riches, that the boys and villains of the host set nothing
by good furred gowns; they made all the men of the town to
issue out and to go into the ships, because they would not suffer
them to be behind them for fear of rebelling again. After the
town of Barfleur was thus taken and robbed without brenning,
then they spread abroad in the country and did what they list,
for there was not to resist them. At last they came to a great
and a rich town called Cherbourg; the town they won and robbed
it, and brent part thereof, but into the castle they could not
come, it was so strong and well furnished with men of war.
OF THE GREAT ASSEMBLY THAT THE FRENCH KING MADE TO RESIST
THE KING OF ENGLAND
THUS by the Englishmen was brent, exiled, robbed, wasted,
and pilled the good plentiful country of Normandy. Then the
French King sent for the Lord John of Hainault, who came to
him with a great number; also the King sent for other men of
arms, dukes, earls, barons, knights, and squires, and assembled
together the greatest number of people that had been seen in
France a hundred year before. He sent for men into so far
countries, that it was long or they came together, wherefore the
King of England did what him list in the mean season. The
French King heard well what he did, and sware and said how
they should never return again unfought withal, and that such
hurts and damages as they had done should be dearly revenged;
wherefore he had sent letters to his friends in the Empire, to
such as were farthest off, and also to the gentle King of Bohe-
mia and to the Lord Charles his son, who from thenceforth was
called King of Almaine; he was made King by the aid of his
father and the French King, and had taken on him the arms of
the Empire: the French King desired them to come to him with
all their powers, to the intent to fight with the King of England,
who brent and wasted his country. These Princes and Lords
made them ready with great number of men of arms, of Almains,
Bohemians, and Luxemburgers, and so came to the French King.
Also King Philip sent to the Duke of Lorraine, who came to
serve him with three hundred spears; also there came the Earl
## p. 6043 (#637) ###########################################
FROISSART
6043
[of] Salm in Saumois, the Earl of Sarrebruck, the Earl of Flan-
ders, the Earl William of Namur, every man with a fair company.
Ye have heard herebefore of the order of the Englishmen;
how they went in three battles, the marshals on the right hand
and on the left, the King and the Prince of Wales his son in the
midst. They rode but small journeys, and every day took their
lodgings between noon and three of the clock, and found the
country so fruitful that they needed not to make no provision for
their host, but all only for wine; and yet they found reasonably
sufficient thereof. It was no marvel, though, they of the coun-
try were afraid; for before that time they had never seen men of
war, nor they wist not what war or battle meant. They fled
away as far as they might hear speaking of the Englishmen, and
left their houses well stuffed, and granges full of corn; they wist
not how to save and keep it. The King of England and the
Prince had in their battle a three thousand men of arms and six
thousand archers, and a ten thousand men afoot, beside them
that rode with the marshals.
Then the King went toward Caen, the which was a greater
town and full of drapery and other merchandise, and rich bur-
gesses, noble ladies and damosels, and fair churches, and spe-
cially two great and rich abbeys, one of the Trinity, another of
Saint Stephen; and on the one side of the town one of the fair-
est castles of all Normandy, and captain therein was Robert of
Wargny, with three hundred Genoways, and in the town was the
Earl of Eu and of Guines, Constable of France, and the Earl of
Tancarville, with a good number of men of war. The King of
England rode that day in good order and lodged all his battles
together that night, a two leagues from Caen, in a town with a
little haven called Austrehem, and thither came also all his navy
of ships with the Earl of Huntingdon, who was governour of
them.
The constable and other lords of France that night watched
well the town of Caen, and in the morning armed them with all
them of the town: then the constable ordained that none should
issue out, but keep their defenses on the walls, gate, bridge, and
river; and left the suburbs void, because they were not closed;
for they thought they should have enough to do to defend the
town, because it was not closed but with the river. They of the
town said how they would issue out, for they were strong enough
to fight with the King of England. When the constable saw their
## p. 6044 (#638) ###########################################
6044
FROISSART
good wills, he said, "In the name of God be it, ye shall not
fight without me. " Then they issued out in good order, and
made good face to fight and to defend them and to put their
lives in adventure.
OF THE BATTLE OF CAEN, AND HOW THE ENGLISHMEN TOOK THE TOWN
THE same day the Englishmen rose early and appareled them
ready to go to Caen. * The King heard mass before the sun-
rising, and then took his horse, and the Prince his son, with Sir
Godfrey of Harcourt, marshal and leader of the host, whose coun-
sel the King much followed. Then they drew toward Caen with
their battles in good array, and so approached the good town of
Caen. When they of the town, who were ready in the field, saw
these three battles coming in good order, with their banners and
standards waving in the wind, and the archers, the which they
had not been accustomed to see, they were sore afraid and fled
away toward the town without any order or good array, for all
that the constable could do; then the Englishmen pursued them.
eagerly. When the constable and the Earl Tancarville saw that,
they took a gate at the entry and saved themselves and certain
with them, for the Englishmen were entered into the town.
Some of the knights and squires of France, such as knew the
way to the castle, went thither, and the captain there received.
them all, for the castle was large. The Englishmen in the chase.
slew many, for they took none to mercy.
Then the constable and the Earl of Tancarville, being in the
little tower at the bridge foot, looked along the street and saw
their men slain without mercy; they doubted to fall in their
hands. At last they saw an English knight with one eye, called
Sir Thomas Holland, and a five or six other knights with him;
they knew them, for they had seen them before in Pruce, in
Granade, and in other viages. Then they called to Sir Thomas
and said how they would yield themselves prisoners. Then Sir
Thomas came thither with his company and mounted up into
the gate, and there found the said lords with twenty-five
knights with them, who yielded them to Sir Thomas; and he
*This was 26th July, 1346. Edward arrived at Poissy on 12th August;
Philip of Valois left Paris on the 14th; the English crossed the Seine at Poissy
on the 16th, and the Somme at Blanche-taque on the 24th.
## p. 6045 (#639) ###########################################
FROISSART
6045
took them for his prisoners and left company to keep them, and
then mounted again on his horse and rode into the streets, and
saved many lives of ladies, damosels, and cloisterers from defoil-
ing,- for the soldiers were without mercy. It fell so well the
same season for the Englishmen, that the river, which was able
to bear ships, at that time was so low that men went in and
out beside the bridge. They of the town were entered into their
houses, and cast down into the street stones, timber, and iron,
and slew and hurt more than five hundred Englishmen; where-
with the King was sore displeased. At night when he heard
thereof, he commanded that the next day all should be put to
the sword and the town brent; but then Sir Godfrey of Harcourt
said: "Dear sir, for God's sake assuage somewhat your courage,
and let it suffice you that ye have done. Ye have yet a great
voyage to do or ye come before Calais, whither ye purpose to
go: and sir, in this town there is much people who will defend
their houses, and it will cost many of your men their lives, or
ye have all at your will; whereby peradventure ye shall not keep
your purpose to Calais, the which should redound to your rack.
Sir, save your people, for ye shall have need of them or this
month pass; for I think verily your adversary King Philip will
meet with you to fight, and ye shall find many strait passages
and rencounters; wherefore your men, an ye had more, shall
stand you in good stead: and sir, without any further slaying ye
shall be lord of this town; men and women will put all that
they have to your pleasure. " Then the King said, "Sir Godfrey,
you are our marshal; ordain everything as ye will. " Then Sir
Godfrey with his banner rode from street to street, and com-
manded in the King's name none to be so hardy to put fire in
any house, to slay any person, nor to violate any woman. When
they of the town heard that cry, they received the Englishmen
into their houses and made them good cheer, and some opened
their coffers and bade them take what them list, so they might
be assured of their lives; howbeit there were done in the town
many evil deeds, murders, and robberies. Thus the Englishmen
were lords of the town three days and won great riches, the
which they sent by barks and barges to Saint-Saviour by the
river of Austrehem, a two leagues thence, whereas all their navy
lay. Then the King sent the Earl of Huntingdon with two
hundred men of arms and four hundred archers, with his navy
and prisoners and riches that they had got, back again into
England. And the King bought of Sir Thomas Holland the
-
## p. 6046 (#640) ###########################################
6046
FROISSART
Constable of France and the Earl of Tancarville, and paid for
them twenty thousand nobles.
The next day the King departed, brenning and wasting all
before him, and at night lodged in a good village called Grand-
villiers. The next day the King passed by Dargies; there was
none to defend the castle, wherefore it was soon taken and brent.
Then they went forth destroying the country all about, and so
came to the castle of Poix, where there was a good town and
two castles. There was nobody in them but two fair damosels,
daughters to the Lord of Poix; they were soon taken, and had
been violated, an two English knights had not been, Sir John
Chandos and Sir Basset; they defended them and brought them
to the King, who for his honor made them good cheer and
demanded of them whither they would fainest go. They said,
"To Corbie," and the King caused them to be brought thither
without peril. That night the King lodged in the town of Poix.
They of the town and of the castles spake that night with the
marshals of the host, to save them and their town from bren-
ning, and they to pay a certain sum of florins the next day as
soon as the host was departed. This was granted them, and in
the morning the King departed with all his host, except a certain
that were left there to receive the money that they of the town
had promised to pay. When they of the town saw the host
depart and but a few left behind, then they said they would pay
never a penny, and so ran out and set on the Englishmen, who
defended themselves as well as they might and sent after the
host for succor. When Sir Raynold Cobham and Sir Thomas
Holland, who had the rule of the rear guard, heard thereof, they
returned and cried, "Treason, treason! " and so came again to
Poix-ward and found their companions still fighting with them
of the town. Then anon they of the town were nigh all slain,
and the town brent, and the two castles beaten down. Then
they returned to the King's host, who was as then at Airaines
and there lodged, and had commanded all manner of men on
pain of death to do no hurt to no town of Arsyn,* for there the
King was minded to lie a day or two to take advice how he
might pass the river of Somme; for it was necessary for him to
pass the river, as ye shall hear after.
* Probably a misunderstanding by Froissart of the English word "arson":
the king's command being not to burn the towns on the Somme, as he
wanted them for shelter.
## p. 6047 (#641) ###########################################
FROISSART
6047
HOW THE FRENCH KING FOLLOWED THE KING OF ENGLAND IN
BEAUVOISINOIS
Now LET us speak of King Philip, who was at Saint-Denis and
his people about him, and daily increased. Then on a day he
departed and rode so long that he came to Coppegueule, a three
leagues from Amiens, and there he tarried. The King of Eng-
land, being at Airaines, wist not where for to pass the river of
Somme, the which was large and deep, and all bridges were
broken and the passages well kept. Then at the King's com-
mandment his two marshals with a thousand men of arms and
two thousand archers went along the river to find some passage,
and passed by Longpré, and came to the bridge of Remy, the which
was well kept with a great number of knights and squires and
men of the country. The Englishmen alighted afoot and assailed
the Frenchmen from the morning till it was noon; but the bridge
was so well fortified and defended that the Englishmen departed
without winning of anything. Then they went to a great town
called Fountains, on the river of Somme, the which was clean
robbed and brent, for it was not closed. Then they went to
another town called Long-en-Ponthieu; they could not win the
bridge, it was so well kept and defended. Then they departed
and went to Picquigny, and found the town, the bridge, and the
castle so well fortified that it was not likely to pass there; the
French King had so well defended the passages, to the intent
that the King of England should not pass the river of Somme,
to fight with him at his advantage or else to famish him there.
When these two marshals had assayed in all places to find
passage and could find none, they returned again to the King,
and shewed how they could find no passage in no place. The
same night the French King came to Amiens with more than a
hundred thousand men. The King of England was right pensive,
and the next morning heard mass before the sun-rising and then
dislodged; and every man followed the marshals' banners, and so
rode in the country of Vimeu approaching to the good town of
Abbeville, and found a town thereby, whereunto was come much
people of the country in trust of a little defense that was there;
but the Englishmen anon won it, and all they that were within
slain, and many taken of the town and of the country. The
King took his lodging in a great hospital* that was there.
The
That is, a house of the Knights of St. John.
## p. 6048 (#642) ###########################################
6048
FROISSART
same day the French King departed from Amiens and came to
Airaines about noon; and the Englishmen were departed thence
in the morning. The Frenchmen found there great provision
that the Englishmen had left behind them, because they departed
in haste. There they found flesh ready on the broaches, bread
and pasties in the ovens, wine in tuns and barrels, and the tables
ready laid. There the French King lodged and tarried for his
lords.
That night the King of England was lodged at Oisemont.
At night when the two marshals were returned, who had that
day overrun the country to the gates Abbeville and to Saint-
Valery and made a great skirmish there, then the King assem-
bled together his council and made to be brought before him
certain prisoners of the country of Ponthieu and of Vimeu. The
King right courteously demanded of them if there were any
among them that knew any passage beneath Abbeville, that he
and his host might pass over the river of Somme: if he would
shew him thereof, he should be quit of his ransom, and twenty
of his company for his love There was a varlet called Gobin
Agace, who stepped forth and said to the King:-"Sir, I promise
you on the jeopardy of my head I shall bring you to such a
place, whereas ye and all your host shall pass the river of
Somme without peril. There be certain places in the passage
that ye shall pass twelve men afront two times between day and
night; ye shall not go in the water to the knees. But when the
flood cometh, the river then waxeth so great that no man can
pass; but when the flood is gone, the which is two times between
day and night, then the river is so low that it may be passed
without danger both a-horseback and afoot. The passage is hard
in the bottom, with white stones, so that all your carriage may
go surely; therefore the passage is called Blanche-Taque. An ye
make ready to depart betimes, ye may be there by the sun-
rising. " The King said, "If this be true that ye say, I quit
thee thy ransom and all thy company, and moreover shall give
thee a hundred nobles. " Then the King commanded every man
to be ready at the sound of the trumpet to depart.
## p. 6049 (#643) ###########################################
FROISSART
6049
OF THE BATTLE OF BLANCHE-TAQUE
THE King of England slept not much that night, for at mid-
night he arose and sowned his trumpet; then incontinent they
made ready carriages and all things, and at the breaking of the
day they departed from the town of Oisemont and rode after the
guiding of Gobin Agace, so that they came by the sun-rising to
Blanche-Taque: but as then the flood was up, so that they might
not pass, so the King tarried there till it was prime; then the
ebb came.
The French King had his currours in the country, who brought
him word of the demeanor of the Englishmen. Then he thought
to close the King of England between Abbeville and the river of
Somme, and so to fight with him at his pleasure. And when he
was at Amiens he had ordained a great baron of Normandy,
called Sir Godemar du Fay, to go and keep the passage of
Blanche-Taque, where the Englishmen must pass or else in
none other place. He had with him a thousand men of arms
and six thousand afoot, with the Genoways; so they went by
Saint-Riquier in Ponthieu and from thence to Crotoy, whereas the
passage lay: and also he had with him a great number of men
of the country, and also a great number of them of Montreuil,
so that they were a twelve thousand men one and other.
When the English host was come thither, Sir Godemar du Fay
arranged all his company to defend the passage. The King of
England let not for all that; but when the flood was gone, he
commanded his marshals to enter into the water in the name of
God and St. George. Then they that were hardy and coura-
geous entered on both parties, and many a man reversed.
There
were some of the Frenchmen of Artois and Picardy that were as
glad to joust in the water as on the dry land.
The Frenchmen defended so well the passage at the issuing
out of the water, that they had much to do. The Genoways
did them great trouble with their cross-bows; on the other side
the archers of England shot so wholly together, that the French-
men were fain to give place to the Englishmen. There was a
sore battle, and many a noble feat of arms done on both sides.
Finally the Englishmen passed over and assembled together in
the field. The King and the Prince passed, and all the lords;
then the Frenchmen kept none array, but departed, he that might
X-379
## p. 6050 (#644) ###########################################
6050
FROISSART
best. When Sir Godemar saw that discomfiture, he fled and
saved himself; some fled to Abbeville and some to Saint-Riquiers.
They that were there afoot could not flee, so that there were
slain a great number of them of Abbeville, Montreuil, Rue, and
of Saint-Riquiers; the chase endured more than a great league.
And as yet all the Englishmen were not passed the river, and
certain currours of the King of Bohemia and of Sir John of
Hainault came on them that were behind, and took certain horses
and carriages and slew divers, or they could take the passage.
The French King the same morning was departed from
Airaines, trusting to have found the Englishmen between him
and the river of Somme; but when he heard how that Sir Gode-
mar du Fay and his company were discomfited, he tarried in
the field and demanded of his marshals what was best to do.
They said, "Sir, ye cannot pass the river but at the bridge of
Abbeville, for the flood is come in at Blanche-Taque;" then he
returned and lodged at Abbeville.
The King of England, when he was past the river, he thanked
God, and so rode forth in like manner as he did before. Then
he called Gobin Agace and did quit him his ransom and all his
company, and gave him a hundred nobles and a good horse.
And so the King rode forth fair and easily, and thought to have
lodged in a great town called Noyelles; but when he knew that
the town pertained to the Countess d'Aumale, sister to the Lord
Robert of Artois,* the King assured the town and country as
much as pertained to her, and so went forth: and his marshals
rode to Crotoy on the seaside and brent the town, and found
in the haven many ships and barks charged with wines of Poitou,
pertaining to the merchants of Saintonge and of Rochelle; they
brought the best thereof to the King's host. Then one of the
marshals rode to the gates of Abbeville and from thence to Saint-
Riquiers, and after to the town of Rue-Saint-Esprit. This was
on a Friday, and both battles of the marshals returned to the
King's host about noon and so lodged all together near to Cressy
in Ponthieu.
The King of England was well informed how the French
King followed after him to fight. Then he said to his company,
"Let us take here some plot of ground, for we will go no farther
till we have seen our enemies.
I have good cause here to abide
*She was in fact his daughter.
## p. 6051 (#645) ###########################################
FROISSART
6051
them, for I am on the right heritage of the Queen my mother,
the which land was given at her marriage: I will challenge it of
mine adversary Philip of Valois. " And because that he had not
the eighth part in number of men as the French King had, there-
fore he commanded his marshals to chose a plot of ground some-
what for his advantage; and so they did, and thither the King
and his host went. Then he sent his currours to Abbeville, to
see if the French King drew that day into the field or not.
They went forth and returned again, and said how they could
see none appearance of his coming; then every man took their
lodging for that day, and to be ready in the morning at the
sound of the trumpet in the same place. This Friday the French
King tarried still in Abbeville abiding for his company, and sent
his two marshals to ride out to see the dealing of the English-
men; and at night they returned, and said how the Englishmen.
were lodged in the fields. That night the French King made a
supper to all the chief lords that were there with him, and after
supper the King desired them to be friends each to other. The
King looked for the Earl of Savoy, who should come to him
with a thousand spears, for he had received wages for a three
months of them at Troyes in Champagne.
OF THE ORDER OF THE ENGLISHMEN AT CRESSY
ON THE Friday, as I said before, the King of England lay in
the fields, for the country was plentiful of wines and other
victual, and if need had been, they had provision following in
carts and other carriages. That night the King made a supper to
all his chief lords of his host and made them good cheer; and
when they were all departed to take their rest, then the King
entered into his oratory and kneeled down before the altar, pray-
ing God devoutly that if he fought the next day, that he might
achieve the journey to His honor; then about midnight he laid
him down to rest, and in the morning he rose betimes and heard
mass, and the Prince his son with him, and the most part of his
company, were confessed and houseled; and after the mass said,
he commanded every man to be armed and to draw to the field
to the same place before appointed. Then the King caused a
park to be made by the wood-side behind his host, and there was
set all carts and carriages, and within the park were all their
## p. 6052 (#646) ###########################################
6052
FROISSART
horses, for every man was afoot; and into this park there was
but one entry. Then he ordained three battles: In the first was
the young Prince of Wales, with him the Earl of Warwick and
Oxford, the Lord Godfrey of Harcourt, Sir Raynold Cobham, Sir
Thomas Holland, the Lord Stafford, the Lord of Mohun, the Lord
Delaware, Sir John Chandos, Sir Bartholomew de Burghersh, Sir
Robert Nevill, the Lord Thomas Clifford, the Lord Bourchier,
the Lord de Latimer, and divers other knights and squires that
I cannot name; they were an eight hundred men of arms and
two thousand archers, and a thousand of other with the Welsh-
men; every lord drew to the field appointed under his own
banner and pennon.
In the second battle was the Earl of North-
ampton, the Earl of Arundel, the Lord Ros, the Lord Lucy, the
Lord Willoughby, the Lord Basset, the Lord of Saint-Aubin, Sir
Louis Tufton, the Lord of Multon, the Lord Lascelles and divers
other, about an eight hundred men of arms and twelve hundred
archers. The third battle had the King; he had seven hundred
men of arms and two thousand archers. Then the King leapt on
a hobby, with a white rod in his hand, one of his marshals on
the one hand and the other on the other hand: he rode from
rank to rank desiring every man to take heed that day to his
right and honor. He spake it so sweetly and with so good coun-
tenance and merry cheer, that all such as were discomfited took
courage in the seeing and hearing of him. And when he had
thus visited all his battles, it was then nine of the day; then he
caused every man to eat and drink a little, and so they did at
their leisure. And afterward they ordered again their battles;
then every man lay down on the earth and by him his salet and
bow, to be the more fresher when their enemies should come.
THE ORDER OF THE FRENCHMEN AT CRESSY, AND HOW THEY BEHELD
THE DEMEANOR OF THE ENGLISHMEN
THIS Saturday the French King rose betimes and heard mass
in Abbeville in his lodging in the abbey of St. Peter, and he
departed after the sun-rising. When he was out of the town.
two leagues, approaching towards his enemies, some of his lords
said to him, "Sir, it were good that ye ordered your battles,
and let all your footmen pass somewhat on before, that they be
not troubled with the horsemen. " Then the King sent four
## p. 6053 (#647) ###########################################
FROISSART
6053
knights, the Moine [of] Bazeilles, the Lord of Noyers, the Lord
of Beaujeu, and the Lord d'Aubigny, to ride to aview the Eng-
lish host; and so they rode so near that they might well see part
of their dealing. The Englishmen saw them well and knew well
how they were come thither to aview them; they let them alone
and made no countenance toward them, and let them return as
they came. And when the French King saw these four knights
return again, he tarried till they came to him and said, "Sirs,
what tidings? " These four knights each of them looked on
other, for there was none would speak before his companion;
finally the King said to [the] Moine, who pertained to the King
of Bohemia and had done in his days so much that he was re-
puted for one of the valiantest knights of the world, "Sir, speak
you. "
Then he said:-"Sir, I shall speak, sith it pleaseth you,
under the correction of my fellows. Sir, we have ridden and
seen the behaving of your enemies: know ye for truth they are
rested in three battles abiding for you. Sir, I will counsel you
as for my part, saving your displeasure, that you and all your
company rest here and lodge for this night; for or they that
be behind of your company be come hither, and or your battles
be set in good order, it will be very late, and your people be
weary and out of array, and ye shall find your enemies fresh
and ready to receive you. Early in the morning ye may order
your battles at more leisure and advise your enemies at more
deliberation, and to regard well what way ye will assail them;
for, sir, surely they will abide you. "
Then the King commanded that it should be so done. Then
his two marshals one rode before, another behind, saying to
every banner, "Tarry and abide here in the name of God and
St. Denis. " They that were foremost tarried, but they that
were behind would not tarry, but rode forth, and said how they
would in no wise abide till they were as far forward as the fore-
most; and when they before saw them come on behind, then
they rode forward again, so that the King nor his marshals could
not rule them. So they rode without order or good array, till
they came in sight of their enemies; and as soon as the fore-
most saw them they reculed then aback without good array,
whereof they behind had marvel and were abashed, and thought
that the foremost company had been fighting. Then they might
have had leisure and room to have gone forward, if they had
list; some went forth, and some abode still. The commons, of
## p. 6054 (#648) ###########################################
6054
FROISSART
whom all the ways between Abbeville and Cressy were full,
when they saw that they were near to their enemies, they took
their swords and cried, "Down with them! let us slay them
all. " There is no man, though he were present at the journey,
that could imagine or shew the truth of the evil order that was
among the French party, and yet they were a marvelous great
number. That I write in this book I learned it specially of the
Englishmen, who well beheld their dealing; and also certain
knights of Sir John of Hainault's, who was always about King
Philip, shewed me as they knew.
OF THE BATTLE OF CRESSY, AUGUST 26TH, 1346
THE Englishmen, who were in three battles lying on the
ground to rest them, as soon as they saw the Frenchmen ap-
proach, they rose upon their feet fair and easily without any
haste, and arranged their battles. The first, which was the
Prince's battle, the archers there stood in manner of a herse and
the men of arms in the bottom of the battle. The Earl of North-
ampton and the Earl of Arundel with the second battle were on
a wing in good order, ready to comfort the Prince's battle, if
need were.
The lords and knights of France came not to the assembly
together in good order, for some came before and some came
after, in such haste and evil order that one of them did trouble
another. When the French King saw the Englishmen his blood
changed, and said to his marshals, "Make the Genoways go on
before, and begin the battle, in the name of God and St. Denis. "
There were of the Genoways' cross-bows about a fifteen thou-
sand, but they were so weary of going afoot that day a six
leagues armed with their cross-bows, that they said to their con-
stables, "We be not well ordered to fight this day, for we be
not in the case to do any great deed of arms: we have more
need of rest. " These words came to the Earl of Alençon, who
said, "A man is well at case to be charged with such a sort of
rascals, to be faint and fail now at most need. " Also the same
season there fell a great rain and a clipse with a terrible thun-
der, and before the rain there came flying over both battles a
great number of crows for fear of the tempest coming. Then
anon the air began to wax clear, and the sun to shine fair and
## p. 6055 (#649) ###########################################
FROISSART
6055
bright, the which was right in the Frenchmen's eyen and on
the Englishmen's backs. When the Genoways were assembled
together and began to approach, they made a great leap and cry
to abash the Englishmen, but they stood still and stirred not
for all that; then the Genoways again the second time made
another leap and a fell cry, and stept forward a little, and the
Englishmen removed not one foot; thirdly, again they leapt and
cried, and went forth till they came within shot; then they shot
fiercely with their cross-bows. Then the English archers stept
forth one pace and let fly their arrows so wholly [together] and
so thick, that it seemed snow. When the Genoways felt the ar-
rows piercing through heads, arms, and breasts, many of them
cast down their cross-bows, and did cut their strings and returned
discomfited. When the French King saw them fly away, he said,
"Slay these rascals, for they shall let and trouble us without rea-
son. " Then ye should have seen the men of arms dash in among
them and killed a great number of them; and ever still the
Englishmen shot whereas they saw thickest press: the sharp ar-
rows ran into the men of arms and into their horses, and many
fell, horse and men, among the Genoways, and when they were
down, they could not relieve again; the press was so thick that
one overthrew another. And also among the Englishmen there
were certain rascals that went afoot with great knives, and they
went in among the men of arms and slew and murdered many
as they lay on the ground, both earls, barons, knights, and
squires; whereof the King of England was after displeased, for
he had rather they had been taken prisoners.
The valiant King of Bohemia called Charles of Luxembourg,
son to the noble Emperor Henry of Luxembourg, for all that he
was nigh blind, when he understood the order of the battle, he
said to them about him, "Where is the Lord Charles my son? »
His men said, "Sir, we cannot tell; we think he be fighting. "
Then he said, "Sirs, ye are my men, my companions and friends.
in this journey: I require you bring me so far forward that I
may strike one stroke with my sword. " They said they would
do his commandment, and to the intent that they should not
lose him in the press, they tied all their reins of their bridles
each to other and set the King before to accomplish his desire,
and so they went on their enemies. The Lord Charles of Bohe-
mia his son, who wrote himself King of Almaine and bare the
arms, he came in good order to the battle; but when he saw
## p. 6056 (#650) ###########################################
6056
FROISSART
that the matter went awry on their party, he departed, I cannot
tell you which way. The King his father was so far forward
that he strake a stroke with his sword, yea, and more than four,
and fought valiantly, and so did his company; and they adven-
tured themselves so forward that they were there all slain, and
the next day they were found in the place about the King, and
all their horses tied each to other.
The Earl of Alençon came to the battle right ordinately and
fought with the Englishmen, and the Earl of Flanders also on
his part.
These two lords with their companies coasted the
English archers and came to the Prince's battle, and there fought
valiantly long. The French King would fain have come thither,
when he saw their banners, but there was a great hedge of
archers before him. The same day the French King had given
a great black courser to Sir John of Hainault, and he made the
Lord Thierry of Senzeille to ride on him and to bear his banner.
The same horse took the bridle in the teeth and brought him
through all the currours of the Englishmen, and as he would
have returned again, he fell in a great dike and was sore hurt,
and had been there dead, an his page had not been, who fol-
lowed him through all the battles and saw where his master lay
in the dike, and had none other let but for his horse; for the
Englishmen would not issue out of their battle for taking of any
prisoner. Then the page alighted and relieved his master: then
he went not back again the same way that they came; there was
too many in his way.
This battle between Broye and Cressy this Saturday was right
cruel and fell, and many a feat of arms done that came not to
my knowledge. In the night divers knights and squires lost their
masters, and sometime came on the Englishmen, who received
them in such wise that they were ever nigh slain; for there was
none taken to mercy nor to ransom, for so the Englishmen were
determined.
In the morning the day of the battle certain Frenchmen and
Almains perforce opened the archers of the Prince's battle, and
came and fought with the men of arms hand to hand. Then the
second battle of the Englishmen came to succor the Prince's
battle, the which was time, for they had as then much ado;
and they with the Prince sent a messenger to the King, who
was on a little windmill hill. Then the knight said to the King,
"Sir, the Earl of Warwick and the Earl of Oxford, Sir Raynold
## p. 6057 (#651) ###########################################
FROISSART
6057
<<
Cobham and other, such as be about the Prince your son, are
fiercely fought withal and are sore handled; wherefore they desire
you that you and your battle will come and aid them; for if the
Frenchmen increase, as they doubt they will, your son and they
shall have much ado. " Then the King said, "Is my son dead,
or hurt, or on the earth felled? " "No, sir," quoth the knight,
"but he is hardly matched; wherefore he hath need of your aid. "
'Well," said the King, "return to him and to them that sent you
hither, and say to them that they send no more to me for any
adventure that falleth, as long as my son is alive: and also say
to them that they suffer him this day to win his spurs; for if
God be pleased, I will this journey be his and the honor thereof,
and to them that be about him. " Then the knight returned
again to them and shewed the King's words, the which greatly
encouraged them, and repoined in that they had sent to the King.
as they did.
Sir Godfrey of Harcourt would gladly that the Earl of Har-
court, his brother, might have been saved; for he heard say by
them that saw his banner how that he was there in the field on
the French party: but Sir Godfrey could not come to him be-
times, for he was slain or he could come at him, and so was also
the Earl of Aumale his nephew. In another place the Earl of
Alençon and the Earl of Flanders fought valiantly, every lord
under his own banner; but finally they could not resist against
the puissance of the Englishmen, and so there they were also
slain, and divers other knights and squires. Also the Earl Louis.
of Blois, nephew to the French King, and the Duke of Lorraine,
fought under their banners; but at last they were closed in
among a company of Englishmen and Welshmen, and there were
slain for all their prowess. Also there was slain the Earl of
Auxerre, the Earl of Saint-Pol, and many other.
In the evening the French King, who had left about him no
more than a threescore persons, one and other, whereof Sir John
of Hainault was one, who had remounted once the King, for his
horse was slain with an arrow, then he said to the King, “Sir,
depart hence, for it is time; lose not yourself willfully: if ye
have loss at this time, ye shall recover it again another season.
And so he took the King's horse by the bridle and led him away
in a manner perforce. Then the King rode till he came to the
castle of Broye. The gate was closed, because it was by that
time dark: then the King called the captain, who came to the
>>
## p. 6058 (#652) ###########################################
6058
FROISSART
walls and said, "Who is that calleth there this time of night? "
Then the King said, "Open your gate quickly, for this is the
fortune of France. " The captain knew then it was the King,
and opened the gate and let down the bridge. Then the King
entered, and he had with him but five barons, Sir John of
Hainault, Sir Charles of Montmorency, the Lord of Beaujeu, the
Lord d'Aubigny, and the Lord of Montsault. The King would
not tarry there, but drank and departed thence about midnight,
and so rode by such guides as knew the country till he came in
the morning to Amiens, and there he rested.
This Saturday the Englishmen never departed from their
battles for chasing of any man, but kept still their field, and
ever defended themselves against all such as came to assail them.
This battle ended about evens
nsong time.
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nor any copy of it. The Queen made him a clerk of her chamber.
He had abundant opportunity in England to gratify his curiosity and
fill his note-book, for the court was full of French noblemen, lately
come over as hostages for King Jean of France, who was captured at
the battle of Poitiers.
In 1365 he took letters of recommendation from the Queen to
David Bruce, King of Scotland, whom he followed for three months
in his progress through that realm; spending a fortnight at the castle
of William Douglas and making everywhere diligent inquiry about the
recent war of 1345. In his delightful little poem The Debate be-
tween the Horse and the Greyhound,' beginning, "Froissart from
## p. 6037 (#631) ###########################################
FROISSART
6037
Scotland was returning," we have a lifelike figure of the inquisitive
young chronicler, pushing unweariedly from inn to inn on a tired
horse and leading a footsore dog.
In
Between his thirtieth and his thirty-fourth year he was sometimes
in England and sometimes in various parts of the Continent.
August 1369, while he was abroad, his patroness Queen Philippa
died. She had encouraged him to continue his researches and writ-
ings, and he had presented her with a second volume, in prose, which
has come down to us as a part of the chronicle. He admits that his
work was an expansion of the chronicle of Jean le Bel, Canon of
Saint Lambert at Liège, for he says:- "As all great rivers are made
by the gathering together of many streams and springs, so the sciences
also are extracted and compiled by many clerks: what one knows, the
other does not. "
On hearing of the Queen's death, Froissart settled in his own coun-
try of Hainault. There he won favor from princes, as was his custom,
by giving them manuscripts of his chronicle, which was growing
apace. By the middle of 1373 we find him become a churchman and
provided with a living, in which he remained ten years, compiling
fresh history and correcting what he had already written and put in
circulation. A little later, 1376 to 1383, he made a more thorough
revision of his chronicle, going so far as to modify its spirit, which
had been favorable to English character and policy, and make it
more agreeable to partisans of France. Although Froissart was not a
Frenchman, his writings are all in the French language, which was
of course his native tongue.
About the beginning of 1384 he was made a canon of the Church,
at Chimay, a small town near the French frontier, and in this region
he observed the military movements then going on there, and re-
corded them immediately in Book ii. of his chronicle. Four years of
quiet were however too much for his mobile and energetic spirit;
and in 1388, hearing that the Count Gaston de Foix, in the Pyrenees,
was a man likely to know many details of the English wars in Gas-
cony and Guyenne, he set out to visit him, taking among other pres-
ents a book of his poetry and two couples of hounds. When he still
had ten days to travel he met a gentleman of Foix, with whom he
journeyed the rest of the way, beguiling the time with talk about the
sieges the various towns upon their route had suffered.
"At the words which he spoke I was delighted, for they pleased me much,
and right well did I retain them all; and as soon as I had dismounted at the
hostelries along the road which we traveled together, I wrote them down, at
evening as in the morning, to have a better record of them in times to come;
for there is nothing so retentive as writing. "
## p. 6038 (#632) ###########################################
6038
FROISSART
Count Gaston received him hospitably, and filled his three months'
sojourn with stories of great events. Then Froissart visited many
towns of Provence and Languedoc. These peregrinations furnished
much of the material for Book iii. Little more is known of his life,
except with respect to a visit to England which he made in 1394,
and which enabled him to collect material for a large part of Book
iv. , the last in the chronicle. He is supposed to have died at Chi-
may, later than 1400, and perhaps, as tradition asserts, in 1410.
It is an engaging picture, this, of a genial, sharp-eyed, some-
what worldly churchman, riding his gray horse over hill and dale in
quest of knowledge. We can fancy him arriving at his inn of an
evening, and at once asking the obsequious host what knight or other
great person dwells in the neighborhood. He loses no time before
calling at the castle, and is gladly admitted when he tells his well-
known name. He is ready to pay for any historical information with
a story from his own collection. He is welcome everywhere, and for
his part does not regret the time thus spent, nor the money,- sev-
eral fortunes, by his own count,- for he has the light heart of the
true traveler. It is always sunshine where he goes. The clangor
of arms and the blare of trumpets hover ever above the horizon.
Around the corner of every hill sits a fair castle by a shining river.
From town to town, from province to province, his love of listening
draws him on. To realize the charm of journeying in those days,
we must remember that the local customs and qualities were almost
undisturbed by communication; two French cities only a score of
miles apart would often differ from each other as much as Nurem-
berg does from Venice.
"And I tell you for a truth," we read, "that to make these chronicles I
have gone in my time much through the world, both to fulfill my pleasure
by seeing the wonders of the earth, and to inquire about the arms and advent-
ures that are written in this book. "
So to horse, good Canon of Chimay! Throw aside books; there is
news of fighting in the South; after the battle, soldiers will talk.
There have been deeds of courage and romance. Hasten thither,
while the tale of them is new!
If he were not so celebrated as a chronicler, Froissart would be
known as one of the last of the wandering minstrels. He had the
roving foot; he lived by charming the rich into generosity with his
recitals. And he wrote much poetry, which is little read, except
where it has some autobiographical interest. We possess the long
poems, 'L'Espinette Amoureuse,' 'Le Buisson de Jeunesse,' 'Le Dit
du Florin,' and several shorter pieces, with fragments of his once
famous versified romance Méliador. '
## p. 6039 (#633) ###########################################
FROISSART
6039
His great prose work, while professing to be a history, in distinc-
tion from the chronicles of previous writers, is however not an
orderly narration, nor is it a philosophical treatment of political
causes and effects. It is a collection of pictures and stories, without
much unity except the constant purpose of exhibiting the prowess of
knighthood. There is not much indication even of partisanship or
patriotic feeling. Froissart generally gives due meed of praise to the
best knight in every bout, the best battalion in every encounter,
regardless of sides.
The subjects treated are so numerous and disparate that no gen-
eral idea of them can be given. They cover the time from 1326 to
1394, and lead us through England, Scotland, Flanders, Hainault,
France, Italy, Spain, and Northern Africa. Among the most interest-
ing passages are the story of King Edward's campaign against the
Scots; his march through France; the battle of Crécy; the siege of
Calais; Wat Tyler's Rebellion, which Froissart the well-fed parasite
treats with an odd and inconsistent mingling of horror and contempt;
the Jacquerie, which he says was the work of peasant dogs, the scum
of the earth; the battle of Poitiers, with a fine description of the Black
Prince waiting at table on poor captured King Jean; and the rise
and fall of Philip van Artevelde.
Froissart's chronicle used to be regarded as authoritative history.
But as might have been expected from his mode of inquiry, it is full
of geographical, chronological, and other errors. Getting his infor-
mation by ear, he wrote proper names phonetically, or turned
them into something resembling French. Thus Worcester becomes
"Vaucestre," Seymour "Simon," Sutherland "Surlant," Walter Tyler
"Vautre Tuilier," Edinburgh "Hedaimbourch," Stirling "Eturmelin. "
The persons from whom he got his material were generally partisans
either of France or of England, and often told him their stories
years after the events; so that although he tried to be impartial
himself, and to offset one witness by another, he seldom heard a
judicial account of a battle or a quarrel. He seems to have con-
sulted few written records, though he might easily have seen the
State papers of England and Hainault.
It is useless to blame him, however; for the writing of mere his-
tory was not his purpose. With all his fine devotion to his life
work, a devotion which is the more admirable when we consider his
pleasure-loving nature,- with all his attention to fairness, his great
concern was not so much to instruct as to delight, first himself, sec-
ondly the great people of his age, and lastly posterity, on whom he
ever and anon cast a shrewd and longing glance. To please his con-
temporaries, he several times revised his work. Posterity has nearly
always preferred what might be called the first edition, which is the
most unconscious and entertaining, though the least precise.
## p. 6040 (#634) ###########################################
6040
FROISSART
But if we must deny him much of the value as a political his-
torian which was once attributed to him, we may still regard him as
a great authority for the general aspect of life in the fourteenth
century. Manners, customs, morals, as well as armor and dress, are
no doubt correctly portrayed in his book. We learn from it what
was deemed virtue and what vice; we learn that although religion
was sincerely professed by the upper classes, it was not very success-
fully practiced, and had amazingly little effect upon morals. We are
struck, for instance, with the absence of imagination or sympathy
which permitted people to witness the horrible tortures inflicted on
prisoners and criminals, although their minds were frequently filled
with visions of supernatural beings. Froissart unconsciously makes
himself, too, a medium for studying human character in his time, by
his negative morality, his complacent recording of crimes, his uncon-
cerned mention of horrors. Yet from his bringing up as a poet, and
his scholarly associations, and his connection with the Church, it is
likely he was a gentler man than nine-tenths of the knights and
squires and men-at-arms about him.
There is an indifference colder even than cynicism in his failure
to remark on the sufferings of the poor, which were so awful in his
age. It is the result of class prejudice, and seems deliberate. The
burned village, the trampled grain-field, the cowering women, the
starved children, the rotting corpses, the mangled forms of living
and agonizing foot-soldiers,-- all these consequences of war he sees
and occasionally mentions, yet they hardly touch him. But he is
forever mourning the death of stricken knights as if it were a woe-
ful loss. Yet for all his association with the governing class, we
never find ourselves thinking of him as anything but a commoner
raised to fortune by genius and favor. He has not the distinction of
Joinville, who was a nobleman in the conventional sense and also in
the truest sense.
Froissart's merit, then, is not that he is a great political historian,
nor even a great historian of the culture of his time. He did not
see accurately enough to be the first, nor broadly and deeply and
independently enough to be the second. But kindly Nature made
him something else, and enabled him to win that name "which hon-
oreth most and most endureth. " She gave him the painter's eye, the
poet's fancy, and it is as the artist of chivalry he lives to-day. His
chronicle may be often false to historical fact, it may not display a
broad and sympathetic intelligence or a generous impatience of con-
ventionality, but it does please, it does enthrall. It is one of those
books without moral intent, like the Arabian Nights, which the boys
of all ages will persist in reading, and which men delight in if they
love good pictures and good story-telling. No more lasting colors
have come down to us from Venetian painters than those which rush
## p. 6041 (#635) ###########################################
FROISSART
6041
out from the words on his pages. His scenes do not take shape in
our minds as etchings or engravings, but smile themselves into being,
like oil-paintings. Sunlight, the glint of steel, red and yellow ban-
ners waving, white horses galloping over the sand, flashing armor,
glittering spurs, the shining faces of eager men, fill with glory this
great pictorial wonder-book of the Middle Ages.
GeoMi Lion Harper
THE INVASION OF FRANCE BY KING EDWARD III, AND THE
BATTLE OF CRÉCY
From the Chronicles': Translation of John Bourchier, Lord Berners
HOW THE KING OF ENGLAND RODE THROUGH NORMANDY
WHEN
THEN the King of England arrived in the Hogue Saint-Vaast,
the King issued out of his ship, and the first foot that he
set on the ground he fell so rudely that the blood brast
out of his nose. The knights that were about him took him up
and said, "Sir, for God's sake enter again into your ship, and
come not aland this day, for this is but an evil sign for us. "
Then the King answered quickly and said, "Wherefore? This is
a good token for me, for the land desireth to have me. " Of the
which answer all his men were right joyful. So that day and
night the King lodged on the sands, and in the mean time dis-
charged the ships of their horses and other baggages; there the
King made two marshals of his host, the one the Lord Godfrey
of Harcourt and the other the Earl of Warwick, and the Earl of
Arundel constable. And he ordained that the Earl of Hunting-
don should keep the fleet of ships with a hundred men of arms
and four hundred archers; and also he ordained three battles, one
to go on his right hand, closing to the seaside, and the other on
his left hand, and the King himself in the midst, and every night
to lodge all in one field.
Thus they set forth as they were ordained, and they that went
by the sea took all the ships that they found in their ways; and
so long they went forth, what by sea and what by land, that they
came to a good port and to a good town called Barfleur, the
## p. 6042 (#636) ###########################################
6042
FROISSART
which incontinent was won, for they within gave up for fear of
death. Howbeit, for all that, the town was robbed, and much
gold and silver there found, and rich jewels; there was found so
much riches, that the boys and villains of the host set nothing
by good furred gowns; they made all the men of the town to
issue out and to go into the ships, because they would not suffer
them to be behind them for fear of rebelling again. After the
town of Barfleur was thus taken and robbed without brenning,
then they spread abroad in the country and did what they list,
for there was not to resist them. At last they came to a great
and a rich town called Cherbourg; the town they won and robbed
it, and brent part thereof, but into the castle they could not
come, it was so strong and well furnished with men of war.
OF THE GREAT ASSEMBLY THAT THE FRENCH KING MADE TO RESIST
THE KING OF ENGLAND
THUS by the Englishmen was brent, exiled, robbed, wasted,
and pilled the good plentiful country of Normandy. Then the
French King sent for the Lord John of Hainault, who came to
him with a great number; also the King sent for other men of
arms, dukes, earls, barons, knights, and squires, and assembled
together the greatest number of people that had been seen in
France a hundred year before. He sent for men into so far
countries, that it was long or they came together, wherefore the
King of England did what him list in the mean season. The
French King heard well what he did, and sware and said how
they should never return again unfought withal, and that such
hurts and damages as they had done should be dearly revenged;
wherefore he had sent letters to his friends in the Empire, to
such as were farthest off, and also to the gentle King of Bohe-
mia and to the Lord Charles his son, who from thenceforth was
called King of Almaine; he was made King by the aid of his
father and the French King, and had taken on him the arms of
the Empire: the French King desired them to come to him with
all their powers, to the intent to fight with the King of England,
who brent and wasted his country. These Princes and Lords
made them ready with great number of men of arms, of Almains,
Bohemians, and Luxemburgers, and so came to the French King.
Also King Philip sent to the Duke of Lorraine, who came to
serve him with three hundred spears; also there came the Earl
## p. 6043 (#637) ###########################################
FROISSART
6043
[of] Salm in Saumois, the Earl of Sarrebruck, the Earl of Flan-
ders, the Earl William of Namur, every man with a fair company.
Ye have heard herebefore of the order of the Englishmen;
how they went in three battles, the marshals on the right hand
and on the left, the King and the Prince of Wales his son in the
midst. They rode but small journeys, and every day took their
lodgings between noon and three of the clock, and found the
country so fruitful that they needed not to make no provision for
their host, but all only for wine; and yet they found reasonably
sufficient thereof. It was no marvel, though, they of the coun-
try were afraid; for before that time they had never seen men of
war, nor they wist not what war or battle meant. They fled
away as far as they might hear speaking of the Englishmen, and
left their houses well stuffed, and granges full of corn; they wist
not how to save and keep it. The King of England and the
Prince had in their battle a three thousand men of arms and six
thousand archers, and a ten thousand men afoot, beside them
that rode with the marshals.
Then the King went toward Caen, the which was a greater
town and full of drapery and other merchandise, and rich bur-
gesses, noble ladies and damosels, and fair churches, and spe-
cially two great and rich abbeys, one of the Trinity, another of
Saint Stephen; and on the one side of the town one of the fair-
est castles of all Normandy, and captain therein was Robert of
Wargny, with three hundred Genoways, and in the town was the
Earl of Eu and of Guines, Constable of France, and the Earl of
Tancarville, with a good number of men of war. The King of
England rode that day in good order and lodged all his battles
together that night, a two leagues from Caen, in a town with a
little haven called Austrehem, and thither came also all his navy
of ships with the Earl of Huntingdon, who was governour of
them.
The constable and other lords of France that night watched
well the town of Caen, and in the morning armed them with all
them of the town: then the constable ordained that none should
issue out, but keep their defenses on the walls, gate, bridge, and
river; and left the suburbs void, because they were not closed;
for they thought they should have enough to do to defend the
town, because it was not closed but with the river. They of the
town said how they would issue out, for they were strong enough
to fight with the King of England. When the constable saw their
## p. 6044 (#638) ###########################################
6044
FROISSART
good wills, he said, "In the name of God be it, ye shall not
fight without me. " Then they issued out in good order, and
made good face to fight and to defend them and to put their
lives in adventure.
OF THE BATTLE OF CAEN, AND HOW THE ENGLISHMEN TOOK THE TOWN
THE same day the Englishmen rose early and appareled them
ready to go to Caen. * The King heard mass before the sun-
rising, and then took his horse, and the Prince his son, with Sir
Godfrey of Harcourt, marshal and leader of the host, whose coun-
sel the King much followed. Then they drew toward Caen with
their battles in good array, and so approached the good town of
Caen. When they of the town, who were ready in the field, saw
these three battles coming in good order, with their banners and
standards waving in the wind, and the archers, the which they
had not been accustomed to see, they were sore afraid and fled
away toward the town without any order or good array, for all
that the constable could do; then the Englishmen pursued them.
eagerly. When the constable and the Earl Tancarville saw that,
they took a gate at the entry and saved themselves and certain
with them, for the Englishmen were entered into the town.
Some of the knights and squires of France, such as knew the
way to the castle, went thither, and the captain there received.
them all, for the castle was large. The Englishmen in the chase.
slew many, for they took none to mercy.
Then the constable and the Earl of Tancarville, being in the
little tower at the bridge foot, looked along the street and saw
their men slain without mercy; they doubted to fall in their
hands. At last they saw an English knight with one eye, called
Sir Thomas Holland, and a five or six other knights with him;
they knew them, for they had seen them before in Pruce, in
Granade, and in other viages. Then they called to Sir Thomas
and said how they would yield themselves prisoners. Then Sir
Thomas came thither with his company and mounted up into
the gate, and there found the said lords with twenty-five
knights with them, who yielded them to Sir Thomas; and he
*This was 26th July, 1346. Edward arrived at Poissy on 12th August;
Philip of Valois left Paris on the 14th; the English crossed the Seine at Poissy
on the 16th, and the Somme at Blanche-taque on the 24th.
## p. 6045 (#639) ###########################################
FROISSART
6045
took them for his prisoners and left company to keep them, and
then mounted again on his horse and rode into the streets, and
saved many lives of ladies, damosels, and cloisterers from defoil-
ing,- for the soldiers were without mercy. It fell so well the
same season for the Englishmen, that the river, which was able
to bear ships, at that time was so low that men went in and
out beside the bridge. They of the town were entered into their
houses, and cast down into the street stones, timber, and iron,
and slew and hurt more than five hundred Englishmen; where-
with the King was sore displeased. At night when he heard
thereof, he commanded that the next day all should be put to
the sword and the town brent; but then Sir Godfrey of Harcourt
said: "Dear sir, for God's sake assuage somewhat your courage,
and let it suffice you that ye have done. Ye have yet a great
voyage to do or ye come before Calais, whither ye purpose to
go: and sir, in this town there is much people who will defend
their houses, and it will cost many of your men their lives, or
ye have all at your will; whereby peradventure ye shall not keep
your purpose to Calais, the which should redound to your rack.
Sir, save your people, for ye shall have need of them or this
month pass; for I think verily your adversary King Philip will
meet with you to fight, and ye shall find many strait passages
and rencounters; wherefore your men, an ye had more, shall
stand you in good stead: and sir, without any further slaying ye
shall be lord of this town; men and women will put all that
they have to your pleasure. " Then the King said, "Sir Godfrey,
you are our marshal; ordain everything as ye will. " Then Sir
Godfrey with his banner rode from street to street, and com-
manded in the King's name none to be so hardy to put fire in
any house, to slay any person, nor to violate any woman. When
they of the town heard that cry, they received the Englishmen
into their houses and made them good cheer, and some opened
their coffers and bade them take what them list, so they might
be assured of their lives; howbeit there were done in the town
many evil deeds, murders, and robberies. Thus the Englishmen
were lords of the town three days and won great riches, the
which they sent by barks and barges to Saint-Saviour by the
river of Austrehem, a two leagues thence, whereas all their navy
lay. Then the King sent the Earl of Huntingdon with two
hundred men of arms and four hundred archers, with his navy
and prisoners and riches that they had got, back again into
England. And the King bought of Sir Thomas Holland the
-
## p. 6046 (#640) ###########################################
6046
FROISSART
Constable of France and the Earl of Tancarville, and paid for
them twenty thousand nobles.
The next day the King departed, brenning and wasting all
before him, and at night lodged in a good village called Grand-
villiers. The next day the King passed by Dargies; there was
none to defend the castle, wherefore it was soon taken and brent.
Then they went forth destroying the country all about, and so
came to the castle of Poix, where there was a good town and
two castles. There was nobody in them but two fair damosels,
daughters to the Lord of Poix; they were soon taken, and had
been violated, an two English knights had not been, Sir John
Chandos and Sir Basset; they defended them and brought them
to the King, who for his honor made them good cheer and
demanded of them whither they would fainest go. They said,
"To Corbie," and the King caused them to be brought thither
without peril. That night the King lodged in the town of Poix.
They of the town and of the castles spake that night with the
marshals of the host, to save them and their town from bren-
ning, and they to pay a certain sum of florins the next day as
soon as the host was departed. This was granted them, and in
the morning the King departed with all his host, except a certain
that were left there to receive the money that they of the town
had promised to pay. When they of the town saw the host
depart and but a few left behind, then they said they would pay
never a penny, and so ran out and set on the Englishmen, who
defended themselves as well as they might and sent after the
host for succor. When Sir Raynold Cobham and Sir Thomas
Holland, who had the rule of the rear guard, heard thereof, they
returned and cried, "Treason, treason! " and so came again to
Poix-ward and found their companions still fighting with them
of the town. Then anon they of the town were nigh all slain,
and the town brent, and the two castles beaten down. Then
they returned to the King's host, who was as then at Airaines
and there lodged, and had commanded all manner of men on
pain of death to do no hurt to no town of Arsyn,* for there the
King was minded to lie a day or two to take advice how he
might pass the river of Somme; for it was necessary for him to
pass the river, as ye shall hear after.
* Probably a misunderstanding by Froissart of the English word "arson":
the king's command being not to burn the towns on the Somme, as he
wanted them for shelter.
## p. 6047 (#641) ###########################################
FROISSART
6047
HOW THE FRENCH KING FOLLOWED THE KING OF ENGLAND IN
BEAUVOISINOIS
Now LET us speak of King Philip, who was at Saint-Denis and
his people about him, and daily increased. Then on a day he
departed and rode so long that he came to Coppegueule, a three
leagues from Amiens, and there he tarried. The King of Eng-
land, being at Airaines, wist not where for to pass the river of
Somme, the which was large and deep, and all bridges were
broken and the passages well kept. Then at the King's com-
mandment his two marshals with a thousand men of arms and
two thousand archers went along the river to find some passage,
and passed by Longpré, and came to the bridge of Remy, the which
was well kept with a great number of knights and squires and
men of the country. The Englishmen alighted afoot and assailed
the Frenchmen from the morning till it was noon; but the bridge
was so well fortified and defended that the Englishmen departed
without winning of anything. Then they went to a great town
called Fountains, on the river of Somme, the which was clean
robbed and brent, for it was not closed. Then they went to
another town called Long-en-Ponthieu; they could not win the
bridge, it was so well kept and defended. Then they departed
and went to Picquigny, and found the town, the bridge, and the
castle so well fortified that it was not likely to pass there; the
French King had so well defended the passages, to the intent
that the King of England should not pass the river of Somme,
to fight with him at his advantage or else to famish him there.
When these two marshals had assayed in all places to find
passage and could find none, they returned again to the King,
and shewed how they could find no passage in no place. The
same night the French King came to Amiens with more than a
hundred thousand men. The King of England was right pensive,
and the next morning heard mass before the sun-rising and then
dislodged; and every man followed the marshals' banners, and so
rode in the country of Vimeu approaching to the good town of
Abbeville, and found a town thereby, whereunto was come much
people of the country in trust of a little defense that was there;
but the Englishmen anon won it, and all they that were within
slain, and many taken of the town and of the country. The
King took his lodging in a great hospital* that was there.
The
That is, a house of the Knights of St. John.
## p. 6048 (#642) ###########################################
6048
FROISSART
same day the French King departed from Amiens and came to
Airaines about noon; and the Englishmen were departed thence
in the morning. The Frenchmen found there great provision
that the Englishmen had left behind them, because they departed
in haste. There they found flesh ready on the broaches, bread
and pasties in the ovens, wine in tuns and barrels, and the tables
ready laid. There the French King lodged and tarried for his
lords.
That night the King of England was lodged at Oisemont.
At night when the two marshals were returned, who had that
day overrun the country to the gates Abbeville and to Saint-
Valery and made a great skirmish there, then the King assem-
bled together his council and made to be brought before him
certain prisoners of the country of Ponthieu and of Vimeu. The
King right courteously demanded of them if there were any
among them that knew any passage beneath Abbeville, that he
and his host might pass over the river of Somme: if he would
shew him thereof, he should be quit of his ransom, and twenty
of his company for his love There was a varlet called Gobin
Agace, who stepped forth and said to the King:-"Sir, I promise
you on the jeopardy of my head I shall bring you to such a
place, whereas ye and all your host shall pass the river of
Somme without peril. There be certain places in the passage
that ye shall pass twelve men afront two times between day and
night; ye shall not go in the water to the knees. But when the
flood cometh, the river then waxeth so great that no man can
pass; but when the flood is gone, the which is two times between
day and night, then the river is so low that it may be passed
without danger both a-horseback and afoot. The passage is hard
in the bottom, with white stones, so that all your carriage may
go surely; therefore the passage is called Blanche-Taque. An ye
make ready to depart betimes, ye may be there by the sun-
rising. " The King said, "If this be true that ye say, I quit
thee thy ransom and all thy company, and moreover shall give
thee a hundred nobles. " Then the King commanded every man
to be ready at the sound of the trumpet to depart.
## p. 6049 (#643) ###########################################
FROISSART
6049
OF THE BATTLE OF BLANCHE-TAQUE
THE King of England slept not much that night, for at mid-
night he arose and sowned his trumpet; then incontinent they
made ready carriages and all things, and at the breaking of the
day they departed from the town of Oisemont and rode after the
guiding of Gobin Agace, so that they came by the sun-rising to
Blanche-Taque: but as then the flood was up, so that they might
not pass, so the King tarried there till it was prime; then the
ebb came.
The French King had his currours in the country, who brought
him word of the demeanor of the Englishmen. Then he thought
to close the King of England between Abbeville and the river of
Somme, and so to fight with him at his pleasure. And when he
was at Amiens he had ordained a great baron of Normandy,
called Sir Godemar du Fay, to go and keep the passage of
Blanche-Taque, where the Englishmen must pass or else in
none other place. He had with him a thousand men of arms
and six thousand afoot, with the Genoways; so they went by
Saint-Riquier in Ponthieu and from thence to Crotoy, whereas the
passage lay: and also he had with him a great number of men
of the country, and also a great number of them of Montreuil,
so that they were a twelve thousand men one and other.
When the English host was come thither, Sir Godemar du Fay
arranged all his company to defend the passage. The King of
England let not for all that; but when the flood was gone, he
commanded his marshals to enter into the water in the name of
God and St. George. Then they that were hardy and coura-
geous entered on both parties, and many a man reversed.
There
were some of the Frenchmen of Artois and Picardy that were as
glad to joust in the water as on the dry land.
The Frenchmen defended so well the passage at the issuing
out of the water, that they had much to do. The Genoways
did them great trouble with their cross-bows; on the other side
the archers of England shot so wholly together, that the French-
men were fain to give place to the Englishmen. There was a
sore battle, and many a noble feat of arms done on both sides.
Finally the Englishmen passed over and assembled together in
the field. The King and the Prince passed, and all the lords;
then the Frenchmen kept none array, but departed, he that might
X-379
## p. 6050 (#644) ###########################################
6050
FROISSART
best. When Sir Godemar saw that discomfiture, he fled and
saved himself; some fled to Abbeville and some to Saint-Riquiers.
They that were there afoot could not flee, so that there were
slain a great number of them of Abbeville, Montreuil, Rue, and
of Saint-Riquiers; the chase endured more than a great league.
And as yet all the Englishmen were not passed the river, and
certain currours of the King of Bohemia and of Sir John of
Hainault came on them that were behind, and took certain horses
and carriages and slew divers, or they could take the passage.
The French King the same morning was departed from
Airaines, trusting to have found the Englishmen between him
and the river of Somme; but when he heard how that Sir Gode-
mar du Fay and his company were discomfited, he tarried in
the field and demanded of his marshals what was best to do.
They said, "Sir, ye cannot pass the river but at the bridge of
Abbeville, for the flood is come in at Blanche-Taque;" then he
returned and lodged at Abbeville.
The King of England, when he was past the river, he thanked
God, and so rode forth in like manner as he did before. Then
he called Gobin Agace and did quit him his ransom and all his
company, and gave him a hundred nobles and a good horse.
And so the King rode forth fair and easily, and thought to have
lodged in a great town called Noyelles; but when he knew that
the town pertained to the Countess d'Aumale, sister to the Lord
Robert of Artois,* the King assured the town and country as
much as pertained to her, and so went forth: and his marshals
rode to Crotoy on the seaside and brent the town, and found
in the haven many ships and barks charged with wines of Poitou,
pertaining to the merchants of Saintonge and of Rochelle; they
brought the best thereof to the King's host. Then one of the
marshals rode to the gates of Abbeville and from thence to Saint-
Riquiers, and after to the town of Rue-Saint-Esprit. This was
on a Friday, and both battles of the marshals returned to the
King's host about noon and so lodged all together near to Cressy
in Ponthieu.
The King of England was well informed how the French
King followed after him to fight. Then he said to his company,
"Let us take here some plot of ground, for we will go no farther
till we have seen our enemies.
I have good cause here to abide
*She was in fact his daughter.
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6051
them, for I am on the right heritage of the Queen my mother,
the which land was given at her marriage: I will challenge it of
mine adversary Philip of Valois. " And because that he had not
the eighth part in number of men as the French King had, there-
fore he commanded his marshals to chose a plot of ground some-
what for his advantage; and so they did, and thither the King
and his host went. Then he sent his currours to Abbeville, to
see if the French King drew that day into the field or not.
They went forth and returned again, and said how they could
see none appearance of his coming; then every man took their
lodging for that day, and to be ready in the morning at the
sound of the trumpet in the same place. This Friday the French
King tarried still in Abbeville abiding for his company, and sent
his two marshals to ride out to see the dealing of the English-
men; and at night they returned, and said how the Englishmen.
were lodged in the fields. That night the French King made a
supper to all the chief lords that were there with him, and after
supper the King desired them to be friends each to other. The
King looked for the Earl of Savoy, who should come to him
with a thousand spears, for he had received wages for a three
months of them at Troyes in Champagne.
OF THE ORDER OF THE ENGLISHMEN AT CRESSY
ON THE Friday, as I said before, the King of England lay in
the fields, for the country was plentiful of wines and other
victual, and if need had been, they had provision following in
carts and other carriages. That night the King made a supper to
all his chief lords of his host and made them good cheer; and
when they were all departed to take their rest, then the King
entered into his oratory and kneeled down before the altar, pray-
ing God devoutly that if he fought the next day, that he might
achieve the journey to His honor; then about midnight he laid
him down to rest, and in the morning he rose betimes and heard
mass, and the Prince his son with him, and the most part of his
company, were confessed and houseled; and after the mass said,
he commanded every man to be armed and to draw to the field
to the same place before appointed. Then the King caused a
park to be made by the wood-side behind his host, and there was
set all carts and carriages, and within the park were all their
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horses, for every man was afoot; and into this park there was
but one entry. Then he ordained three battles: In the first was
the young Prince of Wales, with him the Earl of Warwick and
Oxford, the Lord Godfrey of Harcourt, Sir Raynold Cobham, Sir
Thomas Holland, the Lord Stafford, the Lord of Mohun, the Lord
Delaware, Sir John Chandos, Sir Bartholomew de Burghersh, Sir
Robert Nevill, the Lord Thomas Clifford, the Lord Bourchier,
the Lord de Latimer, and divers other knights and squires that
I cannot name; they were an eight hundred men of arms and
two thousand archers, and a thousand of other with the Welsh-
men; every lord drew to the field appointed under his own
banner and pennon.
In the second battle was the Earl of North-
ampton, the Earl of Arundel, the Lord Ros, the Lord Lucy, the
Lord Willoughby, the Lord Basset, the Lord of Saint-Aubin, Sir
Louis Tufton, the Lord of Multon, the Lord Lascelles and divers
other, about an eight hundred men of arms and twelve hundred
archers. The third battle had the King; he had seven hundred
men of arms and two thousand archers. Then the King leapt on
a hobby, with a white rod in his hand, one of his marshals on
the one hand and the other on the other hand: he rode from
rank to rank desiring every man to take heed that day to his
right and honor. He spake it so sweetly and with so good coun-
tenance and merry cheer, that all such as were discomfited took
courage in the seeing and hearing of him. And when he had
thus visited all his battles, it was then nine of the day; then he
caused every man to eat and drink a little, and so they did at
their leisure. And afterward they ordered again their battles;
then every man lay down on the earth and by him his salet and
bow, to be the more fresher when their enemies should come.
THE ORDER OF THE FRENCHMEN AT CRESSY, AND HOW THEY BEHELD
THE DEMEANOR OF THE ENGLISHMEN
THIS Saturday the French King rose betimes and heard mass
in Abbeville in his lodging in the abbey of St. Peter, and he
departed after the sun-rising. When he was out of the town.
two leagues, approaching towards his enemies, some of his lords
said to him, "Sir, it were good that ye ordered your battles,
and let all your footmen pass somewhat on before, that they be
not troubled with the horsemen. " Then the King sent four
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6053
knights, the Moine [of] Bazeilles, the Lord of Noyers, the Lord
of Beaujeu, and the Lord d'Aubigny, to ride to aview the Eng-
lish host; and so they rode so near that they might well see part
of their dealing. The Englishmen saw them well and knew well
how they were come thither to aview them; they let them alone
and made no countenance toward them, and let them return as
they came. And when the French King saw these four knights
return again, he tarried till they came to him and said, "Sirs,
what tidings? " These four knights each of them looked on
other, for there was none would speak before his companion;
finally the King said to [the] Moine, who pertained to the King
of Bohemia and had done in his days so much that he was re-
puted for one of the valiantest knights of the world, "Sir, speak
you. "
Then he said:-"Sir, I shall speak, sith it pleaseth you,
under the correction of my fellows. Sir, we have ridden and
seen the behaving of your enemies: know ye for truth they are
rested in three battles abiding for you. Sir, I will counsel you
as for my part, saving your displeasure, that you and all your
company rest here and lodge for this night; for or they that
be behind of your company be come hither, and or your battles
be set in good order, it will be very late, and your people be
weary and out of array, and ye shall find your enemies fresh
and ready to receive you. Early in the morning ye may order
your battles at more leisure and advise your enemies at more
deliberation, and to regard well what way ye will assail them;
for, sir, surely they will abide you. "
Then the King commanded that it should be so done. Then
his two marshals one rode before, another behind, saying to
every banner, "Tarry and abide here in the name of God and
St. Denis. " They that were foremost tarried, but they that
were behind would not tarry, but rode forth, and said how they
would in no wise abide till they were as far forward as the fore-
most; and when they before saw them come on behind, then
they rode forward again, so that the King nor his marshals could
not rule them. So they rode without order or good array, till
they came in sight of their enemies; and as soon as the fore-
most saw them they reculed then aback without good array,
whereof they behind had marvel and were abashed, and thought
that the foremost company had been fighting. Then they might
have had leisure and room to have gone forward, if they had
list; some went forth, and some abode still. The commons, of
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FROISSART
whom all the ways between Abbeville and Cressy were full,
when they saw that they were near to their enemies, they took
their swords and cried, "Down with them! let us slay them
all. " There is no man, though he were present at the journey,
that could imagine or shew the truth of the evil order that was
among the French party, and yet they were a marvelous great
number. That I write in this book I learned it specially of the
Englishmen, who well beheld their dealing; and also certain
knights of Sir John of Hainault's, who was always about King
Philip, shewed me as they knew.
OF THE BATTLE OF CRESSY, AUGUST 26TH, 1346
THE Englishmen, who were in three battles lying on the
ground to rest them, as soon as they saw the Frenchmen ap-
proach, they rose upon their feet fair and easily without any
haste, and arranged their battles. The first, which was the
Prince's battle, the archers there stood in manner of a herse and
the men of arms in the bottom of the battle. The Earl of North-
ampton and the Earl of Arundel with the second battle were on
a wing in good order, ready to comfort the Prince's battle, if
need were.
The lords and knights of France came not to the assembly
together in good order, for some came before and some came
after, in such haste and evil order that one of them did trouble
another. When the French King saw the Englishmen his blood
changed, and said to his marshals, "Make the Genoways go on
before, and begin the battle, in the name of God and St. Denis. "
There were of the Genoways' cross-bows about a fifteen thou-
sand, but they were so weary of going afoot that day a six
leagues armed with their cross-bows, that they said to their con-
stables, "We be not well ordered to fight this day, for we be
not in the case to do any great deed of arms: we have more
need of rest. " These words came to the Earl of Alençon, who
said, "A man is well at case to be charged with such a sort of
rascals, to be faint and fail now at most need. " Also the same
season there fell a great rain and a clipse with a terrible thun-
der, and before the rain there came flying over both battles a
great number of crows for fear of the tempest coming. Then
anon the air began to wax clear, and the sun to shine fair and
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6055
bright, the which was right in the Frenchmen's eyen and on
the Englishmen's backs. When the Genoways were assembled
together and began to approach, they made a great leap and cry
to abash the Englishmen, but they stood still and stirred not
for all that; then the Genoways again the second time made
another leap and a fell cry, and stept forward a little, and the
Englishmen removed not one foot; thirdly, again they leapt and
cried, and went forth till they came within shot; then they shot
fiercely with their cross-bows. Then the English archers stept
forth one pace and let fly their arrows so wholly [together] and
so thick, that it seemed snow. When the Genoways felt the ar-
rows piercing through heads, arms, and breasts, many of them
cast down their cross-bows, and did cut their strings and returned
discomfited. When the French King saw them fly away, he said,
"Slay these rascals, for they shall let and trouble us without rea-
son. " Then ye should have seen the men of arms dash in among
them and killed a great number of them; and ever still the
Englishmen shot whereas they saw thickest press: the sharp ar-
rows ran into the men of arms and into their horses, and many
fell, horse and men, among the Genoways, and when they were
down, they could not relieve again; the press was so thick that
one overthrew another. And also among the Englishmen there
were certain rascals that went afoot with great knives, and they
went in among the men of arms and slew and murdered many
as they lay on the ground, both earls, barons, knights, and
squires; whereof the King of England was after displeased, for
he had rather they had been taken prisoners.
The valiant King of Bohemia called Charles of Luxembourg,
son to the noble Emperor Henry of Luxembourg, for all that he
was nigh blind, when he understood the order of the battle, he
said to them about him, "Where is the Lord Charles my son? »
His men said, "Sir, we cannot tell; we think he be fighting. "
Then he said, "Sirs, ye are my men, my companions and friends.
in this journey: I require you bring me so far forward that I
may strike one stroke with my sword. " They said they would
do his commandment, and to the intent that they should not
lose him in the press, they tied all their reins of their bridles
each to other and set the King before to accomplish his desire,
and so they went on their enemies. The Lord Charles of Bohe-
mia his son, who wrote himself King of Almaine and bare the
arms, he came in good order to the battle; but when he saw
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FROISSART
that the matter went awry on their party, he departed, I cannot
tell you which way. The King his father was so far forward
that he strake a stroke with his sword, yea, and more than four,
and fought valiantly, and so did his company; and they adven-
tured themselves so forward that they were there all slain, and
the next day they were found in the place about the King, and
all their horses tied each to other.
The Earl of Alençon came to the battle right ordinately and
fought with the Englishmen, and the Earl of Flanders also on
his part.
These two lords with their companies coasted the
English archers and came to the Prince's battle, and there fought
valiantly long. The French King would fain have come thither,
when he saw their banners, but there was a great hedge of
archers before him. The same day the French King had given
a great black courser to Sir John of Hainault, and he made the
Lord Thierry of Senzeille to ride on him and to bear his banner.
The same horse took the bridle in the teeth and brought him
through all the currours of the Englishmen, and as he would
have returned again, he fell in a great dike and was sore hurt,
and had been there dead, an his page had not been, who fol-
lowed him through all the battles and saw where his master lay
in the dike, and had none other let but for his horse; for the
Englishmen would not issue out of their battle for taking of any
prisoner. Then the page alighted and relieved his master: then
he went not back again the same way that they came; there was
too many in his way.
This battle between Broye and Cressy this Saturday was right
cruel and fell, and many a feat of arms done that came not to
my knowledge. In the night divers knights and squires lost their
masters, and sometime came on the Englishmen, who received
them in such wise that they were ever nigh slain; for there was
none taken to mercy nor to ransom, for so the Englishmen were
determined.
In the morning the day of the battle certain Frenchmen and
Almains perforce opened the archers of the Prince's battle, and
came and fought with the men of arms hand to hand. Then the
second battle of the Englishmen came to succor the Prince's
battle, the which was time, for they had as then much ado;
and they with the Prince sent a messenger to the King, who
was on a little windmill hill. Then the knight said to the King,
"Sir, the Earl of Warwick and the Earl of Oxford, Sir Raynold
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6057
<<
Cobham and other, such as be about the Prince your son, are
fiercely fought withal and are sore handled; wherefore they desire
you that you and your battle will come and aid them; for if the
Frenchmen increase, as they doubt they will, your son and they
shall have much ado. " Then the King said, "Is my son dead,
or hurt, or on the earth felled? " "No, sir," quoth the knight,
"but he is hardly matched; wherefore he hath need of your aid. "
'Well," said the King, "return to him and to them that sent you
hither, and say to them that they send no more to me for any
adventure that falleth, as long as my son is alive: and also say
to them that they suffer him this day to win his spurs; for if
God be pleased, I will this journey be his and the honor thereof,
and to them that be about him. " Then the knight returned
again to them and shewed the King's words, the which greatly
encouraged them, and repoined in that they had sent to the King.
as they did.
Sir Godfrey of Harcourt would gladly that the Earl of Har-
court, his brother, might have been saved; for he heard say by
them that saw his banner how that he was there in the field on
the French party: but Sir Godfrey could not come to him be-
times, for he was slain or he could come at him, and so was also
the Earl of Aumale his nephew. In another place the Earl of
Alençon and the Earl of Flanders fought valiantly, every lord
under his own banner; but finally they could not resist against
the puissance of the Englishmen, and so there they were also
slain, and divers other knights and squires. Also the Earl Louis.
of Blois, nephew to the French King, and the Duke of Lorraine,
fought under their banners; but at last they were closed in
among a company of Englishmen and Welshmen, and there were
slain for all their prowess. Also there was slain the Earl of
Auxerre, the Earl of Saint-Pol, and many other.
In the evening the French King, who had left about him no
more than a threescore persons, one and other, whereof Sir John
of Hainault was one, who had remounted once the King, for his
horse was slain with an arrow, then he said to the King, “Sir,
depart hence, for it is time; lose not yourself willfully: if ye
have loss at this time, ye shall recover it again another season.
And so he took the King's horse by the bridle and led him away
in a manner perforce. Then the King rode till he came to the
castle of Broye. The gate was closed, because it was by that
time dark: then the King called the captain, who came to the
>>
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FROISSART
walls and said, "Who is that calleth there this time of night? "
Then the King said, "Open your gate quickly, for this is the
fortune of France. " The captain knew then it was the King,
and opened the gate and let down the bridge. Then the King
entered, and he had with him but five barons, Sir John of
Hainault, Sir Charles of Montmorency, the Lord of Beaujeu, the
Lord d'Aubigny, and the Lord of Montsault. The King would
not tarry there, but drank and departed thence about midnight,
and so rode by such guides as knew the country till he came in
the morning to Amiens, and there he rested.
This Saturday the Englishmen never departed from their
battles for chasing of any man, but kept still their field, and
ever defended themselves against all such as came to assail them.
This battle ended about evens
nsong time.
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