The Road To Crecy: The English Invasion Of France, 1346

Five kings rode onto the battlefield at Crecy-en-Pronthieu on 13 August 1346. By the time the fighting was over, one of them was dead and two more were wounded. Only one, Edward III of England, remained victorious on the battlefield. Against overwhelming odds, his hungry, exhausted army had won a battle that shocked Europe.

Bringing the story to life are the many personalities involved; not only the kings and nobles, but ordinary men-at-arms, archers, non-combatants, and even King EdwardAs bank manager, who accompanied him to war. This is the story of the Crecy campaign, in all its triumph and tragedy.

The Road to Crecy is an exciting and graphically detailed account of one of the great battles of the Hundred Years War, when England broke France's stronghold on Europe. More dramatic, decisive and bloody than Agincourt, it heralded a new era in warfare.

• This is the first book to use a 'campaign diary' to describe an entire military campaign of this period
• A major turning point in European history - the impact and implications of Cricy were far greater than those of Agincourt; and the story is more dramatic too
• An incredible and unexpected victory for the English, beating 5-1 odds and a vastly superior army
• Engaging army detail: who were the soldiers? how were they armed and trained? why did they fight? were they hungry/tired?
• Splendid cast of characters lined up behind Edward III and his son the Black Prince
• Concentrates on people and personalities which really makes the action come alive for the reader

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The Road to Crecy" tells the story of the English expedition to France in 1346 which climaxed with the battle of Crecy. On 26 August 1346 on a low ridge outside the village of Crecy-en-Ponthieu in northwestern France, an English army of perhaps 12,000 men under the command of King Edward III faced a combined French and German force five times their number under Edward's rival King Philip VI. The result, on the part of the French at least, was seen as a foregone conclusion. The English army, largely composed of foot soldiers and tired after days of marching and fighting, would be ridden down and overwhelmed by the armoured knights of France, then universally regarded as the finest fighting men in Europe.

Afew hours later, all was over. Thousands of French knights and auxiliary troops lay dead or dying on the slopes of the ridge, shot down as they advanced by English and Welsh archers. King Philip, wounded twice by enemy arrows, had fled the field. The events of those few hours had changed the course of the Hundred Years War, the balance of military power in Western Europe, and the nature of warfare itself.

Morgen Witzel has written ten books and more than 400 articles on history, economcis, business and management; he is Honorary Senior Fellow at the School of Business and Economics, University of Exeter.

Marilyn Livingstone is a medieval historian. She has taught and lectured on historical subjects in Canada and Britain. She is currently researching a book on Henry Bate-Dudley, the eighteenth century playwright and journalist.