Jean Froissart: The Chronicles of Froissart

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

Chapter CLXI from book 1 opens with the Prince of Wales addressing his troops before the battle. “Prince of Wales” was one of the many titles of Edward of Woodstock, also known as “the Black Prince,” son of King Edward III of England and military leader of the expedition. Being unable “to obtain any honourable terms” because of failed negotiations, Edward tries to raise the spirits of his forces. The speech is couched in chivalric rhetoric, calling upon “St. George,” the patron saint of England and the epitome of the Christian warrior ideal, and exhorting the knights and retainers into “high spirits.” The reactions from Sir John Chandos and Eustace d’Ambreticourt are typical of fourteenth-century nobles desperate to win glory.

Froissart takes care to depict the heraldic symbols that each carried, explaining them in detail both in this chapter and in chapter CLXIII. Medieval fighting men distinguished themselves, in terms of both honor and financial reward, through the recognition of their deeds by heralds, men who recorded events as they unfolded. Their heraldic badges would also enable enemy combatants to recognize important men and determine whether it would be worthwhile to capture them alive for ransom or kill them outright.

However, as the battle begins, an important aspect of the English strategy becomes apparent: although noblemen on horseback are mentioned, it is the archers who do the majority of the fighting and provide “infinite service to their army.” Their arrows ensure that the French “never approach” the prince. The English tactic of using commoners with longbows, the preeminent weapon of the day, in conjunction with heavy infantry contrasted with their opponents’ archaic reliance on thundering armored cavalry. Thus, the French would be soundly defeated at Poitiers by a conjunction of archers and heavy infantry. As mentioned in chapter CLXV, this deadly combination left many of the “flower of French knighthood” slain on the battlefield and prefigured an end to an era of warfare dominated by armed knights on horseback.

Battle cries issue back and forth in this chapter, with “St. George, for Guienne” from the English echoed by “Montjoye St. Denis!” from the French. The English battle cry refers to Saint George, their patron saint, and Guienne is a town in the French province of Aquitaine, fought over by the French and English kings. Saint Denis represents one of the most venerated saints from France’s Christian heritage. A “montjoye” is a cairn of stones erected at a religious site or used to mark paths along a pilgrimage.

As the fighting wanes, the French king, John II, is taken prisoner. He pleads for his “cousin,” Prince Edward, whose grandfather, Edward II, had been married to Isabella, the daughter of the French king Philip IV. The familial relations linking these two rulers illustrate the internal conflicts that strained late medieval power structures. Paradoxically, John II would spend the rest of his life as a prisoner of the English, though as an honored guest—both prisoner and family member—feasting and living a royal lifestyle while supported by the English crown. He was only once released to help raise funds for his own ransom. He returned voluntarily when the man held “hostage” in his place, his son Louis, escaped. John II died in 1364 in England.

The aftermath of this defeat and capture of the king was devastating to the French. As Froissart writes, so many prisoners were taken that some were offered to be ransomed to their families “on the spot,” a common practice in medieval warfare. It underscored an attitude that saw war as an integral part of life, with rites and practices designed to honor those who participated in it. Yet collecting ransoms and looting the enemy’s provisions were also practices that helped finance and support the continued state of war between France and England for the next century.