The Black Prince’s Campaign of 1356 and the Battle of Poitiers According to the Monk of Malmesbury’s Eulogium historiarum, ca. 1366.[1]
Translated by the Turma ad Latinam of the United States Military Academy (Cadets Cammack Y. W. Shepler, Paul Conroy, Marqus Hubbard, Ryan Kreiser, Aidan Looney, and Michael O’Connor; Major Thomas M. McShea; and Professor Clifford J. Rogers), 2022. Public domain.
Itinerary of Edward IV [sic[2]]
The lord prince traveled towards the land of France from Bergerac on Thursday, that is, the fourth day of the month of August. Riding over the land of France, he came to the territory of Périgord on the following Saturday. There Lord Bartholomew Burghersh with his men conquered two large walled towns, which the lord of Marsan handed over to the use of the prince.[3] [216]
The next Sunday, namely the seventh day of the month of August, the lord prince moved the army to a certain town [Périgueux] that was owned by the bishop of Périgord, where his cathedral seat was, and a decree was promulgated against anyone there plundering by violence against the will of the bishop, but when communicated by the council of the prince and the bishop, that decree was ineffective. That meeting happened on the following Monday [8 Aug.] during the movement along the road, and the lord prince remained that whole night near a most-strong castle called Ramefort. The following Tuesday, the lord prince traveled with his own division to a town called Brantôme and passed the night there.
On Wednesday [10 Aug.], which is on the day of Saint Lawrence, the prince traveled through a great stream by a millhouse above which was a very strongly fortified castle and a town called Quinsac, where he remained through the whole night.
On the following Thursday the prince came to a village called Merdan [St.-Martin-le-Pin?]; there he found a multitude of fish to be sold and bought, so he remained there peacefully through the whole night.
On Friday he came to the town of Rochechauart.
On Saturday he came through the abbey of la Péruse, where the nobles and the great men were entertained along the banks of the river Vienne, which flowed under the abbey.
On Sunday, which is the 14th day of August, the prince traversed the aforementioned river and immediately displayed his banners and came to the town called Lesterps; at that place there was in fact a certain very strongly fortified abbey, that for a long period of the day resisted the prince; finally it surrendered [217] to the will of the prince, the garrison [hominibus] and the church and the men watching over it being spared, and there he remained through Monday, which was the day of the Assumption of Blessed Mary.
On the following Tuesday [16 Aug.], the prince came to the town of Bellac, which was owned by the countess of Pembroke, for the love of whom the town was spared from fire.
On Wednesday the prince came to a town [le Dorat] with a very strongly fortified castle, both of which belonged to Jacques de Bourbon, where his wife was accustomed to dwell. The church of that town, in fact, fought against the prince for a long period of the day, but finally submitted to the will of the prince. The same day the vanguard captured two strongly fortified castles by assault, where the prince spent the night on the following Thursday.
On Friday the prince came to a town called Lussac, where he found a great supply of fish and he spent the night there and the next day he burned the town.
On Saturday he traveled to the very beautiful town of Saint Benoît-du-Sault, in which was an abbey where two nephews of the Lord d’Albret acquired [or “had been keeping”: habebant] a great sum of gold to the number of 14,000 écus.
On Sunday, that is to say the 21st day of the month of August, the prince came to the town called Argenton, where there was a strong castle below the town; there he stayed on Monday. The same day a very strongly fortified castle was captured in passing by some men of the prince’s division. [218]
On Tuesday the prince came to a very beautiful town, called Châteauroux in French. The same day he came to another town called Seynt Yman [St. Amand-Montrand?] where the rear guard remained that whole night. Then he came to another town [Déols] surrounded by a ditch where there was a noble and strong abbey which is called Bourg-Dieu. In that place, there is a great pilgrimage to the bodies of the Saints Cosmas and Damian, who lie there in great veneration. The vanguard remained there the whole day of Wednesday because that day was the feast of Saint Bartholomew.
On Thursday the prince came to a great castle of the king of France that is called Issoudun; and he remained there on Friday and Saturday.
On Sunday, that is to say, the 28th day of the month of August, the prince came to a strong castle that is called La Ferté, which belonged to the viscount of Thouars, where the lords of Berkeley and de la Ware stayed until the baggage had gotten in front of them. Then he came through an old town, with damaged walls, which is called Lury; this place, in fact, used to be the border of the duchy of Guienne in those parts. Then he crossed the river Cher, which divided the duchy from the kingdom of France, and he spent the night in the town of Vierzon. On the third day prior, the captal de Buch had pillaged that whole country. One abbey was severely burned. The same day, Sir John Chandos and Sir James de Audley attacked the town of Aubigny and with force and arms they seized and laid waste to it with fire and flame. The same [219] day, those same two knights rode forward with 200 men and met a Frenchman by the name of Grismouton, who had with him four score lances, who all fled or were slain, except 18 knights and esquires who were captured. Remarkably, the Englishmen had [only] 10 lances in total; the Grismouton was the first to flee.
On Monday, which was the feast day of the Beheading of Saint John, the prince came to a town called Villefranche, positioned above the river that divided the kingdom of France and the duchy. The same day, the people of the lord of Caumont captured 8 knights and esquires of the lords de Crâon and Boucicaut. The same day, the news came to the prince that the king of France wanted a battle [voluit congredi] with him, about which he was greatly pleased. However, once the prince had ridden to within 16 leagues [leucas] of the city of Orléans, he heard that the lord of Craon and the lord Boucicaut were coming against him with 60[4] lances and with a copious multitude of men. The prince led his people against them manfully, until he had come to a walled town called Romorantin, where the aforementioned enemies were shut in; he pitched tents and for three days he waited above a ford by the village on the river Soudre, and this was Thursday.
On the following Wednesday the prince ordered an assault on the town, and thus it was done, very strongly; from there the defenders were resisting manfully, because there were many men-at-arms in the castle. Indeed there was near to that castle another extremely strong one, called le Dongoun, at the distance of an arrow shot; from there great [220] damage ways heaped upon the men of the prince. Even after the town had been captured, the Dongoun, which was constructed in the form of a tower, was still resisting manfully. There one young but noble knight was killed, called d’Albret, and one noble esquire who was with the captal de Buch.
On the following Thursday, they made three siege engines [hurdesia] to pull apart the tower; of which the earl of Suffolk made one, and Bartholomew Burghersh another, and a magnate of Gascony made the third.
On Friday and Saturday they set fire to the tower, and the defenders were not able to extinguish the fire well with wine and water, because they had these among them [only] in small quantities. Then they began to discuss peace and the surrender of the tower throughout that whole day, and at last they submitted themselves all together into the grace of the prince and the tower was surrendered.
The following Sunday, which was the fourth day of September, the prince rested and ordered his men to prepare their equipment.
On the following Monday the prince came to the land of the count of Bisser and Burgilloun [Auxerre and Burgundy?].
On Tuesday the prince came to a castle of the county of Blois that is situated on the river Cher.
On Wednesday the prince came to Aumounk [modern Montlouis] on the Loire near Tours in Touraine, a noble and very beautiful city; there he remained for the days of Thursday, Friday, and [221] Saturday, during which the men of the prince spent pleasant days.
On Sunday, which was the 11th day of the month of September, the prince moved his army and in the morning he safely crossed the very perilous river Indre; and proceeding he came to the town of Montbazon and spent the night there near a strong castle.
On the following Monday, the cardinal of Périgord with one archbishop and many bishops and other prominent men came to the prince, preaching of piety and mercy. At that time it was said that the dauphin was at Tours in Touraine with a thousand men-at-arms, not counting sergeants [servientibus] and grooms. And it was said that the king of France with his own division was coming to battle with the prince on the following Wednesday.
On the following Tuesday, the prince traveled through the town of Sainte-Maure, where the Lord of Crâon rules, and spent the night at a village called la Haye [mod. Descartes], which is situated above the bank of Creuse, at which town news came to the prince that the king of France wanted to get in front of us, for he much worried that the prince might be fleeing, having seen the French army.
On the following Wednesday, he came to a castle called Châtellerault, which has a beautiful and grand town and is situated on the river Vienne; and there he remained through the days of Thursday and Friday. And there he heard news that the king of France was lodging on the night of Saturday on the same river at a little town called Chauvigny; at which the prince proclaimed that all pack animals, carts, and those carrying food ought to cross the bridge the same night lest the army be hindered the next day in crossing the bridge and hurrying against the enemy; and thus it was done.
On Saturday he hurried at dawn with the greatest speed against the French and he crossed the river that flows to Poitiers, and there the prince heard that a division of the French was traveling to Poitiers and that a great multitude of the French had passed by there. The prince rode with extreme haste, leaving the road that leads from Chauvigny to Poitiers and going cross country, hurrying towards his enemies, without regard for his own baggage. And as he was making his journey, the scouts of the prince fell in with a good two hundred men-at-arms from the French rear guard at the edge of a great forest. They, fighting manfully, put them to flight; the French ran away through the woods, scattered and shamefully defeated. But the English did not pursue those men lest the strong vanguard or middle division of the French come to the support of the fugitives. The prince, seeing that the French did not want to fight, lodged himself in that wood where the skirmish took place; this night his army greatly suffered on account of a lack of water. In that skirmish two counts were captured, namely, of Auxerre and one other. Many knights and a great multitude of men-at-arms were killed.
On Sunday, the 18th day of the month of September, in the early morning the prince made his way forward two miles of the [measure of the] territory in the direction of Poitiers. Indeed the prince heard there the news that the king of France was awaiting him, in the level field, with his divisions arrayed for battle. While moving on the road with great speed against his enemies, the prince met a cardinal called Périgord, who, extending hands and arms in the air and crying, asked the Prince if [223] he would stop for a short time until he had expounded his purpose. But the Prince said: “Speak your proposition quickly, because now time should not be lost to preaching, but rather [spent] fighting.” The cardinal said to him, “O most unconquerable Prince, have mercy on humankind, and do not spill the blood of Christians but rather of the pagans.” So much negotiation was held between them that the prince began to favor the requests and promises of the cardinal, and thus they agreed that with eleven men from the side of the English and the same number from the side of the French, with the cardinal mediating, both parties would treat for the restoration of peace between the prince and the king.
They spent the day negotiating the prince’s petitions and the conclusion of a peace, but it did not result in anything. For the French delayed as much as they were able, so that their division might be augmented. For on the same day that they were discussing peace, fifteen hundred men-at-arms came to the aid of the King of France, and foot soldiers in great number. The other French treated for peace falsely and tepidly, because they were seeing that their army was always growing. The prince, perceiving this, ordered the end of the negotiations and rested that night.
On Monday, which is the 19th day of September, the cardinal returned at dawn so that he might as before discuss peace, but to no avail. The prince, seeing strengthening of the enemy force as the day went on, chose to join in battle rather than to prolong things to his own disadvantage. For he was often seeing groups of now 200, now 300, now 500 troops hurrying to the division of the French, which greatly aggravated him. Knowing that the cardinal favored the king of France more than himself, the prince responded simply to the cardinal that he was no longer ready to listen to his misleading words anymore. And thus, giving a benediction to the prince, he went back whence he first came.
[224] The prince, however, discussed with his own men by what way he should proceed toward his enemies. There was indeed between them a dense wood, covered in ditches, and above the hollow a high, thorny hedge, apparently without an approach except only in one place. It was said that the division of the French was in that woods. There was one gate which in the English language is called a leap-gate[5] [lipᴣet], where five men-at-arms are able to enter by the front, standing upright, and no more. The prince, using his spurs, urged his destrier to jump over the pit and hedge; Sir Robert de Bradeston, it is said, was struck down in that attack, for he entered the gate first of all. And the Lord Maurice of Berkeley, son of Lord Thomas of Berkeley, entered first after him, where he was dreadfully wounded. When the battle was done, victory in that battle in the woods [or possibly “hedged fields”: boscagio] came by divine nod to the English. With those men subdued, killed, captured, and put to flight, the great army of the French appeared to the prince and his men, divided in three great battle lines, each having its own wings; the sight of which terrified many of our men, and no wonder.
The prince, seeing these extremely large groups of men, put heart into his men with bold words, saying that strength in war is not so much to be found in men and arms, but rather in having trust in God alone; and he himself descends from his destrier and after him all the others: all [225] of the French truly sent their own horses to their rear so that they might make a quick chase after the English. Then from both sides, charging at the same time, a great and mighty slaughter was made, such that it was unheard of that in any other conflict it was borne for so great a time. In former times, at the third or fourth or at the latest to the sixth drawing of an arrow, men knew immediately which side would triumph, but in this case, one archer sent one hundred aimed arrows and still neither side gave in to the other; it is unheard of in [histories of] wars and in [songs of] deeds that any another fight persevered for such a long while. It was said, but I do not assert it as truth, that the French saw an armed, mounted knight flying in the air and fighting against them. Once again, by divine will, victory came to the English.
There King Jean of France was captured, along with his young son Philippe, a boy, but armed nevertheless. Captured were 14 counts, 21 barons and bannerets. And there were 22 bannerets killed. And three of the sons of the king, and the brother of the king, and the bishop of Langres, and 57 bannerets fled. Moreover, 1,400 knights were captured; in total 3,000 men-at-arms were captured. 2,500 men-at-arms were killed. The slain foot soldiers are not numbered. And thus ends the Battle of Poitiers.
[1] Eulogium historiarum, ed. F. S. Haydon, vol. 3 (London: Rolls Series, 1863), 215-225.
[2] Edward of Woodstock, the “Black Prince,” was the eldest son and heir of King Edward III, but he never became Edward IV because he died in 1376, a year before his father.
[3] In one manuscript there is an additional phrase: “who manfully and robustly maintained the aforementioned towns to the great harm of the enemies until the arrival of the Prince.” It is grammatically unclear who is meant, or if the arrival of the prince means his return at the end of the campaign. The passage would seem to make more sense if the prince handed over the conquered towns to the custody of the lord of Marsan, but as printed the Latin is clear: the lord of Marsan (dominus de Marsan) is nominative and the prince (domini principis) is the recipient.
[4] 40 in one manuscript.
[5] A gate low enough to leap; a broad stile.
