Philip of Valois he found himself at this moment on the eastern frontier of France with his father and 500 knights.  Hurrying to Paris this German force formed the nucleus of an army which assembled at St. Denys; and which was soon reinforced by 15,000 Genoese cross-bowmen who had been hired from among the soldiers of the Lord of Monaco on the sunny Riviera and arrived at this hour of need.  With this host rapidly gathering in his front Edward abandoned his march on Paris, which had already served its purpose in relieving Derby, and threw himself across the Seine to carry out the second part of his programme by a junction with the Flemings at Gravelines and a campaign in the north.  But the rivers in his path were carefully guarded, and it was only by surprising the ford of Blanche-Taque on the Somme that the king escaped the necessity of surrendering to the vast host which was now hastening in pursuit.  His communications however were no sooner secured than he halted on the twenty-sixth of August at the little village of Crecy in Ponthieu and resolved to give battle.  Half of his army, which had been greatly reduced in strength by his rapid marches, consisted of light-armed footmen from Ireland and Wales; the bulk of the remainder was composed of English bowmen.  The king ordered his men-at-arms to dismount, and drew up his forces on a low rise sloping gently to the south-east, with a deep ditch covering its front, and its flanks protected by woods and a little brook.  From a windmill on the summit of this rise Edward could overlook the whole field of battle.  Immediately beneath him lay his reserve, while at the base of the slope was placed the main body of the army in two divisions, that to the right commanded by the young Prince of Wales, Edward “the Black Prince,” as he was called, that to the left by the Earl of Northampton.  A small ditch protected the English front, and behind it the bowmen were drawn up “in the form of a harrow” with small bombards between them “which with fire threw little iron balls to frighten the horses,” the first instance known of the use of artillery in field-warfare.

The halt of the English army took Philip by surprise, and he attempted for a time to check the advance of his army.  But the attempt was fruitless and the disorderly host rolled on to the English front.  The sight of his enemies indeed stirred Philip’s own blood to fury, “for he hated them.”  The fight began at vespers.  The Genoese cross-bowmen were ordered to open the attack, but the men were weary with their march, a sudden storm wetted and rendered useless their bowstrings, and the loud shouts with which they leapt forward to the encounter were met with dogged silence in the English ranks.  Their first arrow-flight however brought a terrible reply.  So rapid was the English shot “that it seemed as if it snowed.”  “Kill me these scoundrels,” shouted Philip, as the Genoese fell back; and his men-at-arms plunged butchering into their broken ranks while the Counts of Alenicon