The French historian Jean Froissart's account of the great English victory at Crecy (1346) is both colorful and stirring. Although Froissart felt that a historian had a duty to recite the valorous deeds of knightly heroes, he nevertheless carefully based his writings on information obtained from firsthand experience or from interviews with participants.

There is no man, unless he had been present, that can imagine or describe truly the confusion of that day, especially the bad management and disorder of the French, whose troops were out of number. . . . The English, who . . . were drawn up in three divisions, and seated on the ground, on seeing their enemies advance, rose up undauntedly and fell into their ranks. . . .

You must know that the French troops did not advance in any regular order, and that as soon as their king came in sight of...