BATTLE OF POICTIERS, 1356, HISTORICAL ART PRINTS OF THE BATTLE OF POICTIERS, BY MILITARY ARTISTS HENRY DUPRAY, BRIAN PALMER AND JOHN CAMERON, INCLUDING ANTIQUE MILITARY BOOK PLATE PRINTS FROM THE LATE 19TH CENTURY.

BATTLE OF POITIERS 1356   at the battle of Poictiers, Edward the Black prince displayed those supreme qualities of leadership that snatch victory from apparent defeat. king John, having collected an army of sixty thousand men, started in pursuit of the English who had ravaged the heart of France and were retreating to the coast. His march from Chartres brought him in front of the prince of Wales near the Vienne. posting his archers and men-at-arms on rising ground, protected by hedges and ditches and approached only by as deep narrow lane, he awaited the outcome of negotiations begun by Cardinal Perogord with the assent of the King. John would listen to no terms that did not include the unconditional surrender of the Black prince and one hundred of his knights. "I will die sword in hand rather than be guilty of deeds so contrary to the honour and glory of the English name," was the Princes reply. Confident in his strength, the King determined to attack. he was not ignorant of the dispositions of his formidable enemy, seeing that he had been warned by his scouts of the English men-at-arms could not be reached save by forcing a passage through the bowmen who lined the narrow lane and "would not be easy to discomfit" three hundred picked men well mounted were chosen to carry the passage by assault, while three divisions under the king, his brother and his sons, advanced in support. the charge was met by a heavy fire from the Bowmen, and a maddened horses swept back in headlong flight upon the army. The followed a scene of terrible confusion, in which horse and foot sought safety from the arrow swept lane. Edward was not the man to let slip such a opportunity. ordering six hundred men to fall upon the Duke of Normandy's flank he led his men-at-arms into the Thick of the fight with the cry "Saint George and Guyenne". the battle became a rout in which the French lost in killed alone almost as many as the number of their enemy: their King, who had sworn himself a brave soldier if not a skilful general, was a prisoner, and the Duke of Normandy and many other famous knights were among the slain. like a true soldier, the Black Prince treated the vanquished with splendid chivalry, waiting on the captive king at table and showing him every courtesy than one brave man expects from another.  (text from British battles 1898)

The Surrender of John I of France at the Battle of Poitiers, September 19th 1356 by John Cameron