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
