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It's hard to imagine today
that there was ever a time

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when England and France were
more than two separate countries.

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But 700 years ago,
our ruling classes were bound

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by a shared set of values,
codes of behaviour and language.

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Locked together by one culture in a
marriage that had lasted 300 years.

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But, in the mid-14th century,
it hit the rocks.

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What followed was the longest
and bloodiest divorce in history

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set against a backdrop of raging
plague and violent revolution.

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Oh, my goodness! You can feel
the texture of the skin.

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I'm going to tell the story
of over a hundred years of war,

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when little England
dared to challenge

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the mighty superpower that was
France and refused to give up.

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I want to uncover how those
famous battles like Crecy,
Poitiers and Agincourt

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were more than just
military victories in what became
a fight for national identity.

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I'll show what was really
at stake for charismatic leaders

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like Henry V,
Edward III and Joan of Arc.

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And reveal how these people
and events shaped and changed us,

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helping make England
what it is today.

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In this episode,

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a bold English king
does the unthinkable

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when he rips up the medieval
rule book to take on France

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with new weapons, new ideas and,
above all, a burning will to win.

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For me as a cultural historian,

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these are some of the
most interesting documents
in English history.

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They're records
of parliamentary sessions

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held between 1066 and 1360.

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They document three centuries of
English governance, law and policy.

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But have a look at this.

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They're in French.

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(SPEAKS FRENCH)
These are the remembrances...

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(SPEAKS FRENCH)

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..of parliaments summoned
in the reign of the king.

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French was the language
of the English ruling class.

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In fact, they had more
in common with their
counterparts across the channel

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than with the rest
of the population.

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There's no more potent symbol
than this

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of the ties that, for 300 years,

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bound France,
the most powerful country in Europe,

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with her poor neighbour England.

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Since the Norman Conquest,
they had been joined not just
by language but by lands.

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France was a country divided
into semi-independent provinces.

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By 1327, the English king
still held Ponthieu,
a small area of northern France.

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And the valuable duchy
of Gascony or Aquitaine.

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The English king ruled over
these territories not as
a monarch but as a duke.

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These lands came at a price.

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To keep them, English kings had to
pay homage to the French monarch.

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This was a delicate arrangement
but it worked.

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That was until one man challenged
the rules of this uneasy marriage.

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And here he is.

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Edward III.

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Edward was crowned aged 14
here in Westminster Abbey,
where his tomb now lies.

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No one could have expected
that he would pose such a challenge

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to the relationship
between England and France.

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He was three-quarters French
and had grown up steeped
in the same chivalric traditions

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as his relations across the Channel.

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With flowing blond locks
and charming manners,

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Edward seemed to embody
the knightly ideal.

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But behind this image lay
a brilliant mind, a ruthless streak

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and a will of iron.

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Edward had survived
a traumatic childhood.

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His father had died a broken man,

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rumoured to have been murdered
by his mother's ambitious lover,

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a man who would pose
such a threat to Edward
that he would have him executed.

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Edward may have been a young king
but he was not one to antagonise.

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Only a year into his reign,
events conspired to do just that.

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Edward had been bought up to
believe that, through his mother,

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the French King's sister, he had
a claim to the crown of France.

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But, in 1328, it was given
to his cousin Philip.

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Relations between the two men
would never recover.

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Paying homage as the
Duke of Aquitaine to his cousin

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didn't come easy
to the proud Edward.

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But Edward couldn't afford
to lose his lands in France.

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Gascony was more than
just his birthright.

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Together with the wool trade
from Flanders,

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it was propping up
the English economy.

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Over 80,000 tons of wine were
exported from here each year.

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The tax alone was worth more
than that collected from
all the shires of England.

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In France, Edward should have known
his place as the king's vassal.

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Instead, he seemed increasingly
keen to assert his authority

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over that of his cousin.

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Here in Gascony, evidence
of this still survives today.

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I'm here in the church of St Seurin

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and up in the ceiling is a keystone
of one the side chapels.

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You can just make out
a shield held aloft by an angel,

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with the three leopards couchant
of England depicted on it.

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More than ornamentation,

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this stamp of ownership
was 14th-century propaganda

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and would have been
unmistakably English.

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This would've been painted
in heraldic colours of red and gold

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and would've been instantly
recognisable to worshippers here

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as a symbol of
strength and continuity

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Edward was becoming
a most problematic vassal.

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Not known for his
diplomatic brilliance,

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King Philip was already struggling
to manage his unwieldy country.

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And, by 1337, he wanted Edward out.

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In an unprecedented move, he sent
his army to confiscate Ponthieu,

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attacked Edward's castles
and tried to seize Gascony.

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Edward couldn't retaliate,
his army was tied up
in a border war with Scotland.

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But the furious English king
wasn't going to let this lie.

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Three years later, having secured
valuable allies here in Flanders,

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in the market square of Ghent,
he made a provocative gesture.

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Its consequences would last
for over a hundred years.

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In front of the gathering of
English barons and Flemish allies,

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he unveiled
his new royal coat of arms.

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Where once there was just
the three leopards
of the English royal family,

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there were now three leopards
quartered with the fleur-de-lis,

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symbol of the French monarchy.

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Edward III had done the unthinkable,

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he had proclaimed himself
king of England and France.

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This was now more than
a territorial dispute.

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And Edward and Philip
both knew there was only one way
this challenge could be settled.

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Knightly combat.

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And that was dictated by
a shared code of military conduct.

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A code that would be
pushed to its limits.

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These 600-year-old manuscripts
tell us about this set of rules

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developed for the French
and English knights.

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A way of life both on
and off the battlefield. Chivalry.

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The rules of chivalry were
written by the knights themselves.

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They were written in French,
which was the international
language of chivalry.

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There was an element
of snobbery in it, yes,

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because it's an upper-class thing.

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But, above all, it was concerned with
right honourable behaviour that saw

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the knightly class as ordained by god
to protect king, kingdom and people.

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But the causes that they
fought in were those of kings.

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Here in the Luttrell Psalter,
we can see a knight being equipped.

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Here he is in all
his heraldic splendour.

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His arms are being handed to him
by his wife and daughter,

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he is setting out for war.

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But here in this illustration
of the St Inglevert tournament

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from Froissart's Chronicle,

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we see a scene of a famous tournament
held at St Inglevert near Calais.

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This was a tournament between
the English and the French knights
in friendly conditions.

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Here we see two knights
in the foreground tilting
at each other in the lists.

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And you can see it's a great
occasion, it's like Royal Ascot.

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It's exotic, it's colourful,
it is showing off.

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Showing off on a grand scale.
It's conspicuous consumption.

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It's the brotherhood solidarity
of the upper classes.

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And the knights used the engagements
to show off their prowess.

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And to inspire
future generations of knights.

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For all their pomp and ceremony,
tournaments were a training ground

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where knights prepared for the
greatest of chivalric combats, war.

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After five years' preparation,
Edward was ready to take on
the mightiest army in Europe.

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He organised a force
to defend his own lands in Gascony.

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But Edward would lead
a different campaign.

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He would invade
King Philip's territories.

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On the 5th of August 1346,

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he set sail across the Channel

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with 750 ships
and an army of 15,000 men.

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And this is where
Edward's army landed.

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He'd wanted to fool the French king
that he was going to land

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several hundred miles
in that direction in Gascony.

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But, instead, they landed here
on the beaches of Normandy.

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The first thing the king did
was to knight his 16-year-old son,

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Edward, the Prince of Wales,
later known as the Black Prince.

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He then sent all the ships home.

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This was to be
a campaign of no return.

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With the Black Prince
in the vanguard,

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Edward's army stormed east.

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Their target,
the prosperous city of Caen.

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The Hundred Years' War is remembered
for its iconic set-piece battles.

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What happened here at Caen
was very different.

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The city was defended outside
the walls by 2,500 men.

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But, when they saw
Edward's army approaching,

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the French fled back
to the safety of the castle
here in the city walls.

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But they were too late, the Black
Prince and the Earl of Warwick

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were already upon them before
they had reached the city gates.

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What followed was perhaps more
typical of medieval warfare

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than any of the
famous battles to come.

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(MAN SPEAKS FRENCH)

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I'm with Francois Neveux, an
expert on the history of Normandy.

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(SPEAKS FRENCH)

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After three days, 5,000 men,
women and children lay dead.

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Then the looting began,

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something which probably motivated
Edward's men more than any sense

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of loyalty to the king
or idealistic set of values.

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Chivalry in action
was far removed from
the gilded images of manuscripts.

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It was a brutal business and
its rules didn't apply to everyone.

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(LAUGHS) Thank you.

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Caen was Edward's first victory but
to claim back his rights in France

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he would have to take on
Philip's army.

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With still no sign of that mighty
force, Edward continued south,

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burning all in his path,
towards Paris.

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Never before had the
superpower France been so violated.

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I've come to
the Abbey of St Denis in Paris,

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where Philip prepared
a chivalric response,

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confident he could crush
his impertinent cousin.

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Philip really had to do something
to stop Edward III once and for all.

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He raised the call to arms and
messengers were sent to all his
allies and vassals abroad,

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assembling one of the biggest armies
France has ever seen.

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Then he rode here
to take possession of the Oriflamme,

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the sacred war banner of France,
from the abbot.

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And here it is.
This is the flag of St Denis

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00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:37,520
that medieval monarchs
would come here to collect
before they went to do battle.

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This is a more recent version.
During the Hundred Years' War,

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the banner would have had
a central motif

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of a flaming gold sun
against a blood-red backdrop.

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00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:52,720
And this banner really symbolised
all that was great about France,

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00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:55,400
both spiritually and militarily.

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It's said that Charlemagne's army
bore the Oriflamme before it

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as they went to battle
against the infidels.

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But the unfurling of this banner
during the Hundred Years' War

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00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:09,600
meant something else, "guerre
mortelle," a fight to the death.

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00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:13,360
This meant the opposing side
would be shown no mercy,

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00:18:13,360 --> 00:18:17,000
given no quarter,
and no prisoners were to be taken.

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But Edward had
a trick up his sleeve,

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00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:28,800
one that he'd spent years preparing.

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And it would shake
the very foundations of chivalry.

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He wouldn't rely just on knights
but on low-born archers

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equipped with
a devastating new weapon

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rarely used
outside the British Isles.

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This is a statute from
the latter years of Edward's reign.

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00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:55,280
And its very existence
is a direct acknowledgement

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00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:58,960
of the importance
of the longbow in the king's wars.

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00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:04,080
It states that each Sunday,
every able-bodied man

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00:19:04,080 --> 00:19:08,480
should go to the archery butts
and practise with bows and arrows,

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00:19:08,480 --> 00:19:12,160
pellets or bolts,
the art of shooting.

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00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:16,640
And it also states, rather
interestingly, that it is forbidden

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00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:21,840
to play or watch sports
of null value, such as football.

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Draw! Loose! Middle rank!

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Mark!

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00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:31,280
Edward would use his archers
in a unique formation.

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00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:39,200
Their role is still remembered today
at events like this in Bosworth.

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00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:48,160
I'm here to meet Matthew Strickland,
an expert on the longbow.

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00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:54,520
So, Matthew, we know that
Edward III was developing the use
of archers in his battle plans.

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In 1341, he makes an order for
3 million arrows and 7,000 bows.

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00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:02,360
Archery is important to him.
It's extremely important.

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00:20:02,360 --> 00:20:05,920
It's important to remember that
Edward I and Edward II's armies

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00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:09,160
had a lot or archers but they
were auxiliaries to the cavalry.

229
00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:11,760
The English cavalry
was the main striking force.

230
00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:14,440
But during the wars with Scotland,

231
00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:18,320
particularly the defeat of the
English army at Bannockburn in 1314,

232
00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:21,480
the English developed
this new tactical formation.

233
00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:26,720
The first time we see this
is at Dupplin Moor in 1332,

234
00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:31,840
where the English flank a unit
of dismounted knights,

235
00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:36,480
dismounted men-at-arms, flanked
by wings of archers, longbowmen.

236
00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:40,360
And this gives them a very, very
powerful defensive formation.

237
00:20:40,360 --> 00:20:45,400
And it's that tactical combination
combining dismounted knights

238
00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:50,400
flanked by wings of archers, that can
enfilade an attacking French force,

239
00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:55,360
that he realises will deliver
a knockout blow if he can get
the French to join battle.

240
00:20:55,360 --> 00:20:57,360
That is his principal strategy.

241
00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:03,080
This was a risky tactic.

242
00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:07,920
For it to work,
Edward's archers would have be
on higher ground than the French.

243
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:15,040
By mid-August, Edward
was just 20 miles from Paris.

244
00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:19,720
But he had no intention
of attacking the capital.

245
00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:22,800
With his troops
in sight of the French,

246
00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:26,040
he turned his army and headed north.

247
00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:31,080
But French garrisons stationed
on the Somme blocked Edward's path.

248
00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:44,120
In an incredible act of heroism,
two of Edward's senior knights,

249
00:21:44,120 --> 00:21:47,960
William de Bohun,
Earl of Northampton,
and Sir Reginald Cobham,

250
00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:51,160
waded across the river
under enemy crossbow fire,

251
00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:54,480
covered by their own
archers and a hundred men at arms

252
00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:58,200
to engage the French on the
other side and push them back.

253
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:04,600
The two knights had cleared the way.
The English were through.

254
00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:11,840
Finally, after two more days of
marching, Edward halted his men.

255
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:18,880
They had reached the tiny village
of Crecy in Ponthieu,

256
00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:20,880
Edward's former Duchy.

257
00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:26,960
He stationed his men on a hilltop
overlooking the plain.

258
00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:36,120
He knew that this was
the best place to do battle
because he knew the lie of the land.

259
00:22:36,120 --> 00:22:38,280
On the 25th of August 1346,

260
00:22:38,280 --> 00:22:41,400
the English army
took up camp over there

261
00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:44,400
in the forest of Crecy
and simply waited.

262
00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:47,880
Two days later, Philip's troops,

263
00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:52,160
one of the largest French armies
ever gathered, caught up.

264
00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:54,760
They had followed him
all the way here.

265
00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:58,560
Just as Edward had wanted.

266
00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:08,600
Historian Andrew Ayton has pieced
together what happened next.

267
00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:15,840
The battle probably began
with the English first division,

268
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:18,520
the vanguard division
of the Prince of Wales,

269
00:23:18,520 --> 00:23:21,240
deployed in a crescent about here.

270
00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:26,520
From the tower at one end
to that apple tree
in the distance down there.

271
00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:31,760
Below them is a kind of
bowl of terrain into which
the French army advanced.

272
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:36,040
The battle began when the crossbow
men were pushed forward by Philip

273
00:23:36,040 --> 00:23:40,080
to neutralise the English defence
at the beginning of the battle.

274
00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:42,120
To soften them up, if you like.

275
00:23:42,120 --> 00:23:46,320
The problem was that, before
the crossbowmen got within range,

276
00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:50,640
they had been mown down by
concentrated massed archery shooting.

277
00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:56,200
This was exactly
what Edward had planned.

278
00:23:56,200 --> 00:24:01,840
Froissart recorded that
the English arrows were so thick
they fell like snow.

279
00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:06,320
The French had never experienced
anything like it.

280
00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:18,280
With this first set back, the massed
ranks of French knights responded.

281
00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:25,920
What we see then are a series
of French heavy cavalry attacks
on the English position.

282
00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:30,400
As the cavalry advanced, of course
horses would begin to come down.

283
00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:33,320
They would create mounds
of horse cadavers,

284
00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:38,160
which would then be difficult for the
next wave of cavalry to get round.

285
00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:41,840
So they would stop, presenting
easy targets for the archers.

286
00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:47,520
After a while, the battlefield would
have been littered with horseflesh.

287
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:50,680
And under the horses
would have fallen their riders.

288
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:52,800
If they hadn't been hit by arrows,

289
00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:55,480
they would have been
crushed by their horses.

290
00:24:55,480 --> 00:25:00,000
One of the most vivid remarks that
a French chronicler makes is,

291
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,280
"On this day,
men were killed by their horses."

292
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:05,400
So it's a killing ground down there

293
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:09,440
and it's created by
the topography of the battlefield.

294
00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:12,080
And Edward exploits it to perfection.

295
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:15,000
The high ground really is
giving an advantage. It is.

296
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:18,360
It's a perfect place
for an archer to use his bow.

297
00:25:18,360 --> 00:25:21,960
Shooting down, you're not wasting
energy by going up and then down.

298
00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:27,440
And it negated, it neutralised, the
French advantage of heavy cavalry.

299
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:31,040
It's also creating an impediment
to this face to face combat

300
00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:34,360
that's supposedly so important
to this chivalric king.

301
00:25:34,360 --> 00:25:39,440
Only a proportion of
the French aristocracy would
get within striking distance

302
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:44,120
of their English counterparts on foot
around the prince in his division.

303
00:25:44,120 --> 00:25:48,440
That's true. But, from Edward's point
of view this didn't matter,

304
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:54,160
because the French had such
a numerical advantage in terms of
knights, noblemen, men-at-arms,

305
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:56,800
it was crucial,
from the English point of view,

306
00:25:56,800 --> 00:25:59,840
to take out as many of them
as possible at a distance.

307
00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:01,960
To even the odds, if you like.

308
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:06,560
So, when after the battle, a French
chronicler, the Grande Chroniques,

309
00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:12,520
says it was such a shame
that so many noblemen were
brought down by men of no value,

310
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:17,400
Edward's point of view
would have been, "Well, that's
just part of my tactical method."

311
00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:20,560
There are individual acts
of heroism, aren't there?

312
00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:26,840
There are. The most dramatic
is King John of Bohemia who,
by this time, was blind.

313
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:29,840
When he hears that the battle
is not going well,

314
00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:34,560
he asks the Bohemian knights, who
are accompanying him to the field,

315
00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:37,040
to take him forward into the fray.

316
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:40,640
One of the chroniclers tells us
he and they were all killed

317
00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:43,760
tied together,
chained together on the field.

318
00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:47,560
Whether he actually got to give a
blow with his sword, we don't know.

319
00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:56,720
In one of England's
greatest victories,

320
00:26:56,720 --> 00:26:59,760
Edward had lost
just 300 mounted men.

321
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:04,960
Philip, who'd been hit
in the neck by an arrow, had fled.

322
00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:11,640
Behind him in these fields lay
the bodies of 10,000 French nobles.

323
00:27:23,360 --> 00:27:28,680
Allegedly, a white ostrich feather
like this was plucked from the crown

324
00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:34,480
of the dead King John of Bohemia
by the Prince of Wales
and presented to his father,

325
00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:37,440
who said, "Ich dien," I serve.

326
00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:41,600
This act is commemorated
to this day on the two-pence coin

327
00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:44,800
where you see
the three ostrich feathers.

328
00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:47,120
And it's still the emblem
of the Prince of Wales.

329
00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:58,520
Returning from the battle of Crecy,
here at Gloucester Cathedral,

330
00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:03,120
one of Edward's commanders
commissioned the East Window
in celebration.

331
00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:13,080
Rising 22 metres high, it glorifies
the great hierarchy of chivalry.

332
00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:18,400
Knights, kings and saints
beneath the head of the church.

333
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:25,880
It's perhaps ironic that it wasn't
knights who had won the battle

334
00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:28,160
but low-born archers.

335
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:32,880
In fact, Edward had shown
just how willing he was

336
00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:36,360
to abandon the shared rules
of chivalry to win.

337
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:42,880
But one battle wasn't enough.

338
00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:47,120
To win back his lands, Edward
would have to carry on fighting.

339
00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:49,560
And he needed
to keep his men supplied.

340
00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:52,520
His next target was Calais.

341
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:01,040
To take the town,
Edward would embark on the longest

342
00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:04,680
and most expensive
siege in medieval history.

343
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:15,640
This 15th-century copy
of Jean Froissart's Chronicles

344
00:29:15,640 --> 00:29:19,360
tells us about the fight
for this strategically vital port.

345
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:23,000
The people of Calais
held out for nearly a year,

346
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:26,320
forced to eat horses
and rats to survive.

347
00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:30,720
By the time the town fell
in September 1347,

348
00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:33,840
they were in no position
to negotiate.

349
00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:40,000
Edward could dictate his terms for
the city's humiliating surrender.

350
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:44,480
Instead of ordering a massacre
of the whole population,

351
00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:48,320
he says that, "Six of
the principal citizens of Calais

352
00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:51,840
shall march out of the town
with bare heads and feet,

353
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:54,040
with ropes around their necks

354
00:29:54,040 --> 00:29:58,320
and with the keys to the town
and the castle in their hands."

355
00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:01,480
"They shall be
at my absolute disposal."

356
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:08,400
In France, these six men
have never been forgotten.

357
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:15,360
And here they are
in the square in Calais,

358
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:19,240
captured so evocatively
by Rodin in 1889.

359
00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:25,440
The sculpture was commissioned
to commemorate French heroism
in the Franco-Prussian War.

360
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:29,640
It's interesting that the subject of
the Burghers of Calais was chosen.

361
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:34,480
These men going willingly
to what they thought
was their imminent death

362
00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:37,360
has become a symbol
of self-sacrifice.

363
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:41,120
A symbol of French national pride.

364
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:47,680
Across the Channel,
the exact same sculpture

365
00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:51,800
stands opposite
the Houses of Parliament in London.

366
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:56,200
Here it has
a very different meaning.

367
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:03,720
When these men had left the gates of
Calais ready to die for their town,

368
00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:08,520
Edward, in a great show of mercy,
spared their lives.

369
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:15,720
Here, this sculpture commemorates

370
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:20,240
the act of a monarch
powerful enough to be benevolent.

371
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:29,760
Ten years into the war,

372
00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:35,280
in England King Edward and his
campaigns were hugely popular,

373
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:39,920
not least for the vast spoils
flooding in from France.

374
00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:51,240
For Edward, this war wasn't just
to be fought on the battlefield.

375
00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:55,840
His next move
was a political one at home.

376
00:31:55,840 --> 00:32:01,520
But every bit as destructive
to the relationship with France
as any military victory.

377
00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:05,160
I've come to Lingfield Church
in Surrey to see the tomb

378
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:09,520
of one of Edward's most loyal
commanders, Sir Reginald Cobham.

379
00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:17,400
Cobham was a prominent figure
in Edward III's military circle.

380
00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:21,520
A hero of Caen and Crecy, and one
of the men who crossed the ford

381
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:25,120
at Blanchetaque to clear the way
for Edward's army.

382
00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:31,880
Reginald Cobham's tomb tells us how
Edward's Knights saw them themselves

383
00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:34,280
and how they wanted
to be remembered.

384
00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:41,640
But he doesn't just want to be
remembered as an individual soldier.

385
00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:44,720
It's his fraternity
that's all important.

386
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:49,160
Just look at the coats of arms
on the base of this tomb.

387
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:53,640
Each one represents
a different knightly family.

388
00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:57,640
But Reginald's tomb
tells us something else about him.

389
00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:04,200
Strapped around his left leg
is a thin band of leather.

390
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:10,320
It shows he was a member of Edward's
newly founded Order of the Garter.

391
00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:14,920
This exclusive institution
had all the trappings
of conventional chivalry.

392
00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:16,960
But there was a crucial difference.

393
00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:21,240
Its members were not just
the chivalric elite.

394
00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:25,880
Sir Reginald wasn't a hero of the
nobility but of the battlefield.

395
00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:32,880
The elevation of a man
of humble rank to a Garter Knight

396
00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:35,440
was a sign that King Edward

397
00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:40,120
was interested in rewarding
service not birth.

398
00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:47,000
Edward was changing the way the
knighthood would fight this war.

399
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:51,840
In creating the Order of the Garter
at Windsor Castle,

400
00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:56,560
Edward surrounded himself
with men loyal only to him.

401
00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:03,640
Designed to mirror the legendary
knights of Arthur's Round Table,

402
00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:06,080
it had just 26 elite members.

403
00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:14,680
The inaugural meeting of the knights
took place in St George's Chapel
on the 23rd of April 1349.

404
00:34:14,680 --> 00:34:20,600
All around me are the coats of arms
of the original knights
and their successors,

405
00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:22,640
right up to the present day.

406
00:34:31,240 --> 00:34:34,160
Edward's order wouldn't
just fight under

407
00:34:34,160 --> 00:34:38,440
the traditional shared values
of chivalry but for his cause.

408
00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:43,680
They were bestowed with
a mission statement to be
displayed wherever they roamed.

409
00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:49,160
The motto,
"Honi soit qui mal y pense,"

410
00:34:49,160 --> 00:34:51,800
"Shame on he
who thinks evil of it,"

411
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:54,560
is thought to be a pointed reference

412
00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:58,080
to the king's claims
to the throne of France.

413
00:34:58,080 --> 00:35:00,960
And there was another
provocative detail.

414
00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:05,640
The colours chosen for the
leather garter were blue and gold,

415
00:35:05,640 --> 00:35:08,480
the royal colours of the French.

416
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:17,880
But I think Edward's masterstroke
was that his men would fight under

417
00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:23,760
the red cross of the
4th-century warrior St George,
Edward's personal saint.

418
00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:33,680
The inauguration
of the Garter Knights was
a seminal moment in our history.

419
00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:37,520
It wasn't just about
Edward's dynastic claims.

420
00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:41,200
This was about service
to a national project.

421
00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:47,440
And the King's saint and protector,
St George, was also nationalised.

422
00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:52,360
It was a triumph of propaganda
and strategic thinking.

423
00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:57,000
The symbol of the English nation
had been born

424
00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:02,000
and Edward had further eroded the
bonds between France and England.

425
00:36:03,240 --> 00:36:07,200
In contrast,
France was wracked with crisis.

426
00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:10,840
King Philip had never recovered
from his defeat at Crecy.

427
00:36:10,840 --> 00:36:15,280
When he died in 1350,
it was as a broken man.

428
00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:20,160
Philip's successor
was his son John II.

429
00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:22,840
He had earned his nickname
John the Good

430
00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:27,480
more for his prowess in tournaments
than for his strategic thinking.

431
00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:31,880
And here he is, John II.

432
00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:35,040
This is the first real portrait
of a French king.

433
00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:38,720
Taking his inspiration
from the 26 Knights of the Garter,

434
00:36:38,720 --> 00:36:41,080
John founded his own
order of chivalry.

435
00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:43,960
His Knights of the Star
were established

436
00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:46,600
"For the glory of god, of our lady,

437
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:51,400
for the heightening of chivalry
and the augmenting of honour."

438
00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:57,560
The French response was
to be more chivalric than ever.

439
00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:02,400
In contrast to Edward's
elite force of 26,

440
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:05,680
here 500 knights swore
loyalty to the king

441
00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:08,320
and never to flee the battlefield.

442
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:17,440
The man who put the whole thing
together was Geoffroi de Charny,

443
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:21,320
the perfect French knight,
a hero from the struggle for Calais

444
00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:23,760
and the author
of his own book on chivalry.

445
00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:27,800
Here he is pictured
fighting opposite Edward III

446
00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:32,520
during an ill-starred attempt
to retake Calais in 1347.

447
00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:36,960
In the Book Of Chivalry,
Charny regards skills at arms

448
00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:39,800
as the pinnacle of knightly values

449
00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:43,680
and war as the greatest
of chivalric combats.

450
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:50,160
He says, "You will have to
put up with great labour before you
achieve honour from this employ."

451
00:37:50,160 --> 00:37:53,880
"You will be afraid when you
see men slaughtering one another,

452
00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:56,800
fleeing, dying
and being taken prisoner,

453
00:37:56,800 --> 00:38:00,480
and your friends dead,
whose corpses lie before you."

454
00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:04,560
"You could flee with your horse
and ride off without honour."

455
00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:08,000
"But, if you stay,
you will have honour ever after."

456
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:10,280
"Is this not a greater martyrdom?"

457
00:38:13,560 --> 00:38:18,200
The French King was convinced that,
with chivalry reasserted,

458
00:38:18,200 --> 00:38:20,400
they could defeat the English.

459
00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:41,760
But in 1348, both France and England
were stopped in their tracks

460
00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:46,800
by catastrophic events
outside of anyone's control.

461
00:38:54,120 --> 00:39:00,160
There's a remarkable testimony
to what happened here at
the Church of St Mary's in Ashwell.

462
00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:15,400
Its walls are covered in graffiti,
some of it medieval.

463
00:39:29,080 --> 00:39:33,800
These aren't the words of kings and
chroniclers but of ordinary people.

464
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:41,640
There's a particularly
irreverent message here.

465
00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:47,960
It says, "Archidiacobus asemnes."

466
00:39:47,960 --> 00:39:50,760
Roughly translated,
"The archdeacon is an ass."

467
00:39:57,840 --> 00:40:01,400
But I'm here to see
one message in particular.

468
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:05,600
It's scratched into the walls
of the bell tower.

469
00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:18,440
And here it is.

470
00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:20,480
You can just make it out here.

471
00:40:20,480 --> 00:40:24,920
Written in Latin, it says,
"Pestilencia."

472
00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:27,440
"There was a plague."

473
00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:31,120
"Miseranda ferox violenta."

474
00:40:33,240 --> 00:40:36,720
"Miserable, fierce and violent."

475
00:40:36,720 --> 00:40:41,800
"A wretched populace
survives to witness."

476
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:46,040
The Black Death had reached Europe.

477
00:40:46,040 --> 00:40:50,920
And in just two years it would
wipe out half the population.

478
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:57,640
The disease had arrived
in England in 1348

479
00:40:57,640 --> 00:41:00,320
and swept east
through the country.

480
00:41:02,720 --> 00:41:07,040
It's thought that the graffiti
was scratched in the stone

481
00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:10,040
by monks fleeing
the plague in London.

482
00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:13,200
We can only imagine
the horrors they witnessed.

483
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:22,960
In just 18 months,
some 40,000 Londoners were killed.

484
00:41:29,200 --> 00:41:34,040
That no one could explain
this pestilence made it
all the more terrifying.

485
00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:39,040
Most shocking to the medieval mind

486
00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:41,520
was that it attacked
all levels of society.

487
00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:46,400
It had no respect for the
social order and nobody was safe.

488
00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:52,360
King Edward lost his 14-year-old
daughter to the disease.

489
00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:59,880
France and England
were forced to agree a truce.

490
00:41:59,880 --> 00:42:02,840
But it was a fragile one.

491
00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:06,880
Edward's appetite for conquest
hadn't diminished

492
00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:10,280
and France was more
vulnerable than ever.

493
00:42:11,760 --> 00:42:13,880
On top of years of failed war,

494
00:42:13,880 --> 00:42:17,680
the plague had plunged
the country into moral panic

495
00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:21,720
and an economic crisis that
Edward was keen to exploit.

496
00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:31,480
After five years of truce
and failed peace negotiations,

497
00:42:31,480 --> 00:42:35,200
Edward re-ignited the war.

498
00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:40,000
The new campaign was to be led
by his 25-year-old son,
the Prince of Wales.

499
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:45,080
In Canterbury Cathedral
lies his elaborate tomb,

500
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:47,560
built to his specific instructions.

501
00:42:58,920 --> 00:43:04,760
It was only after his death
that this young prince became
known as the Black Prince.

502
00:43:09,040 --> 00:43:12,480
Some believe the name comes
from his tournament arms,

503
00:43:12,480 --> 00:43:15,760
those three ostrich feathers
on a black background.

504
00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:22,240
Others that he'd earnt it
for the ferocious reputation
he would gain in France.

505
00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:33,240
The boy who had served at
Caen and Crecy was about to become
a legend in his own right.

506
00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:46,840
I'm with his with biographer
David Green.

507
00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:52,160
David, you've looked into the life,
the mind of the Black Prince.

508
00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:54,440
What do you think
of his personality?

509
00:43:54,440 --> 00:43:56,560
What was he like as a person?

510
00:43:56,560 --> 00:43:59,480
I think he's a product
of his time and environment.

511
00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:04,160
Undoubtedly, his background
is something that is bound up
with military ability.

512
00:44:04,160 --> 00:44:08,360
He goes to his first tournament that
we know of when he was about six.

513
00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:10,880
He gets his first
suit of armour when he's eight.

514
00:44:10,880 --> 00:44:13,840
He fights at his
first tournament when he's about 13.

515
00:44:13,840 --> 00:44:17,040
When he's 16, he's fighting
in the vanguard at Crecy.

516
00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:21,280
I think he was a very
inspirational figure to his men,

517
00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:24,160
very effective
in rallying the troops.

518
00:44:24,160 --> 00:44:28,360
I think he's a proud man undoubtedly.

519
00:44:28,360 --> 00:44:32,760
Seen as being perhaps
rather haughty, rather domineering.

520
00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:36,720
At the core, though,
is still this military ability.

521
00:44:44,800 --> 00:44:49,280
In October 1355,
the Black Prince sailed to Gascony

522
00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:52,440
and mustered an army of over 6,000.

523
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:56,640
The plan was not to meet the French
in battle but to terrorise them.

524
00:44:56,640 --> 00:45:01,000
All this was a long way
from the chivalric ideas of warfare.

525
00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:07,080
The Black Prince
launched his army on a chevauchee,

526
00:45:07,080 --> 00:45:10,160
literally,
a horse raid through the country.

527
00:45:10,160 --> 00:45:13,440
It was a medieval blitzkrieg
beyond Gascony

528
00:45:13,440 --> 00:45:18,640
and into the French king's lands,
destroying everything in its path.

529
00:45:21,080 --> 00:45:24,760
This was systematic
pillage and destruction

530
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:29,400
designed to cripple the French
economy, demoralise the population

531
00:45:29,400 --> 00:45:32,160
and undermine faith
in the French king.

532
00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:36,240
Neither life
nor properties were spared.

533
00:45:41,240 --> 00:45:46,880
Historian Peter Hoskins
has followed the route and
studied the Black Prince's tactics.

534
00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:52,280
They're going to destroy
anything which they can't take.

535
00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:54,760
Small farms, mills, homesteads,

536
00:45:54,760 --> 00:45:58,880
vineyards. Crops are going
to be destroyed in the fields.

537
00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:03,000
Anything that can be taken is going
to be taken and put on the carts.

538
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:05,640
It's a swathe of disruption,
20 miles wide.

539
00:46:05,640 --> 00:46:08,640
What makes it
so important really here,

540
00:46:08,640 --> 00:46:13,120
bearing in mind
this is a very economically
important area for France,

541
00:46:13,120 --> 00:46:18,320
it's almost the bread basket because
of the grain that is grown here,
it's a very important area.

542
00:46:18,320 --> 00:46:20,680
So it's crippling the French
It is.

543
00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:22,840
It's about economic warfare.

544
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:26,320
It's about damaging the ability
of the French king to raise taxes

545
00:46:26,320 --> 00:46:29,160
to prosecute the war
in the months and year to come.

546
00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:35,200
They're going out,
they're attacking anything
they find. It's indiscriminate?

547
00:46:35,200 --> 00:46:38,920
I think it's almost more than
indiscriminate, it's total. Right.

548
00:46:38,920 --> 00:46:41,520
If you come across a mill,
you'll destroy it.

549
00:46:41,520 --> 00:46:44,680
You'll try and damage or break
the millstones if you can.

550
00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:47,840
If you come across a farm,
you'll take whatever you can.

551
00:46:47,840 --> 00:46:51,120
You've got to live off the land,
so you take food supplies.

552
00:46:51,120 --> 00:46:54,600
If you come to a village, you'll
want to empty the stores of food.

553
00:46:54,600 --> 00:47:00,040
Then you'll burn it. The key
to these operations is movement,
you keep on the move all the time.

554
00:47:00,040 --> 00:47:04,000
Keep the enemy guessing. You want the
next villages to know you're coming.

555
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:06,680
They need to think about
what they're going to do.

556
00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:09,920
Are they going to surrender?
Are they going to flee to the hills?

557
00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:13,720
The brutality of the chevauchee
campaign seems to be about

558
00:47:13,720 --> 00:47:17,000
this imposition of the king's power
on distant lands.

559
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:22,200
How do you control distant lands?
Through this brutal campaign
of annihilating the landscape.

560
00:47:22,200 --> 00:47:26,440
It is about the demonstration
of power but there's another
element to it as well,

561
00:47:26,440 --> 00:47:30,160
which is to demonstrate that
the French king is powerless. Yes.

562
00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:36,640
One of the fundamental duties
of the nobility and the lords of the
period is to protect their people.

563
00:47:36,640 --> 00:47:39,960
And if you can demonstrate
that the king cannot protect you,

564
00:47:39,960 --> 00:47:42,840
protect the people,
then that's a powerful message.

565
00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:45,840
Not far behind us
is the little village of Simorre.

566
00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:49,920
We know that the people from Simorre
fled on the approach of the army.

567
00:47:49,920 --> 00:47:53,240
We don't know whether it was
burned down after the army left

568
00:47:53,240 --> 00:47:55,520
but, typically,
it would've been burnt down.

569
00:48:13,280 --> 00:48:19,120
Leaving a trail of devastation
that would scar France
for decades to come,

570
00:48:19,120 --> 00:48:23,080
the Black Prince's men
continued east for 300 miles.

571
00:48:24,920 --> 00:48:29,160
They travelled at such speed,
no French army could catch them.

572
00:48:31,280 --> 00:48:35,480
After four weeks, they reached
the walled city of Carcassonne.

573
00:48:49,680 --> 00:48:53,440
Down there, outside the walls
and across the river,

574
00:48:53,440 --> 00:48:55,560
is the old town or the Bourg.

575
00:48:55,560 --> 00:48:59,040
For three days, the Black Prince's
men camped there,

576
00:48:59,040 --> 00:49:03,160
feasting on the finest produce
and guzzling the very best wine.

577
00:49:03,160 --> 00:49:07,400
While up here in the city,
the French knights looked on,

578
00:49:07,400 --> 00:49:12,320
offering their townspeople no
support and offering no resistance.

579
00:49:17,960 --> 00:49:24,200
When the townspeople
offered 250,000 gold ecus
to save their city,

580
00:49:24,200 --> 00:49:29,280
the Black Prince responded that he
came not for gold but for justice.

581
00:49:32,960 --> 00:49:35,400
What the Black Prince
is doing is stressing both his

582
00:49:35,400 --> 00:49:39,680
and his father's rights to this city
and to the crown of France.

583
00:49:39,680 --> 00:49:42,840
And, as such, he's implying
that the townspeople of Carcassonne

584
00:49:43,680 --> 00:49:47,440
are deluded in continuing
to swear allegiance to King John.

585
00:49:47,440 --> 00:49:50,560
And with that, he burnt the town.

586
00:49:50,560 --> 00:49:56,040
Still the French king John
didn't act.

587
00:49:56,040 --> 00:50:01,640
He had neither the resources
nor the imagination to counter
this kind of campaign.

588
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:10,320
Instead of sending an army
to Carcassonne, he sent a letter.

589
00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:12,920
It arrived two weeks later.

590
00:50:18,680 --> 00:50:22,360
It says, "I have been
deeply affected by these events

591
00:50:22,360 --> 00:50:27,880
and want nothing more
than to avenge the wrongs
done to the people of this town."

592
00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:34,080
This is the best King John can do to
reassure his demoralised subjects.

593
00:50:34,080 --> 00:50:38,800
The Black Prince's plan
was working perfectly.

594
00:50:38,800 --> 00:50:42,320
So far, he'd managed to avoid
the French king's army

595
00:50:42,320 --> 00:50:44,440
and grew ever more confident.

596
00:50:45,720 --> 00:50:51,840
He wrote home proudly
of the "Many goodly towns and
strongholds burnt and destroyed."

597
00:50:54,440 --> 00:50:59,240
In spring the next year, the Black
Prince launched a raid north east,

598
00:50:59,240 --> 00:51:03,960
miles into the heart of central
France, and reached as far as Tours.

599
00:51:04,200 --> 00:51:07,560
But King John
had finally gathered an army.

600
00:51:08,200 --> 00:51:11,600
On the 17th of September,
outside Poitiers,

601
00:51:11,600 --> 00:51:15,960
the English, laden down
with plunder, were intercepted.

602
00:51:15,960 --> 00:51:18,160
The prince's army of 10,000,

603
00:51:18,160 --> 00:51:23,040
led by his commanders Sir Reginald
Cobham and Sir John Chandos,

604
00:51:23,040 --> 00:51:25,280
would have to face King John,

605
00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:30,360
that paragon of chivalry
Geoffroi de Charny and 20,000 men.

606
00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:35,080
All of them determined
not just to crush the son

607
00:51:35,080 --> 00:51:38,080
but to avenge the sins
of his father

608
00:51:38,080 --> 00:51:41,320
in what would be the
first major battle since Crecy.

609
00:51:46,560 --> 00:51:49,600
According to an account
written by Chandos's herald,

610
00:51:49,600 --> 00:51:53,440
they all met on the eve of battle
to try settle their differences.

611
00:51:53,440 --> 00:51:55,840
As a last resort, de Charny says,

612
00:51:55,840 --> 00:52:00,800
"I make the offer that
we fight you 100 against 100."

613
00:52:00,800 --> 00:52:02,840
"Cent par cent."

614
00:52:04,720 --> 00:52:08,680
The Black Prince refused
this chivalric gesture.

615
00:52:08,680 --> 00:52:13,720
He was his father's son
but this wasn't the carefully
planned battle of Crecy.

616
00:52:16,680 --> 00:52:19,200
The French attacked first.

617
00:52:19,200 --> 00:52:22,840
This time, they were prepared
for the English longbows.

618
00:52:22,840 --> 00:52:26,200
The first wave were not
on vulnerable horses but on foot

619
00:52:26,200 --> 00:52:29,040
and ploughed their way
through the English lines.

620
00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:36,160
The Black Prince's only hope
was a hidden unit,

621
00:52:36,160 --> 00:52:39,320
which he sent
to attack the French from behind.

622
00:52:39,320 --> 00:52:42,520
Then he and his men
made a remarkable attempt

623
00:52:42,520 --> 00:52:47,080
to hack their way through to
the French standard and King John.

624
00:52:51,440 --> 00:52:55,480
In the clash that followed,
the Knights of the
Order of the Star were decimated.

625
00:52:55,480 --> 00:52:57,560
Bound by the rules of their order,

626
00:52:57,560 --> 00:52:59,600
they were unable
to leave the battlefield

627
00:52:59,800 --> 00:53:02,000
and so fell doing
their chivalric duty.

628
00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:07,000
One of Froissart's chronicles
records that de Charny,

629
00:53:07,000 --> 00:53:11,120
still holding the Oriflamme,
was cut down by Reginald Cobham.

630
00:53:12,000 --> 00:53:15,440
The Order of the Star
had met the Order of the Garter.

631
00:53:17,320 --> 00:53:22,320
The real prize, captured with one
of his sons, was the French king.

632
00:53:25,200 --> 00:53:30,560
In triumph, the Black Prince took
the humiliated John to Gascony.

633
00:53:34,400 --> 00:53:37,520
After seven months in Bordeaux,
King John, his son

634
00:53:37,520 --> 00:53:41,760
and hundreds of noble prisoners
were shipped to England for ransom.

635
00:53:41,760 --> 00:53:44,720
Edward III would make a fortune.

636
00:53:51,040 --> 00:53:55,080
This time, Edward had not just
humbled the French monarchy,

637
00:53:55,080 --> 00:53:57,000
he had broken it.

638
00:54:08,160 --> 00:54:11,040
So, Andrew, after Poitiers,

639
00:54:11,040 --> 00:54:15,640
can we really see the bonds between
English and French nobility

640
00:54:15,640 --> 00:54:17,920
pulling apart once and for all?

641
00:54:17,920 --> 00:54:22,200
The English had been using the French
war as a means of making vast profit

642
00:54:22,200 --> 00:54:24,480
at the expense
of the French nobility.

643
00:54:24,480 --> 00:54:30,160
The balance of payments on ransoms
is massively in England's favour.

644
00:54:30,160 --> 00:54:33,600
If we imagine the French elite
as a vast social network,

645
00:54:33,600 --> 00:54:38,840
their hubs had been torn out. It left
society in France without leaders.

646
00:54:38,840 --> 00:54:43,640
Given that 20 years of war had led to
the rape of the French countryside,

647
00:54:43,640 --> 00:54:46,000
systematically
in some parts of France,

648
00:54:46,000 --> 00:54:48,840
it is hardly surprising that,
by the 1360s,

649
00:54:48,840 --> 00:54:52,680
the English and French nobilities
no longer saw eye to eye.

650
00:54:54,080 --> 00:54:57,960
Defeated at Poitiers,
with their king held prisoner,

651
00:54:57,960 --> 00:55:01,560
the French had no choice
but to agree a peace.

652
00:55:03,640 --> 00:55:05,680
With the Treaty of Bretigny,

653
00:55:05,680 --> 00:55:08,320
Edward was to be given
full sovereignty,

654
00:55:08,320 --> 00:55:12,800
not just of an enlarged Gascony,
but of all his conquests in France.

655
00:55:15,760 --> 00:55:19,960
On receipt of these lands,
nearly a third of the country,

656
00:55:19,960 --> 00:55:24,800
Edward was to formally renounce
his claim to be king of France.

657
00:55:29,080 --> 00:55:33,440
So really is this claim to the
French crown a bit of a red herring?

658
00:55:33,440 --> 00:55:37,200
He's using it to further his rights
to his ancestral territories.

659
00:55:37,200 --> 00:55:43,640
Well, the question about
his claim to the throne of France
is how real it really was.

660
00:55:43,640 --> 00:55:48,520
Was it intended primarily
as a sort of bargaining lever
in the diplomatic stage?

661
00:55:48,520 --> 00:55:53,960
Or was he using this to extract
a large ransom from the French king?

662
00:55:53,960 --> 00:55:58,680
And his ancestral lands
expanded now, in full sovereignty,

663
00:55:58,680 --> 00:56:02,120
was that what he was using
his claim to the throne for?

664
00:56:02,120 --> 00:56:06,120
Was he accepting that, at some point,
he may need to set it aside

665
00:56:06,120 --> 00:56:09,880
in order to achieve what he
was really after all the time,

666
00:56:09,880 --> 00:56:14,240
the property that his ancestors
had had in France?

667
00:56:21,040 --> 00:56:25,720
Whatever his motivation,
Edward spent his triumphant years,

668
00:56:25,720 --> 00:56:28,600
and vast spoils, turning Windsor,

669
00:56:28,600 --> 00:56:33,720
the seat of his loyal Knights of the
Garter, into a magnificence palace.

670
00:56:35,040 --> 00:56:39,160
It escaped everyone's notice
that Edward's formal renunciation

671
00:56:39,160 --> 00:56:42,160
of his claim to the French crown
was never made.

672
00:56:54,320 --> 00:56:56,600
As for King John of France,

673
00:56:56,600 --> 00:57:02,080
he was unable to pay his colossal
three million gold crown ransom.

674
00:57:02,080 --> 00:57:04,480
A gracious King Edward
actually let him go home,

675
00:57:06,320 --> 00:57:10,040
keeping instead his
two sons as hostages.

676
00:57:12,400 --> 00:57:15,320
Within a year, King John was back.

677
00:57:17,120 --> 00:57:21,760
He preferred hawking in captivity to
reconstructing his ruined country.

678
00:57:22,680 --> 00:57:27,680
He would eventually die here
in England, a truly defeated man.

679
00:57:38,440 --> 00:57:41,480
Edward had got what he wanted,
he'd won.

680
00:57:41,480 --> 00:57:43,600
But he'd done more than that.

681
00:57:43,600 --> 00:57:49,640
No longer a vassal,
he had changed the rules of
England's relationship with France.

682
00:57:49,640 --> 00:57:54,480
And he'd set his country
on a path from which
there would be no way back.

683
00:57:56,520 --> 00:57:59,520
Next on the Hundred Years' War,

684
00:57:59,520 --> 00:58:02,600
France is out for revenge.

685
00:58:04,600 --> 00:58:08,720
England descends into civil war
as the peasants rise up in revolt.

686
00:58:08,720 --> 00:58:10,320
Oh, my god!

687
00:58:11,560 --> 00:58:16,120
But in all this chaos
a new cultural identity emerges.

688
00:58:16,120 --> 00:58:19,720
And for the English a new hero,

689
00:58:19,720 --> 00:58:23,120
Henry V.

690
00:58:25,280 --> 00:58:27,280
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