01 Crécy: The Age of the Archer by Griff Hosker

Author:Griff Hosker [Hosker, Griff]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
ISBN: 9798641623542
Google: pzV8zQEACAAJ
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: 2020-05-04T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

The victory was so complete as to be almost unbelievable. Louis of Poitiers, who was the French leader, died of his wounds. He had been hit by two arrows as well as enduring cuts and blows from knights. There were over seven hundred French men at arms who died. The ransoms were so great that the Earl of Derby received fifty thousand pounds in ransom which was more income than King Edward earned from his lands in a year! Henry Plantagenet became the richest man in England. Thanks to our capture of the knights and men at arms I had a hundred pounds and my archers divided up a further two hundred pounds. The Earl of Derby also appreciated what the eight hundred archers had done, and he paid each of us twenty pounds! The army of thirty thousand men led by the Duke of Normandy abandoned their advance and went home. The Duke himself and his household knights retreated to Angouleme. For the next three months, we took castle after castle and often we did not even need to draw a bow. The sight of a thousand archers was enough to make every castellan concede defeat.

I often wonder what would have happened had I stayed with the army of Henry Plantagenet, but it was not meant to be. It was Christmas when we were in our winter quarters of Bordeaux. The majority of the army were in garrisons but the men who had first followed Sir Ralph remained and it was we who were chosen for the task of delivering the despatches to the King. Although we ruled the land many pirates used Brittany and Normandy as bases from which they could raid ships. The last two ships which had carried despatches home had been taken and the Earl of Derby was determined to remedy that situation. I was given forty archers to defend the ship, ‘Maid of Harwich’. We were to sail to Southampton, and I was to deliver the despatches personally to the King.

The Earl himself saw us off, “You have shown yourself, John Hawkwood, to be a most resourceful man and if any can see that these despatches get through then it is you. I suspect that King Edward will hang on to you and your archers for your names feature prominently in my message to the King but if he does not then you shall always be welcome to be part of my retinue.”

“And I would be honoured, my lord. I will do all that I can to see that these messages reach England. Pirates I can fight, it is nature and the sea which are the problems!”

“Then fear not for God is on our side and he will watch over you!”

The only horse we were allowed to take was Megs for the archers who remained needed to be mounted. The ship we took was also filled with barrels of wine. Bordeaux shipped so much wine that the tax taken was more than the rest of the tax collected in the entire kingdom.

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