The Black Prince and King Jean II of France by Peter Hoskins

Author:Peter Hoskins
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Norman Conquest to Late Medieval (1066-1485)
Publisher: Pen and Sword

Not content with the inherent physical strength of the cité, the French had recently paid close attention to the defence of Carcassonne. A royal order had been issued in 1336 for the maintenance of a professional company of crossbow men and another in early 1355 required that the state of defences throughout the Carcassonne sénéchaussée must be attended to. The cité did, however, have a weakness: a dependence on deep wells for its water supply. This had been a major factor in its fall in similar circumstances in just a fortnight in 1209 during the Albigensian Crusade. However, to have relied upon this to bring the cité to its knees and settled down for a siege of even relatively short duration would have handed the initiative to the French, and would have been inconsistent with the approach adopted throughout the chevauchée. The prince’s decision to move on and leave the cité could not have been a difficult one to take. Conscious once again of the importance of maintaining his aim and not wasting resources on attacking strongly defended places, the prince, his army having set the bourg ablaze, took his leave of Carcassonne on Friday, 6 November.

On 22 November, only two weeks after the destruction of the bourg, King Jean wrote to the people of Carcassonne explaining at length why he had been detained in the north to counter a threat from Edward III, saying how deeply affected he had been by the events at Carcassonne, expressing his desire for nothing more than to avenge the wrongs done to the people of the town, and promising to send his son with a great army. He wisely gave himself some leeway with this promise, adding the caveat that the despatch of the prince and his army will be ‘God willing’. He finishes with an appeal for the continuing loyalty of the people. The tone of the letter gives a strong impression that Jean was deeply concerned by the impact of the chevauchée on the cohesion of his realm and the loyalty of his people.

The destruction of towns continued as the army marched towards the Mediterranean, reaching the large and prosperous city of Narbonne on Sunday, 8 November. Narbonne was built on low, flat ground, and potentially offered a softer target than Carcassonne. It promised rich rewards for the army. Narbonne was similar to Carcassonne in so far as it consisted of a cité and a bourg separated by a branch of the river Aude. Both parts were walled and the walls of the cité surrounded the cathedral, a castle for the bishop and a strong tower for the viscount. There were three bridges between the cité and the bourg, two of stone and one of wood. Only the central bridge, le Pont Vieux or Pont des Marchands, passed directly between gates in the walls of the bourg and the cité. The bourg was larger and better built than the bourg at Carcassonne. The prince described Narbonne as ‘a noble city, of fair size, greater than Carcassonne’.

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