Crécy: longbows annihilate French chivalry

August 1346

On a sloping field in Picardy, English archers loosed clouds of arrows into mounted French knights tangled with their own Genoese crossbowmen. Sixteen French charges, sixteen failures. By dusk twelve hundred knights and thousands of footmen lay dead. The Black Prince won his spurs that afternoon. Edward had broken the back of feudal cavalry warfare.