The Battle of Crécy: The History and Legacy of England’s Most Important Victory in the Hundred Years’ War

Although it ended over 550 years ago, the Hundred Years’ War still looms large in the historical consciousness of England and France, even if the name of the famous war is a misnomer. The war was more of a series of separate conflicts between the English and French monarchies, interspersed with periods of peace, and its reputation remains an odd one, in part because its origins were based on royal claims that dated back centuries. Furthermore, the English and French remained adversaries for nearly 400 years after it ended.

That said, the war was transformative in many respects, and the impact it had on the geopolitical situation of Europe cannot be overstated. While some might think of the war as being a continuation of the feudal tradition of knights and peasants, the Hundred Years’ War revolutionized European warfare, and it truly helped to usher in the concept of nationalism on the continent. In England, it is remembered as a period of grandeur and success, even though the English lost the war and huge swathes of territory with it, while the French remember it as a strategic victory that ensured the continued independence of France and the denial of English hegemony. The legacy of the war has lived on ever since, helping determine how England became politically severed from the continent, how the knightly chivalric tradition slid into irrelevance, and how battlefield dominance can still leave a nation a loser in war.

Indeed, nothing characterized that dominance quite like the campaign that culminated with the Battle of Crécy, where the English used their diverse forces to maximum effect to defeat the French, a victory that allowed the English to eventually take and hold Calais. For about two centuries, Calais would remain the last foothold England retained on the continent, and the famous Tudor King Henry VIII conducted one of the last campaigns of his life in an effort to maintain it. From a military standpoint, Crécy demonstrated the massive impact the crossbow could have against infantry, and it ensured archers would feature prominently in battle until gunpowder weapons became common.