Battle of Crecy in the The Hundred Years War

Battle of Crecy in the The Hundred Years War The Battle of Crà ©cy was fought August 26, 1346, during the Hundred Years War (1337-1453). Largely a dynastic struggle for the French throne, the conflict began following the death of Philip IV and his sons, Louis X, Philip V, and Charles IV. This ended the Capetian Dynasty which had ruled France since 987.   As no direct male heir lived, Edward III of England, Philip IVs grandson by his daughter Isabella, pressed his claim to the throne. This was rejected by the French nobility who preferred Philip IVs nephew, Philip of Valois. The War Begins Crowned Philip  VI in 1328, he called for Edward to do homage to him for the valuable  fief of Gascony. Though initially unwilling to this,  Edward relented and accepted Philip as King of France in 1331 in return for continued  control over Gascony. By doing so, he surrendered his rightful claim  to the throne. In 1337, Philip VI revoked Edward IIIs control of Gascony and commenced raiding the English coast. In response, Edward reasserted his claims to the French throne and began building alliances with the nobles of Flanders and the Low Countries.   In 1340, Edward scored a decisive naval victory at Sluys which gave England control of the Channel for the duration of the war. This was followed by an invasion of the Low Countries and an abortive siege of Cambrai. After plundering Picardy, Edward withdrew back to England to raise funds for future campaigns as well as to deal with the Scots who had used his absence to mount a series of raids across the border. Six years later, having assembled around 15,000 men and 750 ships at Portsmouth, he again planned to invade France.   A Return to France Sailing for Normandy, Edward landed on the Cotentin Peninsula that July. Quickly capturing Caen on July 26, he moved east towards the Seine. Alerted that King Philip VI was assembling a large army in Paris, Edward turned north and began moving along the coast. Pressing on, he crossed the Somme after winning the Battle of Blanchetaque on August 24. Tired from their endeavors, the English army encamped near the Forest of Crà ©cy. Eager to defeat the English and angry that he had failed to trap them between the Seine and Somme, Philip raced towards Crà ©cy with his men. The English Command Alerted to the approach of the French army, Edward deployed his men along a ridge between the villages of Crà ©cy and Wadicourt. Dividing his army, he assigned command of the right division to his sixteen-year old son Edward, the Black Prince with assistance from the Earls of Oxford and Warwick, as well as Sir John Chandos. The left division was led by the Earl of Northampton, while Edward, commanding from a vantage point in a windmill, retained leadership of the reserve. These divisions were supported by large numbers of archers equipped with the English longbow. Armies Commanders: England Edward IIIEdward, the Black Prince12,000-16,000 men France Philip VI20,000-80,000 men Preparing for Battle While waiting for the French to arrive, the English busied themselves by digging ditches and laying out caltrops in front of their position. Advancing north from Abbeyville, the lead elements of Philips army arrived near the English lines around mid-day on August 26. Scouting the enemy position, they recommended to Philip that they encamp, rest, and wait for the entire army to arrive. While Philip agreed with this approach, he was overruled by his nobles who wished to attack the English without delay. Quickly forming for battle, the French did not wait for the bulk of their infantry or supply train to arrive. The French Advance Advancing with Antonio Doria and Carlo Grimaldis Genoese crossbowmen in the lead, the French knights followed with lines led by the Duke D’Alencon, Duke of Lorraine, and Count of Blois, while Philip commanded the rearguard. Moving to the attack, the crossbowmen fired a series of volleys at the English. These proved ineffective as a brief thunderstorm before the battle had wet and slackened the crossbowstrings. The English archers on the other hand had simply untied their bowstrings during the storm. Death from Above This coupled with the longbows ability to fire every five seconds gave the English archers a dramatic advantage over the crossbowmen who could only get off one to two shots per minute. The Genoese position was worsened by the fact that in the rush to battle their pervises (shields to hide behind while reloading) had not been brought forward. Coming under devastating fire from Edwards archers, the Genoese began withdrawing. Angered by the crossbowmens retreat, the French knights fired insults at them and even cut several down. Charging forward, the French front lines fell into confusion as they collided with the retreating Genoese. As the two bodies of men tried to move past each other they came under fire from the English archers and five early cannon (some sources debate their presence). Continuing the attack, the French knights were forced to negotiate the slope of the ridge and the man-made obstacles. Cut down in large numbers by the archers, the felled knights and their horses blocked the advance of those to the rear. During this time, Edward received a message from his son requesting aid. Upon learning that the younger Edward was healthy, the king refused stating â€Å"I am confident he will repel the enemy without my help, and Let the boy win his spurs. As evening approached the English line held, repelling sixteen French charges. Each time, the English archers brought down the attacking knights. With darkness falling, a wounded Philip, recognizing he had been defeated, ordered a retreat and fell back to the castle at La Boyes. Aftermath The Battle of Crà ©cy was one of the greatest English victories of the Hundred Years War and established the superiority of the longbow against mounted knights. In the fighting, Edward lost between 100-300 killed, while Philip suffered around 13,000-14,000 (some sources indicate it may have been as high as 30,000). Among the French losses were the heart of the nations nobility including the Duke of Lorraine, Count of Blois, and the Count of Flanders, as well as John, King of Bohemia and the King of Majorca. In addition eight other counts and three archbishops were slain. In the wake of the battle, the Black Prince paid tribute to the nearly blind King John of Bohemia, who had fought valiantly before being slain, by taking his shield and making it his own. Having earned his spurs, the Black Prince became one of his fathers best field commanders and won a stunning victory at Poitiers in 1356. Following the victory at Crà ©cy, Edward continued north and laid siege to Calais. The city fell the next year and became a key English base for the remainder of the conflict.

Facts You Should Know About the Holocaust

Facts You Should Know About the Holocaust The Holocaust is one of the most notorious acts of genocide in modern history. The many atrocities committed by Nazi Germany before and during World War II destroyed millions of lives and permanently altered the face of Europe.   Holocaust Key Terms Holocaust: From the Greek word holokauston, meaning sacrifice by fire. It refers to the Nazi persecution and planned slaughter of the Jewish people and others considered inferior to true Germans.Shoah: A Hebrew word meaning devastation, ruin or waste, also used to refer to the Holocaust.Nazi: German acronym standing for Nationalsozialistishe Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party).Final Solution: Nazi term referring to their plan to exterminate the Jewish people.Kristallnacht: Literally Crystal Night or The Night of Broken Glass, refers to the night of November 9-10, 1938 when thousands of synagogues and Jewish-owned homes and businesses in Austria and Germany were attacked.Concentration Camps: Although we use the blanket term Concentration Camps there were actually a number of different types of camps, with different purposes. These included extermination camps, labor camps, prisoner-of-war camps, and transit camps. Introduction to the Holocaust Adolf Hitler, chancellor of Germany, is welcomed by supporters at Nuremberg in 1933. Hulton Archive/Stringer/Getty Images   The Holocaust began in 1933 when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany and ended in 1945 when the Nazis were defeated by the Allied powers. The term Holocaust is derived from the Greek word holokauston, which means sacrifice by fire. It refers to the Nazi persecution and planned slaughter of the Jewish people and others considered inferior to true Germans. The Hebrew word Shoah, which means devastation, ruin or waste, also refers to this genocide. In addition to Jews, the Nazis targeted the Roma, gays, Jehovahs Witnesses, and the disabled for persecution. Those who resisted the Nazis were sent to forced labor camps or murdered. The word Nazi is a German acronym for Nationalsozialistishe Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party). The Nazis sometimes used the term Final Solution to refer to their plan to exterminate the Jewish people, although the origins of this are unclear, according to historians. Death Toll According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, up to 17 million people were killed during the Holocaust, but no single document exists recording the total number. Six million of these were Jews- approximately two-thirds of all Jews living in Europe. An estimated 1.1 million children died in the Holocaust. Number of Holocaust Deaths The following statistics are from the U.S. National Holocaust Museum. As more information and records are uncovered, it is likely that these numbers will change. All numbers are approximate.6 million Jews5.7 million Soviet civilians (an additional 1.3 Soviet Jewish civilians are included in the 6 million figure for Jews)3 million Soviet prisoners of war (including about 50,000 Jewish soldiers)1.9 million Polish civilians (non-Jewish)312,000 Serb civiliansUp to 250,000 people with disabilities196,000 to 220,000 Roma1,900 Jehovahs WitnessesAt least 70,000 repeat criminal offenders and asocialsAn undetermined number of German political opponents and activists.Hundreds or thousands of gays and lesbians (might be included in the possibly also 70,000 repeat criminal offenders and asocials number above). The Beginning of the Holocaust On April 1, 1933, the Nazis instigated their first action against German Jews by announcing a boycott of all Jewish-run businesses. The Nuremberg Laws, issued on Sept. 15, 1935, was designed to exclude Jews from public life. The Nuremberg Laws stripped German Jews of their citizenship and prohibited marriages and extramarital sex between Jews and Gentiles. These measures set the legal precedent for anti-Jewish legislation that followed. Nazis issued numerous anti-Jewish laws over the next several years. Jews were banned from public parks, fired from civil service jobs, and forced to register their property. Other laws barred Jewish doctors from treating anyone other than Jewish patients, expelled Jewish children from public schools, and placed severe travel restrictions on Jews. Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass Shattered fronts of Jewish-owned stores in Berlin after Kristallnacht. Bettmann/Getty Images   Overnight on November 9 and 10, 1938, the Nazis incited a pogrom against Jews in Austria and Germany called  Kristallnacht  (Night of Broken Glass, or literally translated from German, Crystal Night). This included the pillaging and burning of synagogues, the breaking of windows of Jewish-owned businesses and the looting of those stores. In the morning, broken glass littered the ground. Many Jews were physically attacked or harassed, and approximately 30,000 were arrested and sent to concentration camps. After World War II started in 1939, the Nazis ordered Jews to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothing so they could be easily recognized and targeted. Gays and lesbians were similarly targeted and forced to wear pink triangles. Jewish Ghettos The Lublin Ghetto in Poland. Bettmann/Getty Images After the beginning of World War II, Nazis began ordering all Jews to live in small, segregated areas of big cities, called ghettos. Jews were forced out of their homes and moved into smaller dwellings, often shared with one or more other families. Some ghettos were initially open, which meant that Jews could leave the area during the daytime but had to be back by a curfew. Later, all ghettos became closed, meaning that Jews were not allowed to leave under any circumstances. Major ghettos were located in the cities of Polish cities of Bialystok, Lodz, and Warsaw. Other ghettos were found in present-day Minsk, Belarus; Riga, Latvia; and Vilna, Lithuania. The largest ghetto was in Warsaw. At its peak in March 1941, some 445,000 were crammed into an area just 1.3 square miles in size. Regulating and Liquidating the Ghettos In most ghettos, Nazis ordered the Jews to establish a Judenrat (Jewish council) to administer Nazi demands and to regulate the internal life of the ghetto. The Nazis routinely ordered deportations from the ghettos. In some of the large ghettos, 1,000 people per day were sent by rail to concentration and extermination camps. To get them to cooperate, the Nazis told the Jews they were being transported elsewhere for labor. As the tide of World War II turned against the Nazis, they began a systematic plan to eliminate or liquidate the ghettos they had established, by a combination of mass murder on the spot and transferring the remaining residents to extermination camps. When the Nazis attempted to liquidate the Warsaw Ghetto on April 13, 1943, the remaining Jews fought back in what has become known as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The Jewish resistance fighters held out against the entire Nazi regime for 28 days, longer than many European countries had been able to withstand Nazi conquest. Concentration Camps Although many people refer to all Nazi camps as concentration camps, there were actually a number of different kinds of camps, including concentration camps, extermination camps, labor camps, prisoner-of-war camps, and transit camps. One of the first concentration camps was in Dachau, in southern Germany. It opened on March 20, 1933. From 1933 until 1938, most of the people held in concentration camps were political prisoners and people the Nazis labeled as asocial. These included the disabled, the homeless, and the mentally ill. After Kristallnacht in 1938, the persecution of Jews became more organized. This led to the exponential increase in the number of Jews sent to concentration camps. Life within Nazi concentration camps was horrible. Prisoners were forced to do hard physical labor and given little food. Prisoners slept three or more to a crowded wooden bunk; bedding was unheard of. Torture within the concentration camps was common and deaths were frequent. At a number of concentration camps, Nazi doctors conducted medical experiments on prisoners against their will. Death Camps While concentration camps were meant to work and starve prisoners to death, extermination camps (also known as death camps) were built for the sole purpose of killing large groups of people quickly and efficiently. The Nazis built six extermination camps, all in Poland: Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz, and Majdanek. Prisoners transported to these extermination camps were told to undress so they could shower. Rather than a shower, the prisoners were herded into gas chambers and killed. Auschwitz was the largest concentration and extermination camp built. It is estimated that 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz.