The medieval Stalingrad

Edward III's siege of Calais was a pivotal moment in the Hundred Years' War. Here Dan Jones argues that it bears comparison with one of the most brutal clashes of the modern era

- Dan Jones

One August morning in 1346, an English army led by King Edward III slumped, exhausted, on a bloody battlefield in northern France, near the forest of Crécy. During the previous two days, the English had destroyed a larger, fresher army commanded by the French king Philip VI. The fighting had been vicious: at least 1,500 French knights lay dead, along with thousands more ordinary soldiers. “Never since the destruction of great Troy had there been such mourning,” wrote one poet.

Edward had pulled off a near-miraculous victory. It was several years since he had first claimed to be king of France as well as England, fuelling the struggle that today we call the Hundred Years’ War. Now his cause was vindicated: Philip VI was on the ropes, and Edward just had to decide how to strike his next blow. Or rather, where.

The road to the battle of Crécy had been hard. On 12 July, Edward – accompanied by his 16-year-old eldest son, the ‘Black Prince’ – had landed 15,000 troops on the beaches of Normandy. For six weeks this vast army had marched through France. At first they had rampaged: burning their way through the Norman countryside in a campaign of terror known as a chevauchée. Then they had gone on the run, chased by Philip’s army, who were determined to drive them out of France for good.