Battle of Poitiers Summary

On September 19, 1356, amid the Hundred Years' War, the Battle of Poitiers unfolded, pitching King John II's French forces against the Anglo-Gascon army led by Edward, commonly known as the Black Prince. The Black Prince commanded a force of approximately 7,000 knights, men-at-arms, and archers, while the opposing French army, totaling around 35,000, included a Scottish contingent under Sir William Douglas.

The conflict stemmed from Gascon nobles informing King Edward III about continuous attacks on his inherited Gascony lands by the French King's lieutenant, Count of Armagnac Jean I. In 1356, the Duke of Lancaster landed in Normandy, moving south, as the Black Prince conducted raids in central France from the English-held Aquitaine. Meanwhile, King Edward III was involved in conflicts in Scotland.

Responding to Lancaster's threat, French King John I compelled his withdrawal and shifted focus to the advancing Black Prince. The English force, marching through the countryside, inflicted widespread devastation in Armagnac territory.

In early September 1356, King John intercepted the Black Prince near the Loire as the latter turned back towards Bordeaux. Negotiation attempts failed, prompting both sides to fortify their positions. The Black Prince's army camped near Poitiers for the night, securing a strategic hilltop position the following day.

The seasoned English force, including veterans from Creçy, faced a French army relying on crossbowmen, which had a slower firing rate than the English longbows. The disastrous French attack on September 19 featured a mounted charge by 300 German knights. Ultimately, the French king and his bodyguard were overwhelmed, and Jean was captured, held until a substantial ransom was paid in 1360. The battle resulted in a decisive victory for the English and Gascons.

The aftermath of the Battle of Poitiers carried profound implications. Under the 1360 Treaty of Brétigny, Edward III retained 25% of France, and the Black Prince's standing as one of the preeminent medieval knights was firmly established.
Battle of Poitiers Summary

First Battle of the Marne

The First Battle of the Marne marked the end of the German sweep into France and the beginning of the trench warfare that was to characterize World War One. It is an offensive during World War I by the French army and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) against the advancing Germans who had invaded Belgium and northeastern France.

There were over 900,000 German soldiers under the leadership of General Helmuth von Moltke. The French and British had over 1,082,000 soldiers.

After invading neutral Belgium and advancing into northeastern France by the end of August 1914, German forces were nearing Paris, spurred on by punishing victories that forced five French armies into retreat after the Battles of the Frontiers at Lorraine, Ardennes, Charleroi and Mons.

On September 4 Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre, French general, convinced, the military governor of Paris General J.-S. Gallieni’s arguments, decisively ordered his whole left wing to turn about from their retreat and to begin a general offensive against the Germans’ exposed right flank on September 6.

On September 6, 1914, some 30 miles northeast of Paris, the French 6th Army under the command of General Michel-Joseph Manoury attacks the right flank of the German 1st Army, beginning the decisive First Battle of the Marne at the end of the first month of World War I.

A French offensive in Lorraine prompted German counter-attacks that threw the French back onto a fortified barrier. The German northern wing was weakened further by the removal of 11 divisions to fight in Belgium and East Prussia.

The counterattack of the French 5th and 6th Armies and the British Expeditionary Force developed into the First Battle of the Marne, a general counter-attack by the French Army. By 11 September the Germans were in full retreat.

After a few days of fighting, the Germans were forced to retreat. They retreated back to Aisne River in northern France. Here they built long lines of trenches and managed to hold off the Allied army. Dubbed the "Miracle of the Marne", the battle saved Paris, ended German hopes of a quick victory in the west.
First Battle of the Marne

Battle of Crécy 1346

The Battle of Crécy was the first important decisive action of what is called “The Hundred Years’ War.” On 12th July Edward III landed in Normandy with his army and marching north plundered the countryside. King Philip VI assembled an army to stop Edward and tracked them across the Somme River.

In the Battle of Crecy, fought between the armies of England and France on 26 August 1346, the French dead totaled 1,500 knights and 10,000 foot-soldiers, while the English lost less than 100 men. This war remains one of the most famous battles of the entire Middle Ages.

This battle marked the arrival of the English as the preeminent military power in Europe, it initiated a global revolution in military affairs, and it marked the beginning of the end of the chivalric way of life.

The French had at least three times as many men-at arms as the English, all mounted and of no worse quality, and they matched the English longbowmen with a corps of professional Genoese crossbowmen. Their enemy was aided only by field fortifications and a few primitive cannons. It sounds impossible that the French should lose, and it certainly seemed impossible to Philip of France and his allies on 26 August 1346.

Although out-numbered, the English held a strong defensive position with King Edward's longbowmen deployed along the crest of the hill.

As soon as the King of France came in sight of the English his blood began to boil, and he cried out to his marshals, “Order the Genoese forward, and begin the battle, in the name of God and St. Denis!”

The first attack was delivered by King Philip's Genoese crossbow troops, followed quickly by the French Men-at-Arms. Thrown into confusion by the superior rate of fire of the English longbows, they soon retreated.

Seeing the crossbow troops in disarray, the French cavalry charged. A curtain of arrows filled the sky and the French were repelled. Over and over, they tried and failed to break the English position that day. By nightfall, exhausted and suffering from massive casualties, the French retired from the battlefield.

The battle of Crécy witnessed the defeat of the greatest power in Christendom - a major French army with the king at its head - by an expeditionary force raised by a kingdom which was not yet renowned for its military prowess.

It transformed the military reputation of the English in European eyes. And it provoked a serious political and financial crisis of the French monarchy which provided the essential conditions for England's victories in the following decade.
Battle of Crécy 1346

Arrow War (1856-1860)

The Opium Wars was the two trade wars fought in 1839-1842 and 1856 – 1860 (also known as Arrow War) between China and the Western powers as the result of China’s attempt to curb opium smuggling.

Although China was forced to concede many of its territorial and sovereign rights in the years following the First Opium War, the Western imperial powers also had to face rising anti-foreign sentiment, as many Chinese believed that uncultured barbarians should be excluded from the Middle Kingdom.

In this tense atmosphere in Guangzhou, Chinese policemen boarded the Arrow, a Chinese ship registered in Hong Kong under a British flag on October 8, 1856, and arrested 12 crewmen. The police accused suspected the crewmen of piracy and smuggling.

In the effort to arrest the crew members, the British flag, flown by the vessel because it was registered in Hong Kong, was torn.

Eager to gain more trading rights, the British used the incident to launch another offensive, precipitating the Second Opium War. The incident was immediately seized upon by Harry Parkes, the British consul in Guangzhou who wanted to legalize the opium and expand trade in China yet was frustrated by Cantonese opposition.

Parkes demanded that the Qing dynasty release the Arrow’s crew and apologize for the insult to the British flag. When Ye Mingchen, the viceroy of Liangguang released the Chinese crewmen but refused to apologize, Parkes had a fleet bombard Guangzhou.

The Chinese responded by burning foreign-owned factories and businesses in Canton. Meanwhile, a French priest was murdered in Canton.

Britain, joined by France, launched two punitive expeditions. The British parliament sent an expedition under James Bruce, the Earl of Elgin, to defend its honor. Meanwhile, France also dispatched it fleet under Baron Gros to China.

The Anglo-French force fought its way to Guangzhou and captured Ye Mingchen by the end of 1857.

Beijing was occupied in 1860, forcing the Imperial Court to stop resistance. The Arrow War ended with the acceptance and ratification of the Convention of Peking by the emperor in 1860. Under the terms of the Convention of Peking, China ceded Kowloon peninsula to the British in Hong Kong. The opium trade continued uninterrupted.
Arrow War (1856-1860)

The Celts: Northern Europe Warrior 500 BC – 100 AD

The Celts: Northern Europe Warrior 500 BC – 100 AD
Fighting was an obsession with the Celts, whether in bands against enemy forces or in the brawling combats that erupted incessantly between individual warriors. Drunk on strong beer and lust for glory, the Celts did battle with a fierce exhilaration that seasoned Roman soldiers even found alarming. They were careless of life and limb, often going into battle naked but for a torque or neck ring.

The Roman historians Tacitus describing an attack by the legions on Anglesey, wrote: ‘On the shore stood the opposing army with its dense array of armed warriors, while between the ranks dashed women in black attire like the Furies, with hair disheveled, waving brands.’

Celtic men were tall by Mediterranean standards; the skeleton of warrior discovered near Milan, Italy was 6ft 5in in height. Even the women were large and fearsome brawlers. Boudicca, the rebel queen of the Iceni who died in AD60, was describe as huge of frame, harsh voiced and with a great mass of bright red hair falling to her knees. Ammianus Marcellinus, a Roman author, writes of the Celt being virtually invincible with this wife fighting by his side; ‘stronger than he by far, and with flashing eyes, she…begin to rain blows mingled with kicks like shots discharge by the twisted cords of a catapult.’

Celtic warriors often cut off the heads of their foes and dangled these grim spoils from their belts and saddles, or bore them aloft on spears. Singing in triumph they would carry the heads back to their hill forts and homes, nailing them up as highly revered trophies. In Celtics shrines found at Roquepertuse and Entremont in southern France the skulls of many young men were displayed in specially carved niches.

With such savagery matched by their fighting and riding skills, the Celts presented Rome with a formidable foe. Their weaknesses, though lay in lack of strategy and discipline – and in the weakening effects of their constant feuding.
The Celts: Northern Europe Warrior 500 BC – 100 AD