Battle of Poitiers (1356) — capture of King John II
A clear, concise account of the Battle of Poitiers (1356): context in the Hundred Years' War, commanders, tactics, outcome and consequences including the capture of the French king.
Overview
The Battle of Poitiers, fought in 1356, was a decisive encounter during the long series of conflicts known as the Hundred Years' War. It pitted English forces under Edward, the Black Prince against a much larger French army led by King John II. The engagement ended with the English holding the field and the French king taken prisoner, a development that had wide political and financial repercussions for France and for England.
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Forces and battlefield character
The English army relied heavily on a combination of mounted leaders fighting dismounted as heavy infantry and a large contingent of longbowmen. They chose strong defensive ground and used natural obstacles and prepared positions to blunt French charges. The French army, composed of nobility, knights and supporting infantry, attempted repeated offensive assaults; these attacks were costly and disordered when directed against the English formations.
Tactics and course of the battle
Unlike set-piece maneuvers that emphasize open-field cavalry charges, the engagement at Poitiers displayed disciplined defensive tactics, concentrated missile fire, and close-quarter fighting. English longbowmen disrupted French advances at range, while dismounted men-at-arms held compact formations that repelled assaults. As fighting intensified, command and control difficulties and the fragmentation of French assaults contributed to mounting losses and the eventual capture of key French leaders.
Consequences and significance
- The capture of a reigning monarch by an opposing field army was a dramatic political event; the king’s imprisonment affected French governance and provoked internal strain.
- Negotiations and ransom demands that followed helped shape subsequent treaties and temporary shifts in territory and influence between England and France.
- Militarily, Poitiers reinforced the effectiveness of combined longbow and dismounted tactics against traditional cavalry, influencing later medieval warfare.
Historical context and legacy
Poitiers belongs to a sequence of major English victories in the mid-14th century and is often compared with other battles of the period. Its outcome amplified the strains created by the ongoing struggle and contributed to diplomatic settlements in the following years. For accounts and source material about the campaign and its leaders, see contemporary chronicles and modern studies of the Hundred Years' War and biographies of Edward, the Black Prince and John II.
Notable facts
Key points to remember: the action took place during the same long conflict that framed Anglo-French relations in the 14th century; the English army achieved a strategic victory far out of proportion to its size; and the capture of the French king created a rare instance of a monarch held as a prisoner of war. For further summaries and reference collections see broader histories of the war and dedicated studies of regional campaigns around Poitiers and surrounding territories (1356).
Operations before the battle
The Chevauchée, led by the Black Prince Edward of Woodstock, had taken the English from Gascony to Bourges by way of Bellac and Issoudun, which was taken by storm, while the French were still engaged in the siege of Breteuil in Normandy. Meanwhile, on the English side, the Duke of Lancaster had set out from Brittany to join the army of the Black Prince. The latter intended to meet him by way of Tours, but a hailstorm and lack of siege equipment prevented the capture of the city, and as John II. had meanwhile collected a large army at Chartres and started in the direction of the Loire, Edward was compelled to move back into Gascony. A union with Lancaster's forces did not succeed, as the latter could not find a passage across the Loire, and was thus trapped in Brittany. In order to pursue the enemy more effectively, John II left half of his army behind with, among other things, the burghers' fighting men, and confined himself to the cavalry, with which he hoped to make more rapid progress. When he had placed the enemy, the French army was south of Poitiers, and the English, laden with booty, was on its way back to Bordeaux. Since the way into the Guyenne was barred to them, the English, after prolonged negotiations, were forced to enter the fight.
The battle
As at Crécy, the French were clearly numerically superior and had a force about twice the size of the English. The battlefield at Nouaillé-Maupertuis was an uneven terrain interspersed with hedgerows, so John II decided to take the fight on foot, while the English used the hedgerows to position their archers behind. On the French side, the Maréchal Clermont advocated cautious tactics aimed at starving out the English, who were struggling with supply difficulties. Others, including the Earl of Douglas, who led a Scottish relief contingent, the Bishop of Châlons, and Arnoul d'Audrehem, argued against an attack. Early in the morning movements on the English left wing under the Earl of Warwick made it appear that they were trying to get their spoils across a ford to the other side of the Miosson. Before the French could deploy in an orderly fashion, the French right wing under d'Audrehem, assuming that the English were fleeing, now forced their way into a hedge-lined path (Maupertuis means bad passage), thus becoming easy prey for the English archers, and d'Audrehem fell into captivity.
Meanwhile, on the French left wing, Clermont, after the advance of the right wing, was forced to attack as well in order to maintain a halfway closed line of battle. He was opposed by the English right wing under the Earl of Salisbury, who had reserve troops from the Earl of Suffolk rushing to his aid. Clermont was killed in this fighting, and in the face of fierce opposition, especially from the archers, the French were forced to retreat. Now the second line of the French under the Dauphin rushed forward, but was also unsuccessful. A third wave under the Duke of Orleans got into the retreating troops of the Dauphin, which led to some confusion, whereupon the king, whose own divisions had hitherto remained in the rear, now threw them into the battle and tried to force the decision. His attack was directed against the centre of the enemy's ranks, where the Black Prince stood with his troops. The latter then ordered Jean III de Grailly with a contingent of horsemen on his right wing to make a sweeping attack, which remained undetected by the French through a hill and led behind the French ranks. As at the same time on the English left wing the archers of the Earl of Oxford succeeded in attacking the French right wing from the side, the French were put on the defensive. The battle turned in favor of the Black Prince. John II, fearing defeat, had his sons brought to safety at Chauvigny: the heir to the throne Charles, the Duke of Normandy and the Duke of Anjou. When his army saw this, they took it as a sign of defeat and turned to flee.
John II refused to flee and soon found himself isolated with his 14-year-old son Philip (later Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy). The two were surrounded and captured and the Oriflamme banner also fell into the hands of the English. Two miles away stood the new castle of Camboniac, the Château de Chambonneau, which the Black Prince had previously taken by deception. The two prisoners were taken first here and then to Bordeaux.
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AlegsaOnline.com Battle of Poitiers (1356) — capture of King John II Leandro Alegsa
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