By Steve Cast
A 100 years war “What if” battle
This is the first in my series of “What
if” battles based on confrontations that could have turned into actual battles during
the 100 years war but didn’t so for one reason or another. This particular one happened during Edward
III first campaign in France and would have been the first battle of the 100
years war. His first ventures into
France were a complete disaster and a lot of people will be unaware of this
only knowing about his great victory at Crecy and his sons at Poitiers. The reason he survived these early years in
France was because of the reluctance of Philip VI to engage with his enemy in
battle which eventually undermined his authority and the respect of his court. Had he done so then the 100 years war may have
only been a foot note in our history books.
I shall try to cut a long story short which
will be difficult so apologies for the lengthy brief but I thought that people would
be interested in just how different things were in Edward III early years. Edward had for many years had great
difficulty in paying homage to Philip for his domains in Gascony in France because
not only he but others thought that he had more right to the throne of France than
Philip and this culminated in Gascony being taken away from him in 1338. For the past year a phony war had been going
on with Edward building up an alliance in the Low Countries whilst the French
lingered around the fringes of Gascony threatening to invade.
With an army of approximately 4,000 men Edward
sailed from Ipswich in 350 ships and landed in Antwerp in July 1338. The rest of his army was to be made up of his
allies consisting of the Duke of Brabant, the Count of Hainault, the Duke of
Guelders, the Margrave of Juliers and a host of lesser princes who had all come
together in Antwerp to greet the King and present their accounts. This alliance had been forged together into a
rather flimsy coalition with large payments of money being made to Edwards
allies that had bankrupted England and of which a lot were still outstanding. These so called “Allies” were still reluctant
to commit themselves to Edwards cause until payment had been made in full.
Edwards’s whole strategy in forming the
alliance had been based on the sale of English wool which wasn’t going
according to plan. He was selling at a
loss just so that he could get cash to pay his allies. He also had to borrow money from merchant
bankers such as the Bardi in Italy at extortionate rates of up to 50%, he mortgaged
the great crown and secured other loans by giving up hostages such as the Earl
of Lancaster as guarantors. When the
campaign ended Edwards debt would be over £300,000 which was equivalent to 10
years of revenue for the King. In fact
poor old Edward was having such a bad time of it that on his first night in
Antwerp he narrowly escaped death when the lodgings that had been hired for him
were accidently burned down by his servants, this did not bode well for the
campaign ahead.
The French were well aware that the
“alliance” had major problems and were hoping that it would peter out but when
Philip heard that the English had landed he quickly began to muster his troops. Still hoping that the alliance would collapse
and not wanting to antagonise Edwards’s allies, instead of attacking Flanders
Philip began attacking garrisons in Gascony.
Bottled up in Antwerp and still pleading with his “allies” Edward could
only watch as these garrisons were picked off one by one.
With financial transactions still going
on between him and his allies, by the 14th August 1339 Edward was in
such financial straits that he couldn’t even afford to pay his own men and had
to play his final card. He told his
allies that he would lead his own army into France without them and confront
the French alone, and if he should be killed in battle then he would at least
have died honourably. This galvanised
them and they grudgingly replied that they would follow him but only with yet
more stringent bonds placed against Edward.
On 20th September 1339 Edward
marched on Cambrai and formally summoned the garrison to surrender which it
refused to do, so the city was invested.
Edward was hoping to draw the French army into a quick and decisive
battle thus ending his financial woes. The
nearest French army was 65 miles away in Compiegne. Philip was reluctant to send this to the aid
of the garrison, the first of many decisions that would earn him a reputation
for timidity, because Cambrai was in Imperial territory and he didn’t want to antagonise
Edwards’s allies whilst there was still the possibility that they would desert
him.
By the beginning of October it was clear
to Edward that he was not achieving what he wanted. He hadn’t subdued Cambrai, a city that he had
little use for, and he was not bringing Philip to battle. On the 9th October Edward raised
the siege and marched into France.
During its first day Edwards’s army destroyed 55 villages in the Diocese
of Noyon alone and a year later these same villages still lay abandoned. Apparently the sky glowed red in the night
and the countryside could be seen burning for 15 miles around.
Philip VI joined his main army at
Peronne where the two armies came within a mile of each other on the 14th
October. On hearing this Edward decamped
and crossed the river Oise taking the town of Origny and burning it to the
ground. However things weren’t going so well
in Edwards’s army. The English had
organised their supplies very thoroughly but his allies, thinking that there
would be a quick and decisive battle, had not.
On the 17th they came before him and told him they intended
to withdraw before they starved. However
their bemoaning was soon silenced when they were reminded of the closeness of
the French. Philip sent Edward a formal
challenge to battle for either the 21st or 22nd but
Edward refused because his army was spread out on a broad front in a bend in
the river Oise which cut off its line of retreat so it was decided to withdraw
the army so it could follow the river eastwards burning and pillaging as it
went.
On the 21st October Edward
called a halt between the small town of Capelle and the village of La
Flamengrie. The French were about half a
day behind and stopped on the 22nd at Buirenfosse and intended to
attack on the 23rd.
 |
| Sir John Sears of the English Army |
Early in the morning the French Vanguard
advanced a short distance from the French camp and waited for its orders, but
none came. There was a dispute going on
in Philips tent about whether to give battle at all. Scouts had discovered that the Allied army
had dug a trench in front of it and to make things worse the French army had
been marching through territory wasted by Edwards men and it was hungry and
thirsty. Making yet another timid
decision Philip ordered the Vanguard to retreat and wait for the allies to
attack. From the English lines the retreat
of the vanguard was noticed at once and soon afterwards the French were seen
digging trenches and drawing large tree trunks in front of their
positions. Edward and his commanders
conferred, to keep the army drawn up was unthinkable because they too were
short of food and water and to attack would be suicide so it was decided to
withdraw. Edward however saw no pleasure
in this as it marked the failure of his campaign.
So there we have it the “Battle” of
Capelle. Tonight’s game will be “What
if” the French had attacked? As with
most medieval battles suffice to say that no one knows for certain where the
Allies formed up, all that is known is that they chose ground that gently
sloped away from la Flamengrie towards the French positions with the forest of
Nouvion preventing any outflanking manoeuvre and the road junction of La
Capelle blocking any eastward movement of the enemy.
The
gaming table
 |
| Sir Micheal of the Pines |
As with most medieval battles the actual
battlefield is very hard to get accurate information especially one where a
battle didn’t actually occur! So from
what information I’ve managed to ascertain and looking at topographical maps of
the area, the area in question is very high up. La Capelle is 500ft above sea level and the
terrain where the Allies deployed was on a steep slope with cultivated land to slow
the progress of the French.
Personally I think that the Allies would
have formed up between La Cappelle which was garrisoned by Flemish troops and
the forest of Nouvion therefore protecting both of their flanks.
So on the table anything forward of the
Allied position (The hill) is classed as being downhill and the Allies will get
a terrain advantage because of this.
Victory
conditions
The French win if King Edward is
captured or at least 2/3 of the allied army is pushed off the rear of the hill.
The Allies win if:
1 1. At least 2/3 of the army or more is still forward of
the rear of the hill and Edward III is still in command.
A draw will be adjudicated if:
1. The allied army is still forward of the rear of the
hill and their army strength is below 2/3.
I came by this figure (and a second identical figure) as a freebie given away with entrance to Salute 2015. In actual fact I didn't attend the show but a friend of mine Mike N. from our club had been given a handful of them and passed a couple on to me.
