The Black Prince; his gallant soldiers.King himself, his noble son called the ‘Black Prince’, Chandos, Manny, Knollys, and many others thoroughly understood ‘tactics’—that is to say, they knew how to move their men on the battle-field. The French used to huddle too many heavy-armed knights, whether on horse or foot, into too small a space, and trusted to crushing the English by mere weight of numbers. But it is an old saying that ‘the thicker the hay is, the more easy it is to mow it’. The French light infantry was contemptible and was despised by its own knights; whereas our sturdy yeomen, Use of the long-bow.armed with the long-bow, were the first line of every English force and could pour in such showers of arrows as neither horses nor men could face. Then our cavalry could charge in after the arrows had blinded or frightened whole battalions of the enemy.
Capture of Calais, 1347.In the course of the war Edward captured the great city of Calais, which, as you know, is right opposite Dover. He wanted, or said that he wanted, to hang six of the principal citizens of Calais, for the city had made a desperate resistance and cost him much trouble; but his good Queen Philippa begged them off. By the possession of Calais we got command of the ‘narrow seas’ as we had never had it before, and Edward III might well put the picture of a ship on his new gold coins, to show that he was ‘Sovereign of the Seas’. We held Calais for 200 years. After more than twenty years of war Flanders was free from the French, Gascony was safe, and, though Scotland was as unconquered as ever, a Scottish King had been taken prisoner at the battle of Neville's Cross near Durham (1346), and a French king at the Battle of Poitiers. Peace of Bretigny, 1301.A peace was concluded in 1361, which left Edward in full possession of all the old inheritance of