Battle of Blanchetaque

Part of the Crecy Campaign of the Hundred Years War

Date	24 August 1346
Location	Blanchetaque, River Somme, near Abbeville
Result	English army successfully forded the river

Belligerents

Kingdom of England

Kingdom of France

Commanders and leaders

Edward III of England

Godemar du Foy

Strength

5,000 (not all engaged)

3,500

Casualties and losses

Light

~2,000

The Battle of Blanchetaque in 1346 was the second of the three battles which made up what became the Crecy campaign of King Edward III of England during the early stages of the Hundred Years War. Although smaller and less notorious than the Battle of Crécy which followed it, it can be said that without the victory at Blanchetaque, the subsequent defeat of the French royal army at Crecy would never have been possible, as the English force would not have been in any position to oppose the French adequately had they not successfully forded the Somme River during the battle of Blanchetaque.

After defeating the French defenders of Caen in the battle there on 26 July and subsequently looting the city, the English army marched eastward along the Seine River, while the French forces had retreated in front of the advancing enemy, employing what would later become known as scorched earth tactics in an attempt to starve the English forces during their advance. This strategy suffered a setback when on 14 August the English captured an unguarded ford on the Seine at Poissy and prepared a pontoon bridge with which to cross. This threatened Paris and caused much alarm amongst the French populace, but actually might have been turned to the French advantage, as now the English army was supposedly trapped between the impassable Seine and Somme Rivers. Every bridge and ford on either waterway was heavily guarded, with King Philip VI situated first at Paris and then moving to Amiens and then entering the plain between the rivers in an effort to hunt down the English force with his much larger army.

Edward meanwhile was determined to break the French blockade of the Somme and probed at several points in late August, vainly attacking Hangest and Pont-Remy before slowly moving north along the western river bank trying to find an opening. Behind him toiled the French army, which despite some close encounters was unable to successfully come up on the English army. On 23 August a force of French levies opposed the English passage at Boismont, but were ridden down by Edward's cavalry and massacred to a man and the town burnt to the ground. On the evening of 24 August, the English force was encamped at the town of Acheux whilst the French army was just six miles away in Abbeville, watching the bridge there in case Edward attempted to attack it. Accounts differ as to the exact method of discovery, but during the night Edward was made aware by either an Englishman living locally or a French captive that just four miles away, near the village of Saigneville, was a tiny ford named Blanchetaque (so named for the white stones lining the river's bed) which was likely to be unprepared for an attack. Edward immediately broke camp in the middle of the night and moved his whole force toward the river.

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Wikipedia