In Crécy-en-Ponthieu, a town in the Somme. On August 26, 1346, Philip VI suffered a bloody defeat near this town before the troops of Edward III of England.
The English army is firmly entrenched at the top of the slopes near Crécy, in order to face the French army, 50,000 strong, which is following it from the Seine valley. Philip VI's footmen are exhausted by their forced march. Sent on reconnaissance to the English army, Captain Le Moine de Bâle noticed that it lacked food and advised his king to wait until the next day. Perhaps, he thinks, the English, pressed by hunger, will be forced to leave their position of strength. But his advice is not followed. The French cavalry are burning to fight it out and Philippe doesn't dare stop them.
The English have guns which would have made their first public appearance in the West on this occasion. But it is their archers who do all the work. The charges of the French cavalry all smash against walls of murderous arrows; the archers and crossbowmen of the French camp, Genoese for the most part, and excellent, could not intervene effectively. The King of Bohemia, John of Luxembourg the Blind, who had his horse tied to that of his squire to be more sure of finding the English at the end of his spear, was killed in a place where now stands the "cross of the King of Bohemia".
1,500 French knights, several thousand foot soldiers met the same fate, because the English did not take ransom. Philippe VI had two horses killed under him when the Count of Hainaut finally convinced him. to leave the battlefield. This is the first major battle of the Hundred Years War. It will not lead to as many disasters as Poitiers or Agincourt, but the capture of Calais, a bridgehead of inestimable value, is the direct consequence.