Overview:
After the victory at Crecy, the English forces marched to Calais and began a successful siege that was to last a year. The French army tried to relieve Calais but retreated after finding the English position too strong. The English turned Calais into a operations base for further forays into France and it was to remain in English hands until 1558.
If Edward had really expected a swift capitulation at Calais, he was soon disappointed. The burghers and the garrison, commanded by a Burgundian knight, John de Vienne, closed their gates against him and a siege began in September 1346 which endured throughout the winter and lasted until 4th August 1347, a full year after the Battle of Crécy, and a frustrating one for king Edward.
While the king of England sat before Calais in the North, the redoubtable Henry de Derby, now Earl of Lancaster, continued to notch up successes in Gascony. His opponent there, Philippe VI's eldest son, John, Duke of Normandy, had hastened North with his main army after Crécy, and Lancaster then proceeded to reoccupy the Duchy of Aquitaine, pushing the French across the Agenais towards the old County of Toulouse and then turn North to clear the Marches of Poitou.
In seven busy weeks, Lancaster swept the French garrison from Aquitaine, capturing the city of Poitiers, before his small army returned to Bordeaux at the end of October 1346, laden with prisoners and rich booty. Meanwhile, his king sat frustrated before the walls of Calais.
In 1346 Calais was a much smaller town than the one we see today, with a population of about 5,000 people contained within a double circle of walls astride the river Hain, the walls reinforced by a moat and the bulk of Calais castle. Edward had no wish to destroy Calais, so he settled down to a blockade, but de Vienne countered the threat of hunger by expelling 2,000 old men, women and children, the bouches inutiles, useless mouths, whom Edward fed and let pass through his lines.
Only as the siege went on did the king's temper shorten. Three months later, when de Vienne sent out another 500 civilians, there were left to starve between the lines.
The French made only one attempt to lift the siege of Calais. In July 1347, king Philippe led a small army as close as Boulogne before withdrawing once again, this action of their king finally induced the garrison to surrender. Weakened as they were by wounds and hunger, reduced to eating rats, they finally opened their gates in August 1347, thought not before six of the burghers had endured fresh trials at the hands of the English king, who was angered by his losses and their long resistance. He fully intended to hang the chief defenders and was only dissuaded from this course by the tearful pleading of Queen Philippa who, according to Froissart, knelt on the ground before him and begged for their lives.
Another more credible account attributed their survival to the shrewd advice given by Sir Walter Manny, whom the king had appointed Captain of Calais. Manny pointed out that the French knights had only done their duty in defending the town, and if Edward hanged them, no English lord could ever treat safely with the French again. Though he spared their lives, Edward demanded heavy ransoms from de Vienne and his knights and expelled everyone of rank from the town, bringing over English traders and their families to take their place. Calais remained an English town until recaptured by the Duc de Guise in 1553.
To get new foundation off to a good start, Edward III moved the wool staple there and made Calais the entrepot for all wool merchants trading with Flanders and the Empire. Calais became the only 'English' port through which English wool, lead, tin and later on cloth, could flow to the markets of Europe.
The king repaired and reinforced the walls, and provided a strong garrison which, even in times of peace, could amount to more than a thousand men. |
Date: Sep 1346 - Aug 1347
Location: Calais, France
Outcome: English victory - recaptured by the Duc de Guise in 1558
Principal Combatants.
English Leadership: Edward III
English Strength: ?
English Casualties: ?
French Leadership: Jean de Vienne , king Philippe
French Strength: Town population of about 5,000 people
French Casualties: ?
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Overview
