1:59

reign in a very bad position

2:02

vis-a-vis English ambitions against the

2:04

French and against the Scots.

2:06

Of course the reason why they've been

2:08

fighting the French isn't anything to do

2:10

at this stage with a claim to the Crown

2:13

but it's about the territories

2:15

that English kings had had in France since

2:18

the 12th century particularly the Duchy

2:20

of Aquitaine based on its capital

2:22

at Bordeaux and also an area

2:24

around the Somme known as the County of

2:27

Ponture that had been inherited through

2:29

the wife of Edward I, Eleanor of Castile.

2:31

Now those were good lands to have but

2:33

they weren't held in absolute sovereignty.

2:36

Edward was Duke of Aquitaine and

2:39

essentially held the County of Ponture so

2:41

he owed homage for those to the French

2:43

king and that's really a difficult situation.

2:46

Been going on for a long time and then it went on

2:48

for the Hundred Years War after that so it was a rather

2:50

pivotal point here. It had indeed

2:53

and of course one thing was in 1204

2:56

King John had lost Normandy because previously

2:58

the kings of England had held Normandy given that

3:00

it was England to be conquered by William

3:02

the Conqueror. I don't know why people talk about kings losing

3:05

places. If they dropped something on the pavement I'd

3:07

have held it in their pocket. That's an interesting thought. I

3:09

think the loss of Normandy was more significant

3:11

than that because we had a cross-channel nobility

3:14

some with lands in England and in Normandy

3:16

and of course after 1204 they had to choose

3:18

whether they're going to become French or whether they're

3:20

going to And that was Sezmic

3:22

in England. Definitely it's a real

3:25

turning point and

3:26

the Normans and the French just love

3:28

to celebrate that victory too. And

3:30

so he's faced with this, he's quite

3:33

young, is he being well advised? Does

3:36

he know which side he's on? I think for the

3:38

first three years of his reign he doesn't really

3:40

know what to do but

3:41

when he sees his power he starts

3:43

to become much more interventionist.

3:45

He's particularly ambitious against the Scots.

3:48

That's where we see

3:49

him first active in the

3:51

early 1330s and it's

3:53

in Scotland that Edward really serves

3:55

his apprenticeship winning

3:58

a battle at Halladon Hill in

3:59

1333 that very much sets the

4:02

tone for the use of archers later on. Thank

4:04

you very much. Erica,

4:08

when the French king Louis X died in 1316, there

4:12

was a succession crisis. I mean, that century

4:14

is just full of succession crisis, so let's

4:16

face up to it. What was the nature of that

4:19

crisis?

4:19

So this particular crisis,

4:21

indeed one of many, happens

4:23

when, as you say, Louis X dies and he leaves

4:26

only a young daughter and a posthumously

4:29

born son who is king for all of five

4:31

days of his life. And it's unprecedented because

4:33

of what's often called the Capetian miracle.

4:36

Since this dynasty had taken the French throne

4:38

back in 987, they'd had over 300 years of uninterrupted father to

4:44

son transmission of the throne.

4:46

And that is just biologically unlikely.

4:48

It comes as a real shock

4:50

to the political community when all

4:53

of a sudden there's no longer that

4:55

son. A girl pops out. Exactly. And

4:57

the problem is, there are no rules

5:00

in place. You'll hear people say, oh well,

5:02

there's the Salic law, it forbids

5:05

women coming to the throne. But that's actually not something the

5:07

French were aware of at the time. Instead,

5:10

we have a series of

5:12

older uncles, the brothers

5:14

of the last king, being adult

5:17

males competing with young

5:19

daughters. They are just more practical

5:22

leaders to put in place. So you get Philip

5:24

V taking the throne from Louis'

5:27

daughter, then Charles IV taking

5:29

the throne from Philip's daughters, and

5:31

then it escalates. We run out of

5:34

brothers. What was Edward III's claim

5:36

on the French throne? Did he have a real claim

5:38

on the French throne and did he pursue it? When

5:40

in 1328 we run out of those brothers,

5:42

we can either climb back up the

5:44

Capetian family tree and jump

5:47

over to a cousin, Philip Valois,

5:50

or we can consider Edward III's

5:52

claim. Because even though we've come to develop

5:55

an idea that women don't themselves

5:58

come to the throne, the question may not be can

6:00

they transmit their inheritance

6:03

to a male relative? Well, Edward,

6:06

we've already mentioned his mother Isabella, she

6:08

is the sister of all those Capetian

6:11

brothers who succeed to the throne

6:13

in turn. So if she can't be queen in

6:15

her own right, can Edward through

6:17

her become king? What

6:20

happens is that Philip the Sixth, he's a grown-up,

6:24

whereas Edward at this time is only a teen, he's

6:26

already embedded in the French political

6:29

community,

6:29

so a group of the elites, the magnates,

6:32

choose him as king.

6:33

Thank you very much, Andrew. In 1337

6:35

Philip the Sixth confiscated the Dutch of

6:39

Aquitaine and the County of Montier

6:42

from Edward. Why did he do that and

6:44

how did Edward respond? Well, he

6:46

did that because of course he'd been drawn

6:48

into the Scottish problem as well. The

6:50

old alliance dating from the mid-90s had meant

6:53

that the French were free and indeed willing

6:56

to support Scotland in their

6:58

efforts against the King of England. By

7:01

the 1330s we see Philip the Sixth

7:05

actively intervening in Scotland. He harbors

7:08

the boy king, David the Second, he's

7:11

planning a big military operation, a twin

7:14

one in Scotland and in the Channel.

7:16

So tension is simmering between

7:19

England and France already. Add to that

7:21

a number of other circumstances which

7:23

encouraged Philip to, as

7:25

it were, go for grabbing

7:27

the territories that Edward held in France, the

7:30

cancellation of the crusade that was one

7:32

of his pet projects by Benedict the Twelfth,

7:34

the Pope, who saw that the crusade

7:37

was simply impractical given the circumstances.

7:40

That meant that the fleet that

7:42

was being based in the Mediterranean was moved

7:45

to the Channel, which created further cross-channel

7:48

tensions between England and France.

7:51

But the trigger for the confiscation

7:54

of Aquitaine and Pontier in

7:56

May 1337 was the

7:59

but Artois enters the scene.

8:02

He's been at Edward III's

8:05

court for several years.

8:07

He had fallen out badly with Philip VI. He

8:10

is the trigger, the justification

8:13

for Philip to confiscate Aquitaine

8:16

in May 1337.

8:18

Thank you, Anne Currie. So

8:21

his French lands are confiscated. That's

8:23

where we are at the moment, Edward's French lands. So

8:26

he looks around for our lives and looks

8:28

in the low countries. It is like Fruges and

8:31

Ypres and Ghent. Why

8:33

were these cities important to him? What did

8:36

they offer? Yeah,

8:37

Edward really isn't in a position to

8:39

launch a full frontal attack on France

8:42

himself. He needs allies. And

8:44

then what he does essentially

8:45

is to buy military help. He

8:47

spends a huge amount of money on this.

8:50

But why specifically those

8:52

in the low countries? We would call it modern-day

8:54

Belgium, all the sort of areas around

8:57

Luxembourg, that kind of thing. Because they're

8:59

on the borders of France. And

9:02

one of them that he really needs to get is

9:04

the allegiance of the Flemish, because they're

9:06

actually in France. The Count of Flanders

9:08

is like himself a vassal

9:10

of the King of France. So he can't get the

9:13

Count of Flanders at this point. He's loyal

9:15

to Philip VI. But what

9:17

he can get is the Duke of Brabant.

9:20

And he can also get the Count of Hainault.

9:22

And also he can get

9:25

the alliance with the

9:26

Emperor, Ludwig IV of Bavaria,

9:29

because the French and the Germans already hated

9:31

each other. And so what better than

9:34

to get the

9:35

Emperor to declare Edward vicar

9:37

general of the Empire and allow him

9:40

to attack that little bit of France

9:42

around Combre that was actually

9:44

in the Empire. And that's really what Edward was

9:46

planning to do. Thank you. Erica,

9:48

in 1340, we're slowly getting to the

9:51

Battle of Cressey.

9:52

In 1340, Edward declared himself King

9:54

of France. Why did he do that then?

9:57

The reasons that he does it, he's got immediate reasons

9:59

and long.

9:59

term reasons. Immediately it's those

10:02

allies that I was just talking about. He's

10:04

trying to convince the Flemish to rebel against

10:06

the King of France effectively, so if he says, hey

10:09

I'm King of France, that gives them the excuse

10:11

to say, well we're actually supporting the rightful king. But

10:13

longer term it's really a way of cutting

10:15

the Gordian knot of Akitan. If he

10:19

is tired of having his duchies and

10:21

counties taken away from him because

10:23

he's in theory subject to the French

10:25

king, wouldn't it be nice if he was

10:27

the French king and no longer

10:29

had to be subject to anyone else? Good,

10:32

well so he sat there thinking wouldn't it be nice if

10:34

I were a French king? Good. Who hasn't

10:36

thought that? Yeah, Andrew. Andrew

10:39

Aiden. In 1341 there was

10:41

a success in this, we'll get to the battle. In 1341

10:44

there's a succession dispute in Brittany

10:49

after the death of Duke John III.

10:52

How did Edward and Philip get involved and

10:54

what's going on there? Well there's an underlying and very

10:56

important strategic factor from Edward

10:59

III's point of view, the sea route from

11:01

England to Akutane and

11:03

Bordeaux and Bayonne, the centre

11:06

of the wine trade exports to England. So it's

11:08

partly about commerce and

11:10

it's partly about communications with

11:13

the duchy of Akutane. Now the opportunity

11:15

arises when John III dies in April 1341. There are

11:17

two candidates, his half-brother

11:23

John Montfort and

11:26

his niece

11:27

Jeanne de Pantiev and her husband

11:31

Charles de Bois. Philip

11:33

backs the latter, Jeanne de Pantiev

11:36

and John de Montfort

11:38

turns to Edward III for assistance.

11:41

There's a battle at Morley in late September

11:44

between a small English army and

11:46

the forces of Charles de Bois

11:49

which shows a sort of miniature crassie

11:51

with archers and dismounted men-at-arms

11:54

in a defensive position easily

11:56

defeating heavy cavalry from the French.

11:59

And so we...

11:59

come to the summer of 1346. My

12:03

Edward raised an army, said to be the biggest army

12:05

that had sailed from England, it sailed

12:08

to France. What did he want to achieve

12:11

to you, Erica? What did he want to achieve?

12:13

There's actually been some debate about this, you know, is

12:15

he here just to wreak as much

12:17

destruction as he can, or is he here with

12:19

a real targeted purpose of drawing

12:22

Philip out to battle? Because we haven't

12:25

had in all these years of war, we haven't had

12:27

a direct confrontation on land with

12:29

the French king. I think it's actually a bit of both,

12:31

because you use the destruction to lure

12:33

out the king. The

12:34

destruction being when he took his army

12:36

over, they rampaged through Normandy,

12:38

they laid waste to it as much as they could, they

12:41

created havoc, took a lot of loot, and were

12:43

basically taunting the king

12:45

of France saying, are you going to defend your people or not?

12:48

Exactly, it's a technique called the chevauchee.

12:50

And the reason to target Normandy specifically is

12:52

that it is one of the wealthiest areas of France,

12:55

it's an eighth of the kingdom in size, but it

12:57

produces a quarter of the income. And

12:59

it also politically has a very

13:01

interesting relationship with the French king. Ever since

13:03

it was captured from the English in the 13th

13:05

century, Normandy has a very strong

13:08

independent spirit, it gets its privileges

13:10

confirmed, it is a powerful political

13:13

entity. So the king needs to keep up

13:15

good relations with them and needs to be seen

13:18

as to be acting as their

13:20

proper leader. But that campaign,

13:23

as Ergo said, is really quite astonishing.

13:25

I mean, I think it's a sort of 14th

13:27

century equivalent

13:27

to Blitzkrieg, he moves extremely

13:30

quickly through Norman territory,

13:32

he gets to Khai, he besieges

13:34

it briefly, it falls to him and eludes

13:37

it. But then he moves straight

13:39

on. It's not a campaign

13:42

of conquest. No, he's not acting as Duke,

13:44

he's not here to say I'm reclaiming this for

13:47

myself. He's saying, come protect

13:49

your people if you dare. Can

13:51

you just give me a bit more detail, Andrew, about the

13:54

army that

13:54

Edward took with him and how

13:57

he'd raised it? Yeah, as you say, it's the biggest

13:59

army that has

13:59

taken to France during 100 years of war. It's

14:02

an army to fight a battle I think. The

14:05

sheer scale of it, the number of archers

14:07

involved, the key missile. How many? About 8,000 out of about 14,000

14:09

in the army itself. 8,000 a long moment? Yeah. Some

14:16

of them raised in retinues by noblemen

14:19

alongside men-at-arms, some of

14:21

them raised in the counties, the

14:23

Shires of England and the Welsh Lordships.

14:26

So for example a county like Dorset might be asked

14:28

for a hundred. So you have an army with 8,000 archers,

14:30

about 3,000 men-at-arms and then other Welsh foot soldiers

14:36

making up the balance. A balance between archers

14:39

to provide... And you mentioned cavalry. Yes, the men-at-arms

14:42

could serve on horseback

14:45

in a battle if they chose, but the English tended to

14:47

fight on foot in this period

14:49

and the mounted archers that were raised in

14:51

retinues with the men-at-arms, they

14:54

also dismounted in horse to use their longbows

14:57

in battle. But perhaps the most interesting

14:59

thing about the army is the technical

15:01

backup and the logistical achievement.

15:04

A fleet of over 700 ships was required

15:06

to carry half a million arrows, 15,000 horses.

15:09

The fleet had 15,000 mariners. More

15:11

mariners took the army

15:16

army that was in the army. They

15:18

also had engineers, they had to prepare

15:20

to rebuild the bridges that they knew the

15:22

King of France would break across Normandy

15:24

during the campaign and

15:26

they had to be supplied,

15:28

as I've said, with arrows and all the other

15:31

parishes. And also with food and stuff. Yes, to a certain

15:33

extent for the beginning of the campaign, but as Anna said,

15:35

the ravaging of Normandy was

15:37

also about gaining supplies for your army

15:40

as well as depriving your

15:42

opponent of them and looting town. The

15:44

looting of French towns in Normandy was

15:46

quite extraordinary, something

15:49

that hadn't been experienced in a hundred years. Can you

15:51

particularise that? Well, Conne

15:54

was attacked on the 26th of

15:56

July. It was a bit of

15:58

a

15:58

mess from the point of view. the assault because

16:01

the English army got out of hand according

16:03

to the sources but the town

16:06

was stripped of its valuables.

16:09

Many of the town dwellers were killed,

16:11

the wealthier ones were ransomed and

16:14

sent back to England along with a handful

16:17

of French noblemen who'd also been taken prisoner

16:19

and sent back for ransom in England.

16:21

I think what's interesting here is how controlled

16:23

all of this was. Edward III was in charge

16:26

of it and it's the time when

16:28

we have the first evidence of some military

16:29

ordinances for the army. Sandroos

16:32

said pillaging was encouraged but

16:34

there were also orders not to attack churches,

16:37

not to attack women. Now whether these

16:39

were all maintained of course we don't know but

16:41

I think Edward was quite keen for instance

16:43

to allocate a certain mileage

16:46

on either side of the army to take food,

16:48

it's a controlled thing because he wants to get through the

16:50

territory as quickly

16:51

as he possibly can. I was fascinated by what

16:54

you said about the organisation and more

16:56

mariners than soldiers. Over 80 ports

16:59

supplied ships for the fleet which

17:01

was essentially a requisitioned merchant

17:04

fleet. There was a tiny little core

17:06

Royal Navy of king ships

17:09

but the vast majority of the over 700

17:11

ships were supplied by merchants and

17:13

ship owners in England requisitioned

17:15

into service. Now some of them stayed

17:18

with the army after they'd landed and

17:20

proceeded along the

17:21

Norman coast attacking small

17:25

Norman ports after each other and again

17:27

looting and burning and sending the

17:29

booty back to England.

17:31

So they didn't care what the French thought of them then

17:33

didn't they? Well well they did care they wanted

17:35

the French to be frightened of them. Yes indeed and as

17:38

Anne says and as Erica was saying you know we're

17:40

really talking here about probably

17:43

provoking the king of France into accepting

17:45

battle and no better way of doing it than

17:47

to completely devastate Normandy which

17:49

as Erica says provides quarter of the revenue

17:52

of the kingdom. So that's going on but battle

17:54

hasn't commenced but we're moving towards the fighting

17:56

bit

17:57

and Philip must have on

18:00

word must have got back fairly quickly very quickly.

18:03

What was his response? His response

18:05

is I think of some shock. I

18:08

think it takes him a while to decide

18:10

what to do but he does start

18:12

to get an army together and it's

18:14

clear that Edward is provoking him. Edward

18:16

astonishingly moves nearly up to Paris.

18:18

He gets up to Poisi just

18:21

outside Paris and I think

18:23

Philip sitting in Paris is hoping

18:26

that he can fight a battle near Paris because

18:28

that would have brought out all the Parisian

18:30

militias, all of the troops that he's been able

18:33

to pull together but Edward

18:35

is crafty. Edward doesn't want to fight

18:38

on bad terms like that so what

18:40

he does is draw Philip away from

18:42

Paris and he moves along

18:45

to the Somme estuary and

18:47

he crosses a very famous crossing

18:49

here at a place called Blanche-Tac.

18:51

One of the most difficult things for a medieval army,

18:54

particularly the sort that Andrew is described as getting

18:56

them across a big River estuary and

18:59

the Chronicles celebrate that as one

19:01

of Edward's great achievements. Why

19:03

does he cross the Somme? Because

19:05

he wants to get into the County of Ponture,

19:08

that area that the English kings had held,

19:11

the area they'd

19:11

inherited from Elena of Castile,

19:14

the wife of Edward I and astonishingly

19:17

too Edward III has actually

19:19

been to Cressie before. He was there

19:21

in 1329

19:21

and now I don't think in 1329 you

19:24

thought that's going to be a nice

19:26

place for a battle but even so

19:28

I think it's helpful for him to call

19:31

Philip into territory that

19:34

he claimed so

19:35

he gets to Cressie, Philip

19:37

has followed him to Amiens,

19:39

Abbville and Edward White's

19:41

there between Cressie and

19:43

what he called for Philip to come. So

19:46

if Philip walks into the trap? Definitely.

19:48

Erica let's talk about the French organisation

19:51

and how did they get prepared? They

19:54

were in a hurry but what did they do that made them

19:56

a big organised force which they were, we're

19:58

told they're bigger than the British force.

19:59

many nobles on horseback, 12,000 and so on. It's

20:03

often described as a feudal army because

20:06

what Philip does is he uses a tool called

20:09

the Bon the Ban to summon up

20:12

the people who owe him military service

20:15

in exchange for the lands that they've done homage. And this

20:17

actually means that we're not talking about a French army

20:20

per se, it's people who are loyal to the

20:22

king, but they are Normans, they are Burgundians,

20:24

they are Picards, they're being called

20:27

from all these other territories around the

20:29

kingdom. And then on top of that, Philip

20:31

can also use what's called the Ariere,

20:34

the rear band to call up town militias,

20:36

this is where Paris would have been useful, to

20:38

basically summon everyone in the kingdom who can

20:41

to fight, plus he has allies, the king of Bohemia,

20:44

the Count of Flanders again coming in, so

20:46

there are allied princes as well. And this feudal

20:49

army is then supplemented by paid troops,

20:52

most notably a large

20:54

corps of Genoese crossbow men

20:56

who are going to play a big role in the battle, worth

20:58

flagging them up now. They're organized into

21:01

battalions, each under the leadership

21:04

of one of the great princes who

21:07

brought them there. And this has some pros

21:09

and cons. The advantage is, as you said, it's a big

21:11

army, conservative estimates have it at about, I

21:13

think, 26,000 on the low end, and

21:17

they have a really strong cavalry.

21:19

The French knights are known as the flower

21:22

of European knighthood in this period.

21:24

So they are just known as an elite fighting force.

21:27

But on the other hand, trying to get an army

21:29

this way is a slow process.

21:31

There are people who are summoned like the Counts

21:33

of Savoy, who don't make it there till the next

21:36

day, which makes planning of it difficult.

21:38

And you get mixed quality. If you're summoning everyone

21:40

who can fight, I mean, can is

21:43

a loose word. And then on top of that, there

21:45

are problems with how do you deploy them most

21:47

effectively? Where do you put the crossbow men? Where

21:49

do you put the cavalry? And in

21:52

effect, in this particular organization,

21:55

Philip puts the crossbow men up front, cavalry

21:57

behind, and that's going to play out in

21:59

some.

21:59

in unexpected ways when they finally

22:02

get onto the field. Andrew, so there

22:05

they go. 26th of August. Why

22:07

at that place? Why? This place

22:09

was chosen by Edward. Edward III. Why

22:12

did you choose this particular place? What were its

22:14

advantages? I think Anne has put a finger

22:16

on it. Absolutely. It's Pontier.

22:18

We know he was going there from halfway

22:20

through the campaign because he sent a letter back to

22:23

England saying, you know, send reinforcements

22:25

to Quattoir, which is on the North Bank of the

22:27

Somme. We know he was going there. It's

22:30

symbolic. It's his doiree retage.

22:32

It's something that he inherited from his forebears

22:36

as a provocation to

22:38

Philip VI to challenge

22:41

the French king on land that you've paid

22:43

homage for. That's

22:45

the key thing. Also, Pontier was known

22:47

to quite a few members of his army. One

22:49

of his senior lieutenants, but while following

22:51

the Bergers, had been senecial

22:53

of Pontier in the mid-1330s. So

22:56

there was that, but, you know... And the point

22:58

is that he... They would have known the

23:00

ground. They would have known about the Blanche-Tac fort

23:02

that Anne mentioned earlier. It's a major crossing

23:05

of the Somme, the only crossing of the Somme below

23:07

Advil. But what was it like? Was it

23:09

a hill? Was it a valley? What was it? Well,

23:12

the ground that was marched

23:14

towards, not looked for, but marched

23:17

towards, which suggests that they did know

23:19

that it was going to be useful to them, is essentially

23:22

a valley on the edge

23:23

of the town of Cressie. On

23:25

the western side, where the English deploy

23:28

in a classic defensive formation, they

23:30

will sit and wait, displaying

23:33

the quartered arms of England and France as provocations

23:36

of the King of France, when the advance

23:38

guard of the French army arrives. The

23:40

advance guard will arrive at the

23:42

base of the valley.

23:44

They won't be able to cross from the east because

23:46

there's a steep bank there, so they'll be channeled

23:48

through a narrow bottleneck

23:51

into the area beyond where they can deploy.

23:53

But coming up behind them constantly will

23:56

be more and more horsemen, more

23:58

infantrymen, push. them into this confined

24:01

space and in front of them the

24:03

extreme provocation of the Prince of Wales

24:06

with his quartered arms and lilies

24:08

of France. 16 year old Prince of

24:10

Wales. 16 year old yeah it's

24:13

quite a thought. The centre of the main battle

24:15

of the land. Absolutely. Surrounded of course

24:17

by bodyguards never mind. Naturally.

24:20

And remember that Philip VI had been provoked

24:24

endlessly during the Normandy campaign.

24:26

The desolation of Normandy. He'd

24:28

been tricked outside Paris

24:29

as he'd seen it. You know the

24:32

man's blood was up. Now some would say

24:34

that he lost control of the French army and

24:36

that there were so many noblemen in the French army who just

24:39

wanted to go for it after so many years of

24:41

standoffs where the two armies simply hadn't

24:43

fought. Others say that

24:46

Philip lost his is cool. I

24:48

think some... I

24:49

was just going to add in a further thing about

24:52

what Andrew said. We think that Philip

24:55

was advised by some of his noblemen

24:58

not to fight.

24:58

So I think they

25:00

realised that he was walking into a trap and

25:03

indeed he was. If we can imagine

25:05

that Edward who has a very good vantage point

25:07

he draws up his army essentially with

25:10

a hill and woodland behind

25:12

there. He can see what is happening. He reminds me

25:14

of the way the Romans really put finished off the Celts.

25:16

They

25:16

had

25:19

exactly that formation in front of a wood anyway.

25:21

Absolutely. And I think what you do is

25:24

you deploy your troops in the most effective

25:26

way possible. He's got a smaller army. Smaller

25:29

armies always stay put and

25:31

adopt a defensive position. There's some suggestion

25:34

he even had like a wagon camp

25:36

either around or at the back or at the sides.

25:39

But what he does he has his men at arms in

25:42

groups there and he has archers on

25:44

the flanks. I think probably archers

25:47

in some sort of formation

25:48

between the men at

25:50

arms as well. So he's protecting his men at

25:52

arms. They're going to be the ones, the men at arms who

25:54

will be the hand-to-hand

25:55

fighting against their fellow men

25:57

at arms on the French side. Edward's

26:00

plan is to cause as much damage

26:02

to the French before they can even get

26:04

to fight. Which brings us to the longbowmen,

26:06

which are both effective and romantic, aren't they, really?

26:10

Well, they like the longbowmen, I think it's great. They're long-bowmen

26:12

who turn out and do the business. It's an

26:14

interesting thought, and not all of them were Robin Hoods,

26:16

you know, not all of them were crack shots. I

26:18

realise that there were a few of them, a few

26:21

of them were little peccadillas, but on the

26:23

whole there were sturdy Englishmen who could

26:25

shoot

26:25

a longbowmen, half a mile of it and

26:27

they were very disciplined. They were either

26:30

in retinues or county groups and that sort of

26:32

thing. They would have been told when to shoot, front

26:34

rank shoot now, second rank shoot now.

26:37

It's sporadic shooting of the

26:40

arrows there. But in fact, they sit there

26:42

all day and nothing happens. That's

26:45

what's intriguing about Cressy.

26:48

Philip is seen to appear with

26:50

such a huge army. It's going to take him a long time

26:52

to get into the field and as Andrew

26:54

has said, it's sort of funneling in. There's not enough space.

26:57

The French do decide,

26:59

he does decide to give battle, Philip,

27:01

even though not all his men are there. And

27:03

that's probably very foolish. And he sends

27:06

the Genoese crossbowmen in first

27:09

and that's fine because you might have said, well, they will

27:11

counteract the English archers

27:14

except for two things. One is you can

27:16

only fire one crossbow

27:17

bolt for about every three arrows

27:20

and also you need to protect yourself

27:22

while you're reloading. And the crossbowmen

27:24

had these tall shields and

27:27

they were still back in the baggage

27:28

train. So he sent them in naked,

27:30

if you like, to the fight. The crossbowmen

27:33

really end up taking the brunt of that initial

27:35

longbow attack there. It's not something that

27:38

they've ever seen before. And what

27:40

are they supposed to be able to do about it? They actually

27:42

get blamed for the defeat a lot. They're

27:44

said to have been cowardly and to have left

27:46

the field. But that's really not fair on them. They're

27:49

getting mowed down by these arrows. What else are

27:51

they really supposed

27:51

to do? What do Genoese connections do? No,

27:54

I have to confess to being half French, but

27:56

that's a device. I have to say

27:58

that Philip had a... any of them

28:00

left killed after the battle. Exactly. Whether

28:03

that's true or not. But then it's a problem

28:05

of organization because they are out in front and so

28:08

the the charge, the cavalry charge

28:10

that's then supposed to close with them

28:12

can't get past this this

28:14

massacre that's already happened. Though

28:17

it is worth noting that contrary to some belief that

28:19

the studies have shown the Knights

28:22

do close. It's not that they never get there.

28:25

There is hand-to-hand fighting afterwards. So do they close

28:27

and then get off their

28:28

horses and go hand-to-hand fighting? Or

28:31

do they fight from their horses? It's clear

28:33

that the Count of Bois did dismount

28:35

with his retinue and advanced on foot.

28:38

He could see that the horses were being mown

28:40

down. I mean those are the principal targets of the

28:42

archers of course and you bring the horses down

28:45

and you cause carnage. There's a

28:47

French chronicle that says rather vividly on

28:49

this day men were killed by their horses.

28:53

So the Count of Bois dismounts, marches

28:55

forward with his retinue and this is probably where

28:58

the hand-to-hand fighting comes in that

29:00

Erica mentions. We know there was a real

29:02

melee around the Prince of Wales as standard.

29:05

It falls at one point. We know that

29:07

because the man who raised it again, Sir

29:09

Thomas Daniel, is given an annuity

29:12

subsequently by the black prince. But

29:15

it was clearly for a moment

29:18

at least a nearer on thing. Some of the French

29:20

chronicles say that the Prince of Wales has taken prison

29:22

for a while. It may

29:24

or may not be so. And it goes on for hours

29:27

as well. It may not have started till about four

29:29

o'clock but it said it goes on till it becomes dark.

29:32

Well getting dark is quite late on the 26th of August.

29:35

But I think what's interesting here we've often

29:38

concentrated on whether arrows can pierce

29:40

armour. What they're most effective against

29:42

in this battle are horses. You can imagine

29:45

arrows hitting horses, they rear up, their

29:47

rider falls off, it's just

29:49

absolute chaos. And the horse is not armed? Not

29:52

at this point. You couldn't really fully

29:54

armour moving horse

29:56

I think like that.

29:58

So there are 12,000 horses we're sure. exposure

30:00

targets. Definitely yes and

30:02

I think it's quite interesting because the French

30:05

chronicles in particular don't say

30:07

that much about fighting on foot they

30:09

do concentrate on the horses

30:11

are they blaming the horses like they're blaming the

30:14

Genoese crossbowmen. When

30:17

did Philip King of France decide

30:19

that it had enough and when and how did

30:21

he retreat? Well as the

30:24

night follows day he was pulled off the field

30:27

by Jean de Beaumont. We're having

30:29

to interpret chronicles here and some of course

30:31

will say that he carried on fighting

30:33

whilst Lingability were running away others

30:36

say that he was wounded and had

30:38

to be taken off the field for that reason but

30:40

what is clear that he left quite late

30:43

in the battle he'd he'd already

30:45

he was probably already aware that his close friend

30:47

John the King of Bohemia had been killed and

30:50

probably his brother

30:52

Count of Alaincen he'd been killed as well

30:55

the Count of Flanders the Count

30:57

of Blois he died a whole crowd

30:59

of French nobility were killed and

31:01

so when Philip leaves the battlefield

31:03

and then goes to Amiens afterwards not Paris

31:06

that wouldn't be a good good idea at this stage

31:09

well because I mean his reception would have been

31:11

appalling one can imagine he's a loser

31:13

well yes a loser and the problem

31:15

he was gonna have in the next few months is raising

31:17

a new army all of these casualties

31:20

we've mentioned I mean we're talking probably 2,000

31:22

noblemen knights and

31:24

Esquires

31:26

including a staggering list

31:28

of senior noblemen I've mentioned

31:30

several already the Duke of Lorraine

31:33

I mean the list goes on and on

31:35

and on and these are the hubs in the recruiting

31:37

networks of all medieval polities

31:39

but in France they would find it very difficult

31:42

for some months to raise a new army fortunately

31:44

he's got the army that John of Normandy is bringing

31:47

up from Aquitaine as a

31:49

starting point and so by July 1347 he

31:51

is able to bring an army to

31:53

try at least

31:56

to relieve

31:58

the siege of Calais Well,

32:00

we're going before our horse to market. I'm still on

32:02

the battlefield. He's leaving the battlefield. And

32:05

so he goes, did the English pursue

32:07

him?

32:08

What happens? Do they just stand and

32:09

cheer? What happens? It's got dark and they don't pursue

32:11

him. And in any case, if he's gone towards Le Bois,

32:14

he's gone up the length of the valley, up

32:16

to the northeast. Most of the French army

32:18

is still there, probably

32:21

spread out around the countryside after dark. The

32:23

following day, further French

32:25

contingents appear, including, I mentioned him earlier,

32:28

the Duke of Lorraine. These are summarily

32:30

massacred by the English who come out and

32:33

catch them exposed.

32:35

And some chronicles said that more casualties

32:37

are inflicted on day two of the battle

32:39

than on the first day, certainly amongst

32:41

the common soldiers of France. Well, what about

32:44

the English casualties? Some say like 48. We're

32:46

in Agincourt territory here.

32:49

And I think we can never know the

32:51

exact number, but they're very, very low compared

32:54

with it. I mean, no leading

32:56

nobles really die on this occasion.

32:59

So it's such an asymmetrical battle.

33:02

But I think we've got to remember that

33:04

Edward could win the battle. That

33:06

didn't mean to say he'd won the war because a classic

33:09

problem in medieval times

33:11

was, if you were so badly defeated,

33:13

as Philip VI was, you weren't gonna

33:15

come to the negotiating table. So

33:18

Edward had to do something else.

33:20

And that's what's, I think, so fascinating.

33:23

He moves off pretty quickly because

33:25

by the 4th of September,

33:28

he is laying siege to Calais. Well,

33:31

just before we go to Calais, what reasons

33:33

do you give for the

33:35

English victory at such a

33:37

level on that battlefield?

33:40

I would blame the French, personally. I

33:43

mean, I know the English longbowmen are very

33:45

important and they fulfill Edward's

33:47

objective of fighting as much of the battle

33:49

as possible at a distance. But I think

33:51

essentially it is French folly. The

33:53

French could have withdrawn maybe earlier.

33:56

I suppose we could say that's courage, that persuades

33:59

them not to. the courage of Philip

34:01

himself. They should not have fought

34:04

on that day. They could have waited until

34:06

the following day and they could have thought

34:08

a little bit more about how they were going to face

34:11

the archers. But of course it's

34:13

an unknown quantity. They couldn't train against

34:16

arrow shot in that kind

34:18

of way. So it's a very interesting problem that

34:21

the French have got. What do you

34:23

think?

34:23

I think that Anne is right. But

34:25

in the way you can turn it around and say that Edward

34:27

had engineered a situation

34:30

where the French made a dreadful mistake

34:33

and Philip will always be held responsible

34:35

for it. This is a disorganised army. As

34:37

a French chronicle says, by hastiness

34:40

and disarray were they undone.

34:42

And I think that that's probably true. But

34:44

this is a situation that was engineered and

34:47

Edward had selected grounds

34:50

that exploited his tactical deployment

34:52

perfectly. In what way could Edward be

34:55

said to have been in charge of what was going on

34:57

after the battle commenced, as

34:59

it were? There's a lot of shouting and

35:01

yelling

35:01

and an awful lot of people. I think

35:03

he was. I think there's a

35:06

suggestion that he was up a windmill viewing

35:09

it. And I think also we must

35:11

remember that there was

35:13

a great discussion in advance between

35:15

him and his leading commanders. And

35:18

these English armies are well trained.

35:20

They've been together for a long time. That

35:22

march across Normandy is important.

35:24

So they've trusted each other. They all knew what

35:27

they needed to do

35:29

and shows off personal bravery

35:31

like that of the Black Prince really do stimulate

35:34

bravery in others. So

35:36

to come back, despite the fact that he had bodyguards

35:39

and so on, the 16 year old till

35:41

did show personal bravery. Yeah, he did. And

35:43

there's a lovely story where people come to

35:45

Edward and say your son is in danger.

35:48

And he says, oh, let him win his spurs. Now,

35:50

whether it's true or not, but I

35:52

suppose

35:52

we could say he's got other sons. I don't

35:54

think he was as careless as that. I think

35:56

that he knew that his son supported

35:59

by. his retinue would

36:02

win. There are a surprising number of heroic teenagers

36:04

over the course of the hundred years. What are there are in the

36:06

stage? You just have to go and do it. Well

36:09

with the consequences for Philip, so

36:11

he's lost and he's retreated and

36:14

then what? This is a

36:17

participatory warrior nobility

36:19

in France just as it is in England and

36:22

if you lose them on the battlefield you've lost the politicians

36:24

as well as and administrators

36:27

as well as the soldiers in your country,

36:29

the senior ones. So it's very difficult and it

36:31

takes him until the following summer to raise

36:33

an army. And then when he has the opportunity

36:36

to face Edward outside Calais

36:39

he decides not to. He doesn't dare

36:41

fight another battle. Is that smart? I

36:43

think it is on his part. I mean

36:45

I suppose we could say what would have happened after

36:48

that. Maybe they were all lucky

36:50

that the Black Death hit and their

36:52

war was suspended for a few years. But

36:54

that siege of Calais is remarkable.

36:56

It's one of the greatest sieges in history. So

36:59

let's just get it right for Paulistness. Edward,

37:01

instead of going for Paris, which you'd have seen in

37:03

inverted commas, obviously he swung around and

37:05

he made for Calais this great fortress port.

37:09

It's still rather, it is rather a mystery to many

37:11

people why he didn't push for the French crown

37:13

after such a victory at Crécy.

37:15

Well this raises questions about what he actually

37:17

wanted in the first place. Is he claiming

37:19

the French crown because

37:21

he actually thinks he's going to become King of France

37:24

or because he wants to use it as a bargaining

37:26

tool to ultimately

37:28

gain the concessions in Aquitaine

37:31

and his other lands? And

37:33

possibly a bit more if he can. And this has

37:35

been hugely debated among historians. And

37:38

it is worth noting that on occasions when

37:40

he is triumphant here and again

37:42

after the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 when

37:44

he captures the French King, we

37:47

at no point end up with a treaty

37:49

where he's saying, no you have to give me the French crown. It's always,

37:51

I will give up my claim to the French crown

37:54

if. So there are definite

37:57

indications that he might

37:58

be more interested in the French crown. he

38:01

might even have doubts whether he realistically

38:03

could become King of France. Could he even

38:06

be accepted? Could he hold the territory? Too

38:08

many questions but it's a great political

38:11

piece. It is indeed and

38:13

in 1356 he adopts the title Duke of Normandy

38:16

so maybe his ambitions are now extending

38:18

beyond Aquitaine but at the end

38:20

of the day

38:21

in 1360 in the treaty

38:23

he settles for a much bigger Aquitaine

38:26

and Ponture and Calais but to

38:28

be held in full sovereignty ie will never

38:30

pay homage again and we can see this

38:33

in the change of his title. He's being Duke

38:35

of Aquitaine he changes his title

38:37

to Lord of Aquitaine

38:39

paralleling the Lord of Ireland the

38:41

other title that he has and he creates

38:44

the black prince, Prince of Aquitaine

38:47

so clearly he thinks he's created

38:49

a new polity essentially

38:51

part of the English crown but

38:53

all those lands in France. Finally

38:56

do you think this battle set the

38:58

scene and set the method which

39:01

the battles between France and England were to

39:03

continue? I

39:04

think it did but I think the English

39:06

had no choice the English had an

39:08

archer-rich army all the time they didn't

39:10

have enough men at arms and therefore if they

39:12

were going to face the French with a large

39:15

enough force they had to recruit

39:17

archers. They'd already done it at Halladon

39:19

Hill against the Scots that's an archer-rich

39:22

army as well

39:23

but it is an amazing

39:25

weapon it's a kind of medieval

39:27

equivalent if you like of the machine gun because

39:30

it's causing so much damage at

39:32

a distance and also it's very

39:34

easy to get archers although

39:36

Edward started to panic a bit about that in

39:38

the 1360s and forced everybody

39:40

to practice on a Sunday with

39:43

the longbow but essentially it

39:45

was easy to recruit such people

39:47

when the king campaigns in person he

39:50

wants a big army he's got to have these

39:52

archers with him. Remember the half

39:54

a million

39:55

arrows at the beginning you can't be

39:57

too sort of extravagant in arrows

39:59

And yes, it's true

40:02

that you want to kill as many of your opponents

40:04

at a distance as possible. But you can't

40:06

waste too many. So there's going to be a lot of precision

40:09

aimed shooting at much closer

40:11

distances. We know that

40:14

before the Battle of Cressy, Edward had already asked

40:16

for more supplies of arrows. So he

40:18

was already running perhaps a bit low

40:21

before he'd even reached Combe, when he'd reached

40:23

Combe. At Cressy, we don't

40:25

know how many arrows he had, but

40:28

he needed to use them clinically. Take

40:30

out the Genoese crossbowmen first, and

40:33

then just allow the heavy cavalry to come

40:35

in and take them relatively

40:37

close.

40:38

We think that the archers were allocated 24

40:40

each. That was the basic allowance.

40:43

So they're not shooting them all the time.

40:45

They are controlled shooting. There are lessons

40:47

for the French as well in this that will shape

40:50

future battles. For instance, the disaster

40:52

at Pucci 10 years later, does the French

40:54

king get captured because the whole running

40:57

away from the field last time didn't look so good. King

41:00

John, the successor to Philip, founds

41:02

an order of chivalry based on the principle

41:04

we don't retreat from the field. That

41:07

goes very badly multiple times. So

41:09

there are not great lessons, but there are lessons. And

41:11

then the other lesson is, of course, they do quite

41:13

well when they don't fight. France is

41:15

a big kingdom. It's a

41:17

rich kingdom. It can, in many

41:19

ways, afford to wait the English out. So

41:22

a lot of the Hundred Years' Wars then spent hunkering

41:25

down, waging a war of attrition, which is

41:28

not fun for the French population. But

41:30

finally, in the 1440s, Charles VII

41:32

starts to develop his own lumboman

41:34

and make it that way he wins at the end. And we're

41:36

always taught at school early on in history

41:38

that the French are so rich they can always recover

41:41

in a year or two and come back again, compared with

41:43

English. OK, well,

41:45

thank you very much. Thank you, Andre Aiten, Anne

41:47

Curry and Erica Graham-Garing, and

41:49

to our Studio Engineer, Jackie Marjurum.

41:52

Next week, the pioneering 18th-century

41:54

Swedish botanist Karl Lörs, who

41:57

developed new systems for naming and classifying

41:59

speakers.

41:59

Thank you for listening.

42:02

And the In Our Time podcast gets some

42:04

extra time now with a few minutes of bonus

42:06

material from Melvin and his guests.

42:09

Thank you very much. Great. So

42:11

what would you like to have said you didn't say? I

42:14

have one thing actually, because, you

42:16

know, we think about the consequences sort of at the

42:19

heart of French

42:21

politics. We think about what does this do to Philip? What does

42:23

it do to the army? What does it do to politics in

42:25

Paris? But the impact of this, you

42:27

know, we have a battle where we're not taking

42:29

prisoners that no quarter has

42:32

been given on both sides. And so we wipe

42:34

out, you know, a generation of the French are structurally,

42:36

but they are the people who administer

42:38

the localities. They keep order

42:40

across the kingdom. They have

42:42

their own networks. A lot of the decisions

42:45

among the Normans, for instance, about whether they're going to

42:47

side with the English or side for the French have to do

42:49

with local rivalries and the

42:51

ties among them. The fact that you just

42:54

create chaos in these previously

42:57

established networks, I think the impact must

42:59

have been felt not just at the

43:01

centre. It's really going to be felt

43:03

a long ways away. I think that the losses

43:05

that the French sustained have never really been

43:07

fully researched, have they? They

43:10

really need to. They really do. It's a project that should

43:12

be undertaken. I do agree. I mean, actually,

43:15

the losses are much greater than they are at as I'm called in 1415.

43:18

Although we make much emphasis on

43:20

that, we can only really trace

43:23

definitely about 350 dead, possibly 500.

43:25

I think

43:26

there are many fewer. Agincourt

43:29

also is a much more regional battle.

43:32

It's drawing troops only from really

43:34

Normandy and Piketty, one or two additional

43:37

areas, but the French are in civil war at

43:39

the time and therefore they're not able to recruit

43:41

as nationally. And it's quite incredible

43:43

the distances some of the troops have come in. And

43:46

indeed from the Allies. I mean,

43:48

the Count of Savoy was on his way

43:50

and arrived too late and had to bypass

43:53

the battle and take control of Montroy

43:55

to the to the northeast.

43:56

You really can't understand the how it's

43:59

not France versus England.

43:59

and it's England and then the Kingdom

44:02

of France which is made up of it's a patchwork it

44:04

is all these pieces and the whole

44:06

story is about whether those pieces are getting

44:08

along. Plus alloys

44:10

like John King of Bohemia and

44:13

his contingent of 500 sort of Czech

44:15

and other Luxembourg and all sorts of other knights.

44:17

I

44:17

feel we should also just mention that he himself

44:20

the King of Bohemia is blind and he still fights

44:23

and they studied his skeleton and

44:25

he got into hand-to-hand combat

44:28

of being led by his men even though even though he was...

44:30

I

44:30

think the issue that there are

44:32

no or hardly any prisoners

44:35

taken in the French army is something that's

44:37

worth mentioning again comparing with Asancourt. And

44:39

Poitiers. And Poitiers particularly

44:41

ten years later where the King of France and a whole

44:43

host of French noblemen were taken prisoner

44:46

and we know about this because they've left a big imprint

44:48

in the records. They worth a lot of

44:51

money. It's

44:51

partly about honour and it's partly

44:55

about where you get really rich if you capture people. It's like winning

44:57

the lottery.

44:57

You can scour the

44:59

records after Kressley and find

45:01

practically nothing. I think one has

45:04

been found recently. A French

45:06

Esquire who claims to have been taken

45:08

prisoner and ransomed after the battle but

45:11

I know of no others but they're named.

45:14

And one or two of the chronicle has mentioned... Oh why is that

45:16

then? Ah well that's a really interesting question

45:18

is it? Is it about

45:20

the archery? Is it about the horses again?

45:22

I

45:22

think it's said that both

45:25

sides said no quarter.

45:27

It's rather like battles of the wars and the roses. They've raised the battle

45:29

standards, the French Aréflan and the

45:32

English standard. The dragon says no we're

45:34

going to go all out. And it's

45:36

partly a disciplinary thing because

45:38

if the knights are busy trying to turn a profit

45:42

it becomes much more individualized. So

45:44

to suppress that can be about keeping

45:47

some order. At least this argument has been

45:49

made. I wonder if the cavalry

45:51

charge makes a difference as well

45:52

because of course the Dajjung court they're fighting on

45:55

foot and at Watier largely

45:57

on foot as well and whether they're

45:59

more likely to be... killer, as Andrew said,

46:01

by their horses, you know, that it's a much

46:03

more dangerous thing to do

46:06

because you've got lots of horses sort of rider-less

46:09

and it's just absolutely chaotic.

46:11

You can't actually get through to the English

46:13

men-at-arms to start fighting with them. What

46:16

I find really striking though is the results

46:18

of this. We have descriptions from

46:20

the heralds who have to go around and identify

46:23

all the bodies afterwards and they're clearly quite

46:25

traumatised by it. You know, it's harrowing

46:27

trying to find these bodies that have been

46:29

hacked apart trying to identify these symbols

46:32

of the heraldry that have been destroyed

46:35

and so they actually get it quite wrong who's

46:37

died. I think Edward sends a report

46:39

that's a 50% wrong in terms

46:41

of the names he says have died. Some of it's optimism

46:44

but some of it's just, well,

46:45

there's a lot of misinformation because the

46:47

result of not taking prisoners is

46:49

a really exceptional level

46:52

of carnage. This is not the norm

46:53

for medieval warfare. I

46:55

was gonna say something about the resource

46:58

disparity of England and France which makes

47:00

it even more extraordinary that

47:03

this was achieved within ten years of the war, a third

47:05

of the population, a much smaller economy,

47:07

but it's a kingdom England that's more tightly

47:10

administered and they have certain

47:12

advantages, taxation systems that are

47:14

more national and more controlled

47:17

from the centre. They also of course have

47:19

sheep because

47:21

you could argue that

47:23

the battle of Cressy would

47:26

have won on the backs of 10 million

47:30

sheep in England and Wales because the

47:32

world trade which eventually goes through

47:34

Calais, that's another reason why capturing

47:36

Calais is rather good, it's a hub for

47:39

the world trade, yielded

47:42

at least half of the

47:44

tax revenues per year. But it's

47:46

also what won the Flemish over in 1340 when

47:49

Edward was accepted by the

47:51

people of Ghent, Brugénie

47:53

as King of France. We

47:56

have the document there, the trade

47:58

treaty if you like, and they were going to be

47:59

to be given a kind of 100% content

48:02

or access to that world

48:05

trade from England. So all within basic practice

48:07

here, but France was three times bigger than

48:09

three times greater population. Yeah,

48:12

and proportionately richer. Yes,

48:15

it must be, you know, except that the English

48:17

Crown at this point had better access

48:20

to its wealth via taxation. But

48:22

also

48:22

it's 100 years more because it takes

48:25

the French government apparatus a

48:28

long time to ramp up to really be getting efficiency

48:31

out of what it does have. I think it's also thought that

48:33

the English were able to borrow money more

48:35

easily. And you know, you need

48:38

a cash flow because your armies have got

48:40

to be

48:42

paid quite a lot of money, you know, given in advance and

48:44

that kind of thing. So if you've got access to

48:46

good financial arrangements, the French

48:48

are slower because they think they don't need it. Also,

48:51

there's always

48:51

an advantage with the aggressor. The

48:54

aggressor attacks, the French can't really

48:56

do much. They can't raise men, they can't raise

48:58

taxes

48:59

until the English are actually in the country.

49:02

So they start off really. That's

49:04

actually a principle of the time is that you're only

49:06

allowed to raise taxes when there is an immediate

49:09

cause. So you have to wait for the war to

49:11

arrive. And then you can't necessarily convince the places

49:13

that aren't currently being invaded to help

49:15

pay taxes to defend the rest of it. It doesn't

49:17

have this idea that sending resources

49:20

to the centre is in their best interest. So it's a

49:22

lot of PR. I think Cressie

49:25

would be more famous than

49:26

Adjutant Court had Shakespeare written

49:28

a better play about it. Henry V is so

49:30

much better than Edward III,

49:33

where they're very confused as to what the

49:35

battle is and who is there.

49:37

Well, thank you very much. That's great. I

49:40

think the producer is going to come and ask you a leading

49:42

question. Oh, dear. Like

49:44

a cup of tea? Oh, yes. Herbal tea, please.

49:47

Ordinary tea. I'll

49:50

go on the ordinary tea. Just

49:53

tea with milk.

49:54

From BBC Radio 4, this

49:57

is Breaking Mississippi, the

49:59

explosive. inside story of one

50:01

man's war against racial segregation

50:03

in 1960s America. I

50:06

knew the state of Mississippi

50:08

was stopping nothing, including

50:11

killing me. James Meredith's

50:13

mission to become the first black student

50:15

at the University of Mississippi triggers

50:18

what's been

50:18

described as the last battle of

50:20

the American Civil War. It's

50:22

a fight that draws in the KKK and

50:25

even President Kennedy himself. Can

50:27

you maintain

50:28

this order? Well, I don't know. That's

50:30

what I'm worried about. And

50:31

we must fight! I

50:34

thought, wow, this could be it. This could be the beginning

50:36

of World War III. Now aged 89, James

50:39

Meredith tells his story. I'm

50:42

public radio journalist Jen White,

50:44

and this is Breaking Mississippi.

50:46

Available now on BBC

50:49

Sounds.