THE TERRAIN
The defensive position taken up by Edward, the Black Prince, upon Sunday
the 18th of September 1356, and used by him in the decisive action of the
following day, is composed of very simple elements; which are essentially
a shallow dip (about thirty feet only in depth), bounded by two slight
parallel slopes, the one of which the Anglo-Gascon force held against the
advance of the King of France's cosmopolitan troops from the other.
We can include all the business of that Monday's battle in a parallelogram
lying true to the points of the compass, and measuring three miles and six
furlongs from north to south, by exactly two and a half miles from east to
west; while the actual fighting is confined to an inner parallelogram no
more than two thousand yards from east to west, by three thousand from
north to south. The first of these areas is that given upon the coloured
map which forms the frontispiece of this little book. The second is marked
by a black frame within that coloured map, the main features of which are
reproduced in line upon a larger scale on the page opposite this.
I have said that the essentials of the Black Prince's defensive plan were:
(1) A prepared defensive position, which it might or might not be
necessary to hold, coupled with
(2) an obstacle, the Miosson River, which (when he should retreat) he
could count upon to check pursuit; especially as its little valley was
(_a_) fairly deeply cut, (_b_) encumbered by wood, and (_c_) passable for
troops only at the bridge of Nouaille, which he was free to cut when it
had served him, and at a somewhat hidden ford which I will later describe.
I must here interpose the comment that the bridge of Nouaille, being of
stone, would not have been destroyable during a very active and pressed
retreat under the conditions of those times; that is, without the use of
high explosives. But it must be remembered that such a narrow passage
would in any case check the pursuit, that half an hour's work would
suffice to make a breach in the roadway, and perhaps to get rid of the
keystones, that a few planks thrown over the gap so formed would be enough
to permit archers defending the rear to cross over, that these planks
could then be immediately withdrawn, and that the crush of a hurried
pursuit, which would certainly be of heavily armed and mounted knights,
would be badly stopped by a gap of the kind. I therefore take it for
granted that the bridge of Nouaille was a capital point in Edward's
plan.[3]
[Illustration]
The line along which the Black Prince threw up entrenchments was the head
of the slight slope upon the Nouaille or eastern side of the depression I
have mentioned. It ran from the farm Maupertuis (now called La Cardinerie)
to the site of those out-buildings which surround the modern steadings of
Les Bordes, and to-day bear the name of La Dolerie. The length of that
line was, almost to a foot, one thousand English yards, and it will easily
be perceived that even with his small force only a portion of his men were
necessary to hold it. Its strength and weakness I shall discuss in a
moment. This line faces not quite due west, indeed nearly twenty degrees
north of west.[4] Its distance as the crow flies from the Watergate of
Poitiers is just under seven kilometres, or, as nearly as possible, four
miles and six hundred and fifty English yards.[5] While its bearings from
the town of Poitiers, or the central part thereof, is a trifle south of
due south-east.[6]
The line thus taken up, and the depression in front of it, are both
singularly straight, and the slope before the entrenchments, like its
counterpart opposite, is regular, increasing in depth as the depression
proceeds down towards the Miosson, which, at this point, makes a bend
upward to meet, as it were, the little valley. A trifle to the south of
the centre of the line there is a break in the uniformity of the ridge,
which comes in the shape of a little dip now occupied by some tile-works;
and on the further, or French, side a corresponding and rather larger
cleft faces it; so that the whole depression has the shape of a long cross
with short arms rather nearer its base than its summit. Just at the end
of the depression, before the ground sinks abruptly down to the river, the
soil is marshy.
Leading towards this position from Poitiers there was and is but one road,
a winding country lane, now in good repair, but until modern times of a
poor surface, and never forming one of the great high roads. The
importance of this unique road will be seen in a moment.
There had once existed, five hundred yards from the right of the Black
Prince's entrenched line, a Roman road, the traces of which can still be
discovered at various parts of its course, but which, even by the time of
Poitiers, had disappeared as a passable way. The only approach remaining,
as I have said, was that irregular lane which formed the connection
between Poitiers and Nouaille.
Now in most terrains where feudal cavalry was concerned, the existence or
non-existence of a road, and its character, would be of little moment in
the immediate neighbourhood of the action: for though a feudal army
depended (as all armies always must) upon roads for its _strategics_, it
was almost independent of them in its _tactics_ upon those open fields
which were characteristic of mediaeval agriculture. The mounted and
armoured men deployed and charged across the stubble. Those who have read
the essay upon the Terrain of Crecy, which preceded this in the present
series, will appreciate that the absence of a road uniting the English and
French positions in that battle was of no significance to the result.
But in the particular case of Poitiers this road, and a certain cart-track
leading off it, must be carefully noted, because between them they
determine all that happened; and the reason of this is that the front of
the English position was covered with _vines_.
The French method of cultivating the vine, and the condition of that
cultivation in the middle of September (in all but a quite exceptionally
early year so far north as Poitou), makes of a vineyard the most complete
natural obstacle conceivable against the use of cavalry, and at the same
time a most formidable entanglement to the advance of infantry, and a
tolerable cover for missile weapons at short range.
The vine is cultivated in France upon short stakes of varying height with
varying districts, but usually in this neighbourhood somewhat over four
feet above the ground; that is, covering most of a man's figure, even as
he would stand to arms with a long-bow, yet affording space above for the
discharge of the weapon. These stakes are set at such distances apart as
allow ordered and careful movement between them, but close enough together
to break and interfere with a pressed advance: their distances being
determined by the fulness of the plant before the grapes are gathered, a
harvest which falls in that region somewhat later than the date of the
action.
Wherever a belt of vineyard is found, cultivated after this fashion, the
public ways through it are the only opportunities for advance; for land is
so valuable under the grape that various allotments or properties are
cultivated to their outermost limit. The vineyards (which have now
disappeared, but which then stood upon the battlefield) could only be
pierced by the roads I have mentioned.[7]
This line, then, already well protected by the vineyards, was further
strengthened by the presence of a hedge which bounded them and ran along
their eastern edge upon the flat land above the depression.
I have mentioned a cart-track, which branched off on the main lane, and
which is marked upon my map with the letters "A-A." It formed, alongside
with the lane, a second approach through the English line, and it must be
noticed that, like the main lane, a portion of it, where it breasted the
slope, was sunk in those times below the level of the land on either side.
The first thought that will strike the modern student of such a position
is that a larger force, such as the one commanded by the King of France,
should have been able easily to turn the defensive upon its right.
Now, first, a feudal army rarely manoeuvred. For that matter, the
situation was such that if John had avoided a fight altogether, and had
merely marched down the great south-western road to block Prince Edward's
retreat, the move would have had a more complete effect than winning a
pitched battle. The reader has also heard how the Black Prince's sense of
his peril was such that he had been prepared to treat upon any but the
most shameful terms. It is evident, therefore, that if the French fought
at all it was because they wanted to fight, and that they approached the
conflict in the spirit (which was that of all their time) disdainful of
manoeuvring and bound in honour to a frontal attack. A modern force as
superior in numbers as was John's to the Black Prince's would have "held"
the front of the defensive with one portion of its effectives, while
another portion marched round that defensive's right flank. But it is
impossible to establish a comparison between developed tactics and the
absolutely simple plan of feudal warfare. It is equally impossible to
compare a modern force with a feudal force of that date. It had not the
unity of command and the elasticity of organisation which are necessary to
divided and synchronous action. It had no method of attack but to push
forward successive bodies of men in the hope that the weight of the column
would tell.
Secondly, Edward defended that right flank from attack by establishing
there his park of waggons.
None the less, the Black Prince could not fail to see the obvious danger
of the open right upon the plateau beyond the Roman road; even in the
absence of any manoeuvring, the mere superior length of the French line
might suffice to envelop him there. It was presumably upon this account
that he stationed a small body of horse upon that slightly higher piece
of land, five hundred yards behind Maupertuis and a little to the right of
it, which is now the site of the railway station; and this mounted force
which he kept in reserve was to prove an excellent point of observation
during the battle. It was the view over towards the French position
obtained from it which led, as will be seen in the next section, to the
flank charge of the Captal de Buch.
There remains to be considered such environments of the position as would
affect the results of the battle. I have already spoken of the obstacle of
the Miosson, of Nouaille, of the passages of the river, and of the woods
which would further check a pursuit if the pressure following upon a
partial defeat, or upon a determination to retire without accepting
action, should prove serious. I must now speak of these in a little more
detail.
The depression, which was the main feature of the battlefield, is carved
like its fellows out of a general and very level plateau of a height some
four hundred to four hundred and fifty feet above the sea. This formation
is so even that all the higher rolls of the land are within ten or twenty
feet of the same height. They are, further, about one hundred feet, or a
little more, higher than the water level of the local streams. This
tableland, and particularly the ravine of the Miosson, nourishes a number
of woods. One such wood, not more than a mile long by perhaps a quarter
broad, covers Nouaille, and intervenes between that town and the
battlefield. On the other side of the Miosson there is a continuous belt
of wood five miles long, with only one gap through it, which gap is used
by the road leading from Nouaille to Roches and to the great south-western
road to Bordeaux.
In other words, the Black Prince had prepared his position just in front
of a screen of further defensible woodland.
I have mentioned one last element in the tactical situation of which I
have spoken, and which needs careful consideration.
Over and above the passage of the Miosson by a regular bridge and a proper
road at Nouaille, the water is fordable in ordinary weather at a spot
corresponding to the gap between the woods, and called "Man's Ford" or "Le
Gue d'Homme." Now, of the several accounts of the action, one, the Latin
chronicler Baker, mentions the ford, while another, the rhymed French
story of the _Chandos Herald_, speaks of Edward's having begun to retire,
and of part of his forces having already crossed the river before contact
took place. I will deal later with this version; but in connection with
the ford and whether Edward either did or intended to cross by it, it is
worthy of remark that the only suggestion of his actually having crossed
it, and of his intention to do so in any case, is to be found in the
rhymed chronicle of the _Chandos Herald_; and the question arises--what
reliance should be placed on that document?
It is evident on the face of it that the detail of the retreat was not
invented. Everyone is agreed that the rhymed chronicle of the _Chandos
Herald_ does not carry the same authority as prose contemporary work. It
is not meant to. It is a literary effort rather than a record. But there
would be no reason for inventing such a point as the beginning of a
retreat before an action--not a very glorious or dramatic proceeding--and
the mere mention of such a local feature as the ford in Baker is clear
proof that what we can put together from the two accounts is based upon an
historical event and the memory of witnesses.
On the other hand, the road proper ran through Nouaille, and when you are
cumbered with a number of heavy-wheeled vehicles, to avoid a road and a
regular bridge and to take a bye-track across fields down a steep bank
and through water would seem a very singular proceeding. Further, this
track would lose all the advantages which the wood of Nouaille gave
against pursuit, and, finally, would mean the use of a passage that could
not be cut, rather than one that could.
Again, we know that the Black Prince when he was preparing the position on
Sunday morning, covered its left flank, exactly as his father had done at
Crecy ten years before, with what the Tudors called a "leaguer," or park
of waggons.
Further, we have a discrepancy between the story of this retreat by the
ford and the known order of battle arranged the day before. In that order
of battle he put in the first line, just behind his archers, who lined the
hedge bounding the vineyards, a group of men-at-arms under Warwick and
Oxford. He himself commanded the body just behind these, and the third or
rearmost line was under the command of Salisbury and Suffolk.
How are these contemporary and yet contradictory accounts to be
reconciled? What was the real meaning of movement on the ford?
I beg the reader to pay a very particular attention to the mechanical
detail which I am here examining, because it is by criticism such as this
that the truth is established in military history between vague and
apparently inconsistent accounts.
If you are in command of a force such as that indicated upon the following
plan, in which A and B together form your front line, C your second, and D
your third, all three facing in the direction of the arrow, and expecting
an attack from that direction; and if, after having drawn up your men so,
you decide there is to be no attack, and determine to retreat in the
direction of X, your most natural plan will be to file off down the line
towards X, first with your column D, to be followed by your column C, with
A and B bringing up the rear. And this would be all the more consonant
with your position, from the fact that the very men A and B, whom you had
picked out as best suited to take the first shock of an action, had an
action occurred, would also in the retreat form your rearguard, and be
ready to fight pursuers should a pursuit develop and press you. That is
quite clear.
[Illustration]
Now, if, for reasons of internal organisation or what not, you desired to
keep your vanguard still your vanguard in retreat, as it was on the field,
your middle body still your middle body on the march, and what was your
rearguard on the field still your rearguard in the long column whereby you
would leave that field, the manoeuvre by which you would maintain this
order would be filing off by the left; that is, ordering A to form fours
and turn from a line into a column, facing towards the point E, and,
having done so, to march off in the direction of X. You would order B to
act in the same fashion next. When A and B had got clear of you and had
reached, say, F, you would make C form fours and follow after; and when C
had marched away so far as to leave things clear for D, the last remaining
line, you would make D in its turn form fours and close up the column.
Now, suppose the Black Prince had been certain on that Monday morning that
there would be no attack, nor even any pursuit. Suppose that he were so
absolutely certain as to let him dispense with a rearguard--then he might
have drawn off in the second of the two fashions I have mentioned. Warwick
and Oxford (A and B) would have gone first, C (the Black Prince, in the
centre) would have gone next, and Salisbury, D, would have closed the line
of the retreat. This would have been the slowest method he could have
chosen for getting off the field, it would have had no local tactical
advantage whatsoever, and to adopt such a method in a hurried departure at
dawn from the neighbourhood of a larger force with whom one had been
treating for capitulation the day before, would be a singular waste of
time in any case. But, at any rate, it would be physically possible.
What is quite impossible is that such a conversion and retirement should
have been attempted; for we know that a strong rearguard was left, and
held the entrenchments continuously.
To leave the field in the second fashion I have described is
mathematically equivalent to breaking up your rearguard and ceasing to
maintain it for the covering of your retreat. It is possible only if you
do not intend to have a rearguard at all to cover your retirement, because
you think you do not need it. As a fact, we know that all during the
movement, whatever it was, a great body of troops remained on the field
not moving, and watching the direction from which the French might attack.
So even if there was a beginning of retirement, a strong rearguard was
maintained to cover that movement. We further know that the Black Prince
and the man who may be called chief of his staff, Chandos, planned to keep
that very strong force in position in any case, until the retirement (if
retirement it were) was completed; and we further know that the fight
began with a very stout and completely successful resistance by what must
have been a large body posted along the ridge, and what even the one
account which speaks of the retirement describes as the bulk of the army.
To believe, then, that Warwick filed off by the left, followed by the
vehicles, and then by the main command under the Prince, and that all this
larger part of the army, including its wheeled vehicles, had got across
the ford before contact took place and an action developed, is impossible.
It is not only opposed to any sound judgment, it is mathematically
impossible. It also conflicts with the use of a park of vehicles to defend
the left of the entrenched line, and with the natural use of the line of
retreat by Nouaille. I can only conclude that what really happened was
something of this sort:
Edward intended to retreat if he were left unmolested. He intended to
retreat through Nouaille and by its bridge, but for safety and to
disencumber the road he sent the more valuable of the loot-waggons by the
short cut over the ford.
The Prince had got the bulk of his force standing on the entrenched
position upon that Monday morning, and bidden it wait and see whether the
enemy would attempt to force them or no. As there was no sign of the
enemy's approach from the northwest, and as he was not even watched by any
scout of the enemy's, he next put Salisbury in command of the main force
along the hedge, put Warwick and Oxford at the head of a strong escort for
leading off the more valuable of the booty--which would presumably be in
few waggons--and began to get these waggons away down the hill towards
the ford. They would thus be taking a short cut to join the road between
Nouaille and Roches later on, and they would relieve the congestion upon
the main road of retreat through Nouaille. It is possible that the Black
Prince oversaw this operation himself upon the dawn of that day,
involving, as it did, the negotiation of a steep bank with cumbersome
vehicles, and those vehicles carrying the more precious and portable loot
of his raid. This would give rise to the memory of his having crossed the
stream. But, meanwhile, the mass of army was still standing where it was
posted, prepared for retreat on the bridge of Nouaille if it were not
molested, or for action if it were. Just as this minor detachment of the
more valuable vehicles, with its escort, had got across the water,
messengers told Edward that there were signs of a French advance. He at
once came back, countermanded all provisional orders for the retirement,
and recalled the escort, save perhaps some small party to watch the
waggons which had got beyond the river. Thus, returning immediately,
Edward was ready to instruct and fight the action in the fashion described
in all the other accounts.
This, I think, is the rational reconciliation of several stories which are
only in apparent contradiction, and which are rather confusing than
antagonistic.