Hi my name's Kevin Hicks welcome to my YouTube channel
the History Squad. Now today's video is number nine in our hundred years war series but
in fact what I’m doing is I’m going back. This is the battle of Morlaix, 30th of September 1342.
It's more associated with the civil war, the Wars of the Breton Succession. So the Wars of
the Breton Succession, a civil war lasting 26 years. It all kicked off when John the third,
Duke of Brittany died without an heir but he left behind his half brother John de Montfort, and his
niece Joan yeah, Duchess of Brittany so I let them have their little civil war except for one problem
Joan she's married to Charles blower who is the nephew of Philip VI of France, now we have the
French that are an outside influence. This civil war is gonna really become something, but John de
Montfort is captured and the fight is taken up by his wife Jean, who is then supported surprisingly
by Edward III, king of England. Now there's already a small force of English
helping the Bretons fight but they are now reinforced by the Earl of Northampton,
Billy. No other than William du Bohun. Now we can get to the battle of Morlaix. What a fight.
Battle of Morlaix 30th of September 1342. Earl of Northampton is laying siege to the fortified
town of Morlaix, but he gets intelligence that there is a large French army under Charles Blois
coming his way, he doesn't want to be trapped between Morlaix and the French army, so he doesn't
abandon the siege, he leaves some troops behind and then he comes down the Morlaix to Lanmeur
road, it runs through a forest and he sets his army up on the ridge just in front of the forest.
At the center he has his men at arms and his knights and on the wings his bowman who seem
to extend out into the battlefield. This is the beginning of this English system using their
bowmen on the flanks, but the English position the English/Breton position. Don't forget this isn't
just English this is the Breton as well, they've got their baggage train actually in the woods,
so there will be arrows and supplies further in the woods.
They've also dug ditches in front of their position. Now they've learned this from the Scots.
Eye, the canny Scots, um Bannockburn I think it was, when they dug the ditches and the English
cavalry, or should I say the Norman cavalry, were defeated. So they've now set a kind of a trap,
so what happens next is the French according to some sources send in their infantry,
mainly local levies they'll be poorly armed but I understand there were Genoese crossbowmen,
but as they come up this steep slope and then come into view
they are literally cut to pieces by the bowmen and they cannot take this punishment, so they withdraw
back from the battlefield, and what happens now is the whole battle pauses just for a moment.
So what's happened is there's a break in the battle. Charles Blois and Charles de Charny,
he's the commander, are having a parlais, discussing ‘what should
we do next’. They now know the bowmen are up there so what happens is uh de Charny
leads a full-on cavalry attack so I’m going to position the pieces and let's see what happens.
So the second phase of the battle, it's incredible. I must mention this,
the French numbers could have been as high as fifteen thousand troops, the English less than
two thousand. Now as de Charny’s charge, his mounted cavalry charge, plunge up the hill,
they don't know about the ditches, the trenches, the pits, call them what you like, that have been
covered over and horses go crashing into them, and it must have been horrendous. Legs snapping,
screaming horses and men and then the others piling into the back of them meanwhile the
bowmen really close range pouring those arrows into these poor beasts. Meanwhile to Charny with
approximately 200 of these knights and men at arms punch through the center of the English men at
arms, or were they allowed through? Because what happens is most of them are fetched down off
their horses by the men at arms and de Charny himself is actually captured. It must ¬¬have
been slaughter as the arrows are pouring in from either side and then the men at arms weighed in.
They move forward to finish off anybody who's been knocked off their horses but there's
a problem here the Earl of Northampton knows that these bowmen are running short of arrows
and the French have a second wave of cavalry ready to charge. What happens next is a brilliant
Maneuver. So the final part of the battle of Morlaix, and it's a master stroke. The Earl of
Northampton, Billy to his mates, knows that his bowmen are running short of arrows. He knows that
the French have another division of cavalry, and we're talking thousands here who could charge up
that hill on their horses. They now know where the ditches are which have been filled in with
the dead, so the Earl of Northampton withdraws his force into the woods. His bowman now hiding
amongst the trees. Inside the woods is his baggage train, his supplies, more arrows.
So the French charge and all they can do is scout around the outside of the forest they daren’t and
get too close because they'll be fetched down by the arrows of the bowmen. Now there are different
uh conflicting accounts of what happens, now the French lay siege to the woods, the French went
home. Basically what happens is the main French army leaves. The English army, they can continue
their siege of Morlaix, which I understand fails but 50 French knights, this is French knights are
dead and 150 of them are captured. We do not know the full casualties of the French army because
they didn't count the poor infantry. The English are said to have lost less than a hundred men.
To me this is wow. The Earl of Northampton, using his head, using his initiative and this
is repeated over and over again as we go through the Hundred Years War, until the final phase
when the French begin to use their initiative. But hey that's for another day.
Well I hope you enjoyed our little film here and the model, if you did like,
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and Patrick Mourin, thank you very much guys. And to all of you thanks a million. Bye for now.