eval
warfare gave to the mounted knight the glory of battle, but, as I shall
have occasion to remark in the sequel, the great feature of Crecy was the
presence of an ordered, highly trained infantry, expected to await, and
capable of awaiting, a rush of horse until that cavalry should receive at,
say, fifty to eighty yards the whole weight of a furious and sustained
discharge of missiles. Beyond the Archers, some 3000 in number at this
point, were 1200 mounted knights, who, together with the Archers at the
centre, were under the command of Northampton.

There may have been a certain number of Archers to the left again of these
knights, but, at any rate, Northampton's command covered the rest of the
ridge and reposed upon Wadicourt. Here, lest it should be turned, the left
flank of the English line was protected by a park of wagons drawn up close
together, vehicles taken from such of the train as had been saved from the
French attack upon the rearguard at the ford two days before.

The remainder of the wagons, provisions, and impedimenta were drawn up in
the rear near the wood, and in front of them and between them and the
defensive line upon the ridge was a strong reserve of over 10,000 men
under Edward himself. Taking no account of non-combatants, we must reckon
Archers, armoured men and spear-men together at perhaps 25,000 men, and
certainly not more than 30,000; but we must remember, as I said upon a
former page, that every Archer was served by aides, that a man-at-arms
needed a squire, and that drivers and domestics of various kinds, and many
recruits from Normandy, swelled the host.

The large force against which this defensive was drawn up has been
variously estimated. Its dispersion over the countryside, the lack of any
cohesive command, the absence of all precise figures, the considerable
bodies of wholly untrained country folk who were straggling up behind the
army, make an estimate of the actual forces engaged on the French side
extremely difficult. We do not know how many Germans, Luxemburgians, and
others had been brought up with the feudal levy. The rough guess of
contemporaries at the whole numbers present and arriving during this
confused marshalling of Philip's host, calls it 100,000. A recent and very
careful English authority has estimated the enemy actually in line at
60,000. If we say that Edward met forces more than double his own, but not
three times his own, we are as near the truth as we can hop