ard,
Prince of Wales, was to be the great star of this French and English war.

It was in the month of July, in the year one thousand three hundred and
forty-six, when the King embarked at Southampton for France, with an army
of about thirty thousand men in all, attended by the Prince of Wales and
by several of the chief nobles. He landed at La Hogue in Normandy; and,
burning and destroying as he went, according to custom, advanced up the
left bank of the River Seine, and fired the small towns even close to
Paris; but, being watched from the right bank of the river by the French
King and all his army, it came to this at last, that Edward found
himself, on Saturday the twenty-sixth of August, one thousand three
hundred and forty-six, on a rising ground behind the little French
village of Crecy, face to face with the French King's force. And,
although the French King had an enormous army--in number more than eight
times his--he there resolved to beat him or be beaten.

The young Prince, assisted by the Earl of Oxford and the Earl of Warwick,
led the first division of the English army; two other great Earls led the
second; and the King, the third. When the morning dawned, the King
received the sacrament, and heard prayers, and then, mounted on horseback
with a white wand in his hand, rode from company to company, and rank to
rank, cheering and encouraging both officers and men. Then the whole
army breakfasted, each man sitting on the ground where he had stood; and
then they remained quietly on the ground with their weapons ready.

Up came the French King with all his great force. It was dark and angry
weather; there was an eclipse of the sun; there was a thunder-storm,
accompanied with tremendous rain; the frightened birds flew screaming
above the soldiers' heads. A certain captain in the French army advised
the French King, who was by no means cheerful, not to begin the battle
until the morrow. The King, taking this advice, gave the word to halt.
But, those behind not understanding it, or desiring to be foremost with
the rest, came pressing on. The roads for a great distance were covered
with this immense army, and with the common people from the villages, who
were flourishing their rude weapons, and making a great noise. Owing to
these circumstances, the French army advanced in the greatest confusion;
every French lord doing what he liked with his own men, and putting out
the men of every other French lord.