of the encounter was called Maupertuis, which is generally identified
with a farm now called La Cardinerie, some six miles south-east of
Poitiers, and a little distance to the north of the Benedictine abbey
of Nouaille. The abbey formed the southern limit of the field. On the
west the place of combat was skirted by the little river Miausson,
which winds its way through marshes in a deep-cut valley, girt by
wooded hills. The French left their horses at Poitiers, having
resolved, perhaps on the advice of a Scottish knight, Sir William
Douglas, to fight on foot, after the English and Scottish fashion, and
as they had already fought at Mauron and elsewhere. As at Mauron, a
small band of cavalry was retained, both for the preliminary
skirmishing which then usually heralded a battle, and in the hope of
riding down some of the archers. But the French did not fully
understand the English tactics, and took no care to combine men-at-arms
with archers or crossbowmen, though these were less important against
an army weak in archers and largely consisting of Gascons. Of the four
"battles" the first, under the Marshals Audrehem and Clermont, included
the little cavalry contingent; the second was under Charles, Duke of
Normandy, a youth of nineteen; the third under the Duke of Orleans, the
king's brother; and the rear was commanded by the king.

The English army spent the night before the battle beyond the Miausson,
but in the morning the prince, fearing an ambuscade behind the hill of
Nouaille on the east bank, abandoned his original position and crossed
the stream in order to occupy it. He divided his forces into three
"battles," led respectively by himself, Warwick, and William Montague,
since 1343 by his father's death Earl of Salisbury. Though he found no
enemy there, he remained with his "battle" on the hill, because it
commanded the slopes to the north over on which the French were now
advancing. His remote position threw the brunt of the fighting upon the
divisions of Warwick and Salisbury. They were stationed side by side in
advance of him on ground lower than that held by him, but higher than
that of the enemy, and beset with bushes and vineyards which sloped
down on the left towards the marshes of the Miausson. Some distance in
front of their position, a long hedge and ditch divided the upland, on
which the "battles" of Warwick and Salisbury were stationed, from the
fields in which the French were arrayed. At its upper end,