Crecy, began
after three o'clock in the afternoon, and continued till evening. The
next morning was foggy; and as the English observed that many of the
enemy had lost their way in the night and in the mist, they employed a
stratagem to bring them into their power: they erected on the eminences
some French standards which they had taken in the battle, and all who
were allured by this false signal were put to the sword, and no quarter
given them. In excuse for this inhumanity, it was alleged that the
French king had given like orders to his troops; but the real reason
probably was, that the English, in their present situation, did not
choose to be encumbered with prisoners. On the day of battle, and on the
ensuing, there fell, by a moderate computation, one thousand two hundred
French knights, one thousand four hundred gentlemen, four thousand men
at arms, besides about thirty thousand of inferior rank:[**] many of
the principal nobility of France, the dukes of Lorraine and Bourbon, the
earls of Flanders, Blois, Vaudemont, Aumale, were left on the field of
battle. The kings also of Bohemia and Majorca were slain: the fate of
the former was remarkable: he was blind from age; but being resolved to
hazard his person, and set an example to others, he ordered the reins of
his bridle to be tied on each side to the horses of two gentlemen of his
train; and his dead body, and those of his attendants, were afterwards
found among the slain, with their horses standing by them in that
situation.[***] His crest was three ostrich feathers; and his motto
these German words, Ich dien,--"I serve;" which the prince of Wales and
his successors adopted in memorial of this great victory. The action
may seem no less remarkable for the small loss sustained by the English,
than for the great slaughter of the French: there were killed in it only
one esquire and three knights,[****] and very few of inferior rank; a
demonstration that the prudent disposition planned by Edward, and the
disorderly attack made by the French, had rendered the whole rather a
rout than a battle, which was indeed the common case with engagements in
those times.

* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 131.

** Froissard, liv. i. chap. 131. Knyghton, p. 2588.

*** Froissard, liv. i. chap. 130. Walsing. p. 166.

**** Knyghton, p. 2588.

The great prudence of Edward appeared not only in obtaining this
memorable victory, but in the measures which he pursued after