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quarrel, I have the king my father and brethren, and also ye have good friends and kinsmen; these shall revenge us. Therefore, sirs, for God’s sake I require you do your duty this day; for if God be pleased and Saint George, this day you shall see me a good knight.’
Then the battle began and the battles of the marshals of France approached, and they sent forth those who were appointed to break the array of the archers. They entered on horseback into the gaps where the great hedges were full of archers on both sides. As soon as the men at arms entered, the archers began to shoot on both sides and did kill and wound horses and knights, so that the horses would not go forward when they felt the sharp arrows, but drew back and many of them fell on their masters, so that for press they could not rise again; which meant that the marshals’ battle could never come at the prince. The battle of the marshals fell into disorder because of the archers with the aid of the men at arms, who came among them and killed them.
So within a short space the marshals’ battles were discomfited, for they fell one upon another and could not go forward; and the Frenchmen that were behind recoiled back and came on the battle of the duke of Normandy, which was large and on foot. The archers gave their army great advantage that day because they shot so fast that the Frenchmen did not know on what side to take guard, and little by little the Englishmen won ground on them.
And when the men at arms of England saw that the marshals’ battle was discomfited and that the duke’s battle began to fall into disorder, they leapt then on their horses, which they had ready, and they assembled and cried, ‘Saint George! Guyenne!’ The prince said, ‘Let us go forth; ye shall not see me this turn back today,’ and said, ‘Advance the banner, in the name of God and of Saint George.’ There was then a fierce and dangerous battle, with many a man slain and cast to the earth. As the Frenchmen fought they cried, ‘Mountjoy! Saint Denis!’ and the Englishmen, ‘Saint George! Guyenne!’ Soon the prince with his company met with the battle of Almains, but in a short while they were put to flight: the archers killed many men. When the duke of Normandy’s battle saw the prince approach, they thought to save themselves, and so the duke and the king’s children, the earl of Poitiers and the earl of Touraine, who were right young, left the field, and with them more than eight hundred spears, that struck no stroke that day. Then they met also the duke of Orleans and a great company with him, who had also departed from the field.
Then the king’s battle came on the English: there was a great fight and many a huge blow given and received. The king and his youngest son met with the battle of the English marshals, the earl of Warwick and the earl of Suffolk, and with them the captal of Buch, and also in the king’s battle there was the earl Douglas of Scotland, who fought valiantly for a time, but when he saw the discomfiture, he left and saved himself; for in no wise he would be taken of the Englishmen. On the French party king John was that day a valiant knight: if a quarter of his men had done their duty as well as he did, the day had likely been his. However those that were with the king were all killed or captured except a few that saved themselves.
Truly this battle, which was near to Poitiers in the fields of Beauvoir and Maupertuis, was great and perilous, and many deeds of arms were done which are unknown. The fighters on both sides endured much suffering: king John had an axe in his hands wherewith he defended himself. The pursuit lasted to the gates of Poitiers: there were many slain and beaten down, horse and man, for the citizens of Poitiers closed their gates and so in the street before the gate was horrible murder, men hurt and beaten down. Then there was a great crowd to take the king, and those who recognised him cried, ‘Sir, yield, or else you are dead.’ There was a knight called sir Denis Morbeke, who had served the Englishmen for five years because in his youth he had forfeited the realm of France because a murder that he did at Saint-Omer’s. It happened that he was next to the king when they were about to capture him: he stepped forward and by strength of his body and arms he came to the French king and said in good French, ‘Sir, yield you.’ The king beheld the knight and said: ‘To whom shall I yield me? Where is my cousin