Crécy

by Griff Hosker

  I had been at Portsmouth for some time and was a comfortable member of the garrison when the French fleet arrived. I was on the day shift and, after breakfast, I had just arrived on the walls when I saw Captain Philip staring out to sea. I joined him but said nothing for all that I could see was the sails of a couple of ships coming up from the Isle of Wight. He turned and said, “John, sound the alarm, I believe I see French ships approaching. I will find the Constable! Prepare for war!”

  I ran to the bell which was in our tower and I began to toll it. A few moments later it was answered by the town’s parish church. Men would grab their weapons and race to the walls. Once the church bell tolled, I stopped hauling on the rope and ran into the tower to get my bow and arrow bag. My sword hung from my belt and my hand axe was jammed in it. I was not used to my helmet but after donning it and the arming cap, I was ready. I took my place on the fighting platform at the top of the tower. The men at arms would guard the walls but we archers would use the elevation of the tower to stop an enemy further from the walls. Our fort was guarded on two sides by water. One side was the harbour while on the other was the estuary. I glanced into the harbour. It was too late for the ships there to escape and so the captains were binding their ships together to make a floating fort. I now saw that what I had taken to be a couple of ships was a veritable fleet. I had been too inexperienced to recognise the number.

  The fighting platform shook as the men at arms ran up to take their places. It was as I looked around that I saw we had too few men to man the walls effectively. When I had seen Aberdeen, the walls had been a sea of steel. Here we were dotted around. As far as I could see our only hope lay in the levy who would be summoned from the countryside but by the time they reached Portsmouth it might be too late. King Edward had not sent enough men. I looked around at the others; I was the youngest, but they knew I had experience. Three of them, Rafe, Jack and Will had been at Cadzand while John and Matty had spent their whole lives watching Portsmouth’s walls. As there was another John and he had been here first I was Hawkwood. I had resented it at first for it reminded me of my father, but I was now used to it.

  Captain Philip climbed up the ladder inside the tower and, when he reached the top, he strung his bow. He shook his head and gave us all a rueful smile. “If we had a stone castle then we could have fire here and those ships would not be a threat. As it is, we are the ones in danger from fire. Let us look on the bright side, we have arrows aplenty and we are all good archers. We will make each one count.”

  The French fleet was now closer, and I counted at least thirty-five ships. They could carry more than a thousand men and all of them would be fighting men. I chose a war arrow as I could not see any mailed men yet. Their plan became clear. The wall of the wooden castle was so close to the estuary that they would not be able to land close enough to it and so they were heading for the harbour and quays.

  Captain Philip realised that the only tower whose arrows could reach the ships if they attacked the quays was ours and so he shouted, “Every archer who is not in the harbour tower man the harbour wall!”

  Archers scurried down their ladders and raced to obey the command. In our tower, we turned to mirror the movements of the ships although they were out of range. There were fishermen on the mole, and they ran for the safety of the town walls. The crossbows on the ships cut them down to a man and then the weapon invented by the devil began to loose bolts at the crews of the ships. We were just too far away to do any good and we watched helplessly as the French crews poured over the sides of their ships and boarded the floating fort. We could see the one-sided fighting. The French had protection in the form of helmets and metal studded jerkins, and they had better weapons. The sailors were hard men and they fought well but when we saw them hurling themselves over the side to swim to the shore then we knew it was over. Not long after the last living sailor had left the ships, we saw flames licking the ship in the centre and the French ships left to land men on our side of the harbour. The English ships would soon become hulks, and the French would attack us and the town of Portsmouth!

  As soon as the ships tied up and the men began to land Captain Philip shouted, “Loose!”

  I sent an arrow at the seaman tying the ship up to the bollard. Captain Philip had seen me as he sent a bodkin into a knight leading men towards our walls, “Forget the sailors! Kill the soldiers!”

  I drew a bodkin and aimed at a man at arms who ran with a burning brand, obviously taken from the inferno that was the flaming fort, towards our wooden walls. As he raised his arm to throw it at our palisade my bodkin tipped arrow slammed into his chest and threw him and the brand into the harbour.

  “Better!”

  Our twenty-one bows each managed to send an arrow into a Frenchman every time we drew our longbows back but there were not enough of us. Rafe pointed to the town side of the harbour, “Look!” There were even fewer archers on the town walls or archers who had bodkin arrows at any rate, and already the walls had been scaled. I saw flames licking the wooden parapets and it became obvious that this was no invasion but just a way to hurt us by burning one of our most important ports to the ground. I determined to kill as many as I could. I drew and released until my stock of arrows was gone and I raced into the tower to grab another sheaf. When I came out, I saw the French had managed to set fire to the wooden wall behind which we fought. Our men at arms were busy trying to douse the fire but it was a losing battle. The walls were old and dried.

  “Keep fighting for help is on the way!” Captain Philip knew that all around Portsmouth the men of Hampshire would be roused to come to our aid. However, that relief would not be swift!

  The six of us had a better view of the battle than any and we had a clearer sight of all the targets. The French leader, we later learned his name was Nicolas Béhuchet, ordered his crossbows to concentrate on us. Matty was the first to die and a bolt struck him squarely in the centre of his forehead. I sent a war arrow into his killer and the death of one of our friends incensed us and we slew all the crossbowmen. It was a mistake for while we were doing that other Frenchmen were setting fire to other sections of our walls and the men at arms were losing the battle. The Constable had already fallen, and it was left to Captain Philip to give the order, “Men at arms, save yourselves for the citadel is lost. We will cover you as long as we can!”

  Portsmouth was ablaze and I hoped that the populace had escaped. I had no idea how we would get out of our predicament, but I trusted in the Captain. The one advantage of crossbows is that, unlike a longbow, you need very little training to be able to use them. Other men had picked up the crossbows and although most of the bolts missed us, John was hit in the shoulder and he would not be able to use his bow.

  “John leave us and try to save yourself!”

  “Aye, Captain! Good luck, lads!”

  Another archer plunged from the walls and I saw that we could not escape through the main gate. We were trapped as the fighting platform was burning fiercely. It was clear that the other archers, the ones on the walls, could not last and so Captain Philip, coughing through the smoke shouted, “Archers on the walls, save yourselves! May God be with you!”

  There were just five of us left in the harbour tower and our escape would be through the sally port which led to the estuary and the main channel.

  “Rafe, you and Will make sure that the sally port is safe. We will cover you.”

  As they descended the ladder they would be exposed and the three of us who remained kept up a withering rate of arrows. I confess that I thought I would die in that tower, but I was proud that I had slain so many of England’s enemies. When flames began to lick our tower the Captain shouted, “Time for us to go. Hawkwood, you lead!”

  I slung my bow over my back, aware that I only had six arrows left in any case. As I hurried down the ladder, thankful that the billowing, choking smoke hid me, I almost lost a finger as a crossbow bolt slammed into the ladder. I did not hesitate when I reached the bottom of the first
ladder and I began to descend the second ladder. This one was hot to the touch and if not alight already then it soon would be.

  “Captain! Hurry! The ladder is almost afire!”

  When I reached the bottom, after slinging my bow, I drew my sword and my axe. As far as I knew the French were on the other side of the blazing inferno. Jack dropped to the ground just as the ladder burst into flames and we both stepped away as Captain Philip crashed to the ground, landing badly on his ankle. He took his bow and used it as a staff. “Hawkwood, you are handy, watch our backs and we will try the sally port.”

  “Aye, Captain.” I took the order as an honour. I walked backwards towards the sally port. The estuary wall was the furthest from the fire although what we would do when we reached the other side, I had no idea. The tide was on its way in!

  I had almost reached the gate, which, when I glanced over my shoulder I saw was open, when I heard the clash of steel on steel. As soon as I stepped outside, I was in a battle. Will lay dead and Rafe was trying to hold in his guts but he still held his sword in his left hand. The Captain was flailing with his bow and Jack was using his dagger and short sword. There were six Frenchmen and two of them were mailed. I knew then that I was going to die but that thought gave me the confidence to do what I did. I screamed and threw myself at one of the two mailed men. My shout was so loud that everyone looked around and that allowed me to take three steps and to bring my sword down to split the coif and head of the mailed man. My speed had taken me next to another Frenchman and I just reacted, almost blindly, and hacked sideways. The hand axe was very sharp and the head was heavy. It drove through the skull and almost sliced off the top of the Frenchman’s head. The two deaths almost evened up our numbers and when Rafe launched himself at the other mailed man Jack and the Captain also attacked.

  When Rafe paid the price for his courage and the mailed Frenchman took his head I saw red and I ran at the Frenchman’s back. My sword scraped off the mailed man’s armour, but the speed of my charge and my weight drove us into the water. I swallowed a mouthful of seawater but held on to my axe and sword. I was on top of the Frenchman and as I raised my head to cough out the water he tried to rise. I brought down the axe but a combination of the sea, his coif and the short swing meant that the blow was not decisive. However, I managed to drive his head back down and I put my hands and our weapons together and leaned on his mouth. I felt him struggling to move me, but I was heavy, and I was strong. He tried to bite me but only succeeded in taking a mouthful of axe haft and the struggling stopped.

  I stood and saw that Jack was down and the Captain was fighting two men. He could not move very well and was using his sword and his bow stave. I hurled the axe and it struck one man in the back of the head. As he fell, he knocked over the Captain but the last man standing saw me as the threat and he lunged at me with his sword. I was wet and bedraggled, and I was struggling to keep my feet. The result was that I was slow to block the strike and the tip hit my waist. He drove the sword at me, and I expected to feel the edge tear into me, but I just felt pain. The man looked at me in surprise and I backhanded him with my sword. I caught him under the chin and sliced off half his face. He might have screamed had he a mouth to do so and I drove my sword into him. The Frenchman who had knocked over the Captain was struggling to his feet and I put my sword into his back and just leaned. The sword drove through him.

  Looking around I saw that I was the only man left on his feet. The Captain was alive, and he put out his hand for me to help him to his feet. “You should be dead!”

  I nodded and put my hand to the tear in my gambeson and then I smiled. “My money belt, with the gold within has saved my life!”

  He smiled, “Fortune favours you, now let us go! Head down the estuary towards Southsea. The fire here will soon consume the wall!”

  I had to help him as we struggled to cover the half a mile or more to the open ground at Southsea. The heat from the burning wall made us use the shallows of the estuary. By then help must have come for we saw the French fleet as, ship by ship, they left the harbour and headed out to sea. I had suffered my first defeat and lost most of my comrades. It was a hard lesson to learn! The Captain was a tough man, but his ankle had swollen to twice its normal size by the time we reached Southsea. I looked back and all that I could see of Portsmouth was black smoke and flames rising into the sky. Just the hospital and the parish church looked to have survived and they would be soot coated and blackened shells when the fire had finished. It looked like my time in the garrison would be a short one. People were rushing past us and heading for safety. I shouted, “Have you any ale? This soldier is hurt!”

  I saw a man laugh as he ran holding a jug. If he had not laughed, I would have done nothing, but he laughed and I jumped to my feet, ran after him and, grabbing him pulled hih around. I grabbed the jug.

  “Hey, that is mine!”

  I smiled, “It was yours and now it is mine!”

  He made the mistake of swinging at me and holding the jug in my left hand I swung out of the way and hit him so hard in his face that he fell to the ground as though struck by an anvil. I walked back to the Captain who was shaking his head but smiling, “You have a way with words, Hawkwood.”

  “Here, Captain, drink deeply. We may be here for some time.” I pointed to the estuary where the long line of French ships was edging out to sea. “I cannot see that they will stop raiding so easily. We did not hurt them. There were too few of us.”

  “And yet we acquitted ourselves well.”

  “Do you see any more archers, Captain? They are all dead! The only way out of that fire trap was through the sally port and the wall burned soon after we left. They are all gone.”

  He drank deeply and then handed it to me. I drank too. I had drunk better but, right at that moment, it tasted like the nectar of the gods.

  Not everyone fled. When they saw the two of us, with our bows and the cross of St. George many refugees stopped and gathered around us. Perhaps they thought that we could protect them. The youth who had laughed had disappeared. I do not think he relished another smack. Some of the monks from the hospital arrived with patients who would otherwise have died for the stone of the hospital could not save them from the smoke which killed as easily as fire. It was they who saw to the Captain. By the time darkness fell, there were fifty of us or more and two men at arms, one badly wounded, limped into the camp. The four of us were the only ones left alive from the garrison. Paul of Portsmouth had only fought in one action and it had killed him!

  I lit a fire, it was more to attract attention than anything and, sure enough, the High Sherriff of Hampshire, Robert Daundelin, with his knights and men at arms arrived. He recognised our livery and, I think, he knew the Captain. The Sherriff wisely took him to one side to speak with him. They were away for some time. The Sherriff spoke to myself and the two men at arms when he returned. “Portsmouth owes you four a debt and it shall be paid. Give your names to my squire so that they may be recorded, and I can send payment when the time is right.”

  “Thank you, my lord.”

  Financial reward seemed to be the last thing on my mind. When they had gone, I said, “Captain, I will go and do something with the bodies of our archers, if they are still there.”

  He smiled, “And help yourself to the purses of the dead Frenchmen.” I shrugged. “You deserve it for you saved my life and almost those of the others. You were not at fault.”

  I unsheathed my sword as I headed back to the water. The tide was on the way in and I would be lucky to find anything. I followed the glow from the burning embers of the wall. In the town fires still burned but the wind from the sea had accelerated the work of the fire. I was about two hundred paces from the place I hoped to find the bodies when I sensed a movement from my right. I whirled and held my sword before me, “One step closer and you die!” In answer, Megs whinnied and was answered by three other horses which had escaped from the fire. I sheathed my sword and, grabbing a hunk of mane, held her clos
e. “I thought I had lost you! This makes up a little for some of the losses which we endured.”

  Megs appeared to be the leader for when I took her reins and led her, they followed. I saw that the tide had taken some of the bodies. Rafe and Jack were there, and I lifted their bodies on to the backs of two of the horses. There were two Frenchmen left. One was mailed and I found that he had a good sword and a fat purse. The other had a dagger and a paltry purse. It was not too bad. I jumped on Meg’s back and led the other horses back to the camp. More people had arrived, and the food was being prepared.

  I dismounted and with the two men at arms and Captain Philip, took the two bodies from the horses. The monks from the hospital said a few words and we buried them on the salt-washed turf. There was no marker but then none of the others who had died would have a marker. At least their bodies were in the ground and we knew where they were. The Captain and I spoke long into the night. I had no sleep that night for I watched my captain.

  The next day I rode with the Captain and the two men at arms, bareback and we headed for London. Captain Philip needed to report to the King, and we hoped he would be there. I had spent less time in Portsmouth than I had expected but my time there had been an education. As Captain Philip said, “That which does not kill you, makes you stronger.”

  As we rode north to London, he told me that he hoped I would continue to serve the King. “You showed me once again, John Hawkwood, that you have unique talents and those talents ought to be used by the King. I know that your purse is full, and I would not blame you if you sought another life, but I beg you to come with me.”