POICTIERS, an ancient, large, and considerable town of France, capital of Poictou; with a bishop's see, four abbeys, a mint, and an university famous for law. It contains 22 parishes, nine convents for men, and 12 nunneries. There are several Roman antiquities; and particularly an amphitheatre, but partly demolished, and hid by the houses. There is also a triumphal arch, which serves as a gate to the great street. It is not peopled in proportion to its extent.
Near this place Edward the Black Prince obtained a decisive victory over the French in 1336. The army commanded by the former did not exceed 12,000 men, and of these not a third part were English. The French army, commanded by king John, consisted of 60,000 men, who unexpectedly came up with the English army, surrounded them, and by intercepting their provisions might have reduced the whole army without striking a blow. But such was the ardour of the French nobility, and so much had their thoughts been bent on overtaking the English as their sole object, that this idea never struck any of the commanders; and they immediately took measures for the assault, as for a certain victory. While the French army was drawn up in order of battle, they were stopped by the appearance of the cardinal of Perigord; who, having learned the approach of the two armies to each other, had hastened, by interposing his good offices, to prevent any farther effusion of Christian blood. By John's permission, he carried proposals to the prince of Wales; and found him so sensible of the bad posture of his affairs, that an accommodation seemed not impracticable. Edward told him, that he would agree to any terms consistent with his own honour and that of England; and he offered to purchase
a retreat by resigning all the conquests which he had made during this and the former campaign, and by stipulating not to serve against France during the course of seven years. But John, imagining that he had now got into his hands a sufficient pledge for the restitution of Calais, required that Edward should surrender himself prisoner with 100 of his attendants; and offered on these terms a safe retreat to the English army. The prince rejected the proposal with disdain; and declared, that whatever fortune should attend him, England should never be obliged to pay the price of his ransom. This resolute answer cut off all hopes of accommodation; but as the day was already spent in negotiating, the battle was delayed till the next morning.
The cardinal of Perigord, as all the prelates of the court of Rome, was extremely attached to the French cause; but the most determined enemy could not have contrived a greater prejudice to John's affairs, than he did them by this delay. The prince of Wales had leisure, during the night, to strengthen, by new intrenchments, the post which he had before so judiciously chosen; and he contrived an ambush of 300 men at arms, and as many archers, whom he put under the command of the Capit de Buche, and ordered to make a circuit, that they might fall on the flank or rear of the French army during the engagement. The van of his army was commanded by the earl of Warwick, the rear by the earls of Salisbury and Suffolk, the main body by the prince himself. The lords Chandos, Audeley, and many other brave and experienced commanders, were at the head of different corps of his army.
John also arranged his forces in three divisions, nearly equal: the first was commanded by the duke of Orleans, the king's brother; the second by the dauphin attended with his two younger brothers; the third by the king himself, who had by his side Philip, his fourth son and favourite, then about 14 years of age. There was no reaching the English army but through a narrow lane, covered on each side by hedges; and in order to open this passage, the marshals Andrehen and Clermont were ordered to advance with a separate detachment of men at arms. While they marched along the lane, a body of English archers, who lined the hedges, plied them on each side with their arrows; and being very near them, yet placed in perfect safety, they coolly took their aim against the enemy, and massacred them with impunity. The French detachment, much discouraged with the unequal
qual fight, and diminished in their number, arrived at the end of the lane, where they met on the open grounds the prince of Wales himself, at the head of a chosen body, for their reception. They were discomfited and overthrown: one of the marshals was slain; the other was taken prisoner; and the remainder of the detachment, who were still in the lane, exposed to the shot of the enemy, without being able to make resistance, recoiled upon their own army, and put every thing into disorder. In that critical moment, the Capital de Buche unexpectedly appeared, and attacked in flank the dauphin's line, which fell into some confusion. Landas, Bodenai, and St Venant, to whom the care of that young prince and his brothers had been committed, too anxious for their charge or for their own safety, carried them off the field of battle, and set the example of flight, which was followed by that whole division. The duke of Orleans, seized with a like panic, and imagining all was lost, thought no longer of fighting, but carried off his division by a retreat, which soon turned into a flight. The lord Chandos called out to the prince, that the day was won; and encouraged him to attack the division under king John, which, though more numerous than the whole English army, were somewhat dismayed with the precipitate flight of their companions. John here made the utmost efforts to retrieve by his valour, what his imprudence had betrayed; and the only resistance made that day was by his line of battle. The prince of Wales fell with impetuosity on some German cavalry placed in the front, and commanded by the counts of Sallebruche, Nydo, and Nolto. A fierce battle ensued. The one side was encouraged by the near prospect of so great a victory; the other was retained by the shame of quitting the field to an enemy so much inferior: but the three German generals, together with the duke of Athens, constable of France, falling in battle, that body of cavalry gave way, and left the king himself exposed to the whole fury of the enemy. The ranks were every moment thinned around him: the nobles fell by his side, one after another: his son, scarce 14 years of age, received a wound, while he was fighting valiantly in defence of his father: the king himself, spent with fatigue, and overwhelmed by numbers, might easily have been dispatched; but every English gentleman, ambitious of taking alive the royal prisoner, spared him in the action, called to him to surrender himself, and offered him quarter: several who attempted to seize him, suffered for their temerity. He still cried out, Where is my cousin the prince of Wales? and seemed unwilling to become prisoner to any person of inferior rank. But being told, that the prince was at a great distance on the field, he threw down his gauntlet, and yielded himself to Denis de Morbee, a knight of Arras, who had been obliged to fly his country for murder. His son was taken with him.