6.1.1347 Charles IV returns from the Battle of Krescak

At the Battle of Krescak, the Czech King John of Luxembourg died when he rushed into battle blind. He was succeeded by Charles IV, who did not return to Bohemia until January 1347 because the journey back was complicated.

In July 1346, Edward III sailed with an English army across the English Channel to Normandy. While ravaging French territory, he advanced south towards Paris and then turned northeast. The army of King Philip VI of France caught up with the English near the French coast.

Edward took up a position on a hillside near the village of Krescak. "During the morning of 26 August he organized his forces into three groups, one of which was formally commanded by his sixteen-year-old son, Prince Edward. Each group included knights, squires and sergeants fighting on foot as armoured infantry," R. G. Grant describes the events of the time in Battles: 5000 Years of Warfare.

The French army arrived on the battlefield tired and disoriented after a long march, soaked from the storm and facing the rays of the low-lying sun behind the English positions. Philip could not contain the enthusiasm of his knights for an immediate attack against the numerically weaker English.

His Genoese mercenaries, who had served as crossbowmen in the French army, reluctantly advanced up the slope. But they fired the first volley too soon to achieve the desired effect.and were then decimated by the English longbows, which surpassed them in range and rate of fire.

As the crossbowmen fell back, the French knights charged up the slope against the heavy fire of the English archers. Few of them managed to reach the English lines. Most were killed or wounded during the attack.

In a memorably Donquist gesture, Philip's ally, the blind Bohemian King John of Luxembourg, threw himself into the battle to find his death. He lay among the thousands of nobles and non-nobles who remained on the battlefield the following morning. His son Charles became the new King of Bohemia, and did not return to Bohemia after the battle until January 1347.

"The Battle of Krescak has always fascinated historians. To this day, research on it has not ceased, and the search for the truest possible picture of the tragedy of the French knights of Philip VI and the success of the victorious army of Edward III. With the abundance of surviving accounts and chroniclers' descriptions of the battle, many questions remain open," writes Lenka Bobková in her book John of Luxembourg.

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