This “taut narrative” of the fourteenth-century conflict between England and France offers “a detailed, climactic account of a legendary battle” (Publishers Weekly).
The epic fourteenth-century Battle of Poitiers marked a major turn in the Hundred Years’ War between England and France. Prince Edward, known to all as the Black Prince, not only won a surprising victory in his first campaign as commander, but managed the nearly impossible feat of taking the French monarch, King Jean II, prisoner.
In the summer of 1356, Prince Edward drove toward the Loire Valley, deep in French territory. There, he met the full French army led by King Jean and a number of French nobles, including veterans of the defeat at Crécy ten years before. Outnumbered, the Prince fell back, but in September, he turned near the city of Poitiers to make a stand.
Historians Witzel and Livingstone provide a day-by-day description of the campaign of July to September 1356, climaxing with a vivid description of the Battle of Poitiers itself. The detailed account and analysis of the battle and the campaigns that led up to it has a strong focus on the people involved in the campaign: ordinary men-at-arms and noncombatants, as well as princes and nobles.
Marilyn Livingstone is a historian and editor. She is the co-author, along with Morgen Witzel, of The Road to Crécy: The English Invasion of France, 1346 (2004). She has an MA in medieval history from Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, London and a doctorate in economic history from Queen’s University Belfast where her thesis researched and analyzed the taxation levied by Edward III in 1340-41 to fund the early stages of the Hundred Years War. In addition she has worked on a study of medieval crop yields and on a database of attacks by the French on the English coast during the Hundred Years War.Morgen Witzel is a historian and writer. He is the co-author, with Marilyn Livingstone, of The Road to Crécy: The English Invasion of France, 1346 (2004). He is a Fellow of the Centre for Leadership Studies, University of Exeter Business School and a writer on the history of business and management. He is currently editor in chief of Corporate Finance Review.