WEBVTT - The Crécy Campaign (with Dan Jones) 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.800 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:07.880 and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:12.840 I'm very excited to be joined for this very special 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:16.760 episode by my friend, amazing historian Dan Jones, who's joining 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:21.320 us via via seamless internet technology from across the pond 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:25.040 in England. Damn, thank you for joining me. It's absolutely 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:27.560 my pleasure. We like was so good at technology that 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:30.040 this was set up. We didn't was the easiest thing. 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:32.720 We knew how to do. Our headphones, our microphones. Both 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:35.880 of us just nailed it immediately first try. I definitely 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:40.440 had the microphone thing lockdown? Did you my end? Contrary 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:42.839 to what people are saying, my microphone was on the 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:46.200 entire time. It was fully, fully turned on. That wasn't 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:48.680 the mistake I was making. You were brought back on 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.680 this podcast by popular demand, that the people demanded you, 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:54.120 and so we had to bring you back. But you 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:57.880 were the Charles the second of podcast guests. Thank you 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:02.560 very much. That's probably my favorite Charles of all the three. 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.400 Of all the three. So I was I was asking 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:08.959 you before we started, how how is the new king 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:12.000 over there? Well? I think that you guys are thinking 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:15.119 about it a little bit more than we are. We 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:16.960 we did, we had quite a lot of it last year, 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:19.160 and now we're just The coronation will be along in 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:20.800 a few months time, and I think we'll have another 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.000 that'll go at it then. But by and large, no 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.560 one's playing it that much attention. I think. I think 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:27.160 of the two of us, I am the only one 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:32.400 who read Prince Harry's book. Is that true? That is true, 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:34.840 assuming you did read it. I didn't read it. I 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:36.440 have no reason to doubt you. And it's the sort 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:40.960 of thing you would do that like professionally or actually curious. 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:43.920 They sent me a copy, so this is full disclosure. 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:45.760 As I got a copy for free, I don't know 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.640 if I would have like shelled out for it. And 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.240 then I was just curious as a document. I was 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:55.160 just like, so, what is this guy really saying? Did 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:57.320 you find out? By the end of the book. Yes, 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:01.200 I think he's past off, isn't it. He's really mad 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:04.000 and I think he had a very sad family life. 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:05.520 I felt bad for him by the end of it. 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:07.360 I was like, it must have been really lonely. Your 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:09.560 dad never hugging you like that would have been awful, 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:11.560 But I do kind of think he's mad about the 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.280 wrong things a little bit, like he's holding these family 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:17.560 grudges and I feel sorry for him, but it also 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:20.200 feels like, I don't know if he realizes it's not 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:23.919 that's not like the main problem with the monarchy. Yeah, 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:28.440 it does seem to be quite um. He does seem 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.800 to have misconstrued and misconceived quite a lot of things 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:33.240 that you would have thought like by the time you 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:35.160 get to around the age of forty. He's a little 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:37.880 bit younger than me, but you know, by the age 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.920 of forty ish, you're supposed to have just started to 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.960 work out certain things about your life situation. And he 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:46.520 seems to have got some of them wrong, and the 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:48.280 ones that he hasn't got wrong, he's reacted to in 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:51.720 a really bad way. It does seem as though he's 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:54.680 the only one in this family who's gotten therapy, and 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:56.800 so clearly a therapist is like it would have been 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:59.280 nice if your dad hugged you, and then he's like yes, 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:01.600 and then really decided to write a book about it. 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:03.880 But was this a specialist therapist? Because I think it's 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:07.000 like a certain you need a special like one that 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:11.600 just does royals really like, basically you I could do it. 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:13.760 You seem you seem like you should be in the 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:16.040 person that would do therapy, because you'd probably think about 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:19.000 this more than than a normal therapist. It's true of 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:21.519 the category of case. Do you know the most deranged 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:23.880 thing that I've ever said out loud in my life 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:28.120 to my husband? I said, I said the words, and 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:30.600 I meant it is there's the really messed up part. 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:34.160 I said, if I had married into the royal family, 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:36.520 I would have been able to hack it. Like I 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:38.360 would have been able to do it. I can follow 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:41.800 rules really well. I would wear that right now, polished colors. 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:44.400 I wouldn't read the news. I would just like curtsy 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:47.160 the right way. I would follow all the rules. But 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:49.480 you've also done your research, like this is what I'm saying. 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:52.800 I don't. I would have known when I was getting 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.800 into I think, so do you? What do you wanted 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:58.160 to do it? I mean absolutely think yourskin seems great, 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:00.720 and like I'm not sure you harry a fit or whatever, 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:04.120 But like, would you in in the abstract have wanted 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:07.040 that job at any level? No, it's to me that 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:09.480 the job of being a royal. It seems like you 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:12.480 are quietly drinking all day with people I don't know 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.200 if I would like, I'm not a big drinker. And 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:16.640 also you have to go to a lot of like 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:20.240 ceremonial hospital openings. It feels like you're going to like 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:24.800 three graduation ceremonies a day, and your kid is never graduating. Right, 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:28.720 the job seems boring. I totally agree, And yet there 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:33.279 is a small, like distinct subset category of people who well, 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:34.920 there's two on there. There's there's the people who are 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:38.160 born into it and like totally deal with it, Like, yeah, okay, 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:41.320 this is like a like I could have definitely been 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:44.520 born into a much worse era in history or social position. 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:46.600 I'm going to just accept that the cost of having 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:49.200 all this great stuff is like a super boring job, 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:51.919 even more boring than like being a square john in 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:55.000 an office. Yeah, at least a square john in an office. 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:57.120 You get to go have your fun without people making 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.760 fun of you. Well yeah, so, but there was more 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:01.840 of a royals who are like, yo, I'm going to 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:04.680 take this. I'll take this deal. It's not a perfect deal, 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:06.440 but I sense there are other worst deals and the 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:08.800 possible so that I can sort of sort of get 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.159 my head of. The ones that definitely are unusual are 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:16.160 the sort of K. Middlesen type people who look at 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:19.600 that and think it through, so they do the thing 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:23.400 you've done that possibly making didn't do, and then go, 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:26.880 oh no, no, that is actually what I want. That's 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:29.719 the weird thing, and then doesn't seem to have any 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.720 regret or or remorse, like, was right, that was what 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:35.240 you want. She's very good at at what she has 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:39.560 to do, which is being conventionally attractive and thin and 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.920 wear clothing in public. Would you go to Mars if 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:47.400 someone offered your ticket? Absolutely not. Now wants I want 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:49.599 somebody and I don't care if his evil musk. I 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:51.599 just I don't care who it is. I want a 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:54.320 human being to go to Mars. But if you ask me, 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:55.960 would I be that? Yeah? But would you do that? 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:58.000 I would say no. I would say I would be 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:03.400 like the person to go to Mars. Yeah, Okay, after 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:06.080 they do it for a while, I wonder is it 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:09.400 the safety that you're worried about with Mars? Yeah? And 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:12.560 it just seems, um, I don't know what I would 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:14.640 be getting out of it. Yeah, the safety and and 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.120 for what reward. I'm not a rock scientist. I don't 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:19.760 know if I would be the best person to put there. 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:21.920 I could see you as a rock scientist, that you've 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:24.320 got science in your locker, haven't you? That's true? Could 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:26.240 would you wouldn't go to Mars? Why wouldn't you go 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:28.560 to Mars? The safety so that I saw the Martian 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:32.200 with mc damon and growing potatoes that tie us into Yeah, 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:35.440 it looked It's just just just the length of the journey. 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:38.720 You know, I'm a little I don't think it would 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:40.920 be for me the length of the journey, you know, Dan, 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:42.840 But people, I think a lot of people would say 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:45.120 that being a historian would be boring. You've had to 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:48.360 spend a lot of time reading very old books. You 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:52.919 don't find you don't find that barring. No, I don't. 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.520 Actually I quite like it. Yeah, but I don't know 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.000 a lot of m Are there a lot of people 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:00.880 who looked at his story and when I think that's 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:03.440 going to be boring? Because I think the case that 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:06.640 we've been talking about is people who think something is 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:08.560 going to be better than it is. I was pretty 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:10.960 sure about what being his stor you didn't think it 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.360 was going to be like Indiana Jones. Now that's an archeologist, 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:17.240 but he's sort of in the same it's the same academic. 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.640 He's a professor. Oh, he's a he's a professor. That 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:22.640 but that I wouldn't have done. I'm not a professor. 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:25.560 I could never ever have been a professor. And that's 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:28.600 actually important. So when I graduated from my degree in 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:32.440 two two, I was going he went to Cambridge. He's 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:34.960 not going to mention, but he went to Cambridge. You know, 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:36.640 I don't. I like other people to bring it up 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:38.400 for me. And it's the real one as well, not 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.640 there like proxy one in Massachusetts. When I graduated and 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:43.240 I was thinking, only should I do like loads to 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:46.600 more degrees and stay at Cambridge? Sort of everyone that 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:48.320 had taught me and knew me was like, I don't 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:50.440 think you'll like that. I don't think you're like any 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:54.520 aspect of that's whatsoever. And so the life that I've 0:07:54.600 --> 0:08:00.160 chosen is distinctly not that of an institutionalized profess. So 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:02.840 it's the life where I just sort of do my 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.480 own thing and read what I want to read, and 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:06.880 write what I want to write, and sit in my 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:10.520 little office in my pajamas. Now, this is an audio medium, 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:12.360 but I do want people listening to this to know 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:18.000 that Dan is in a very nice set of pajamas, 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.480 sole set of pajamas, like he's in like notting Hill 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:24.679 or something. I've never seen anyone in like a full 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:27.760 set of pajamas. And it's not that late that we're recording, 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:30.360 but he got ready for bed. Yeah, but I knew 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:32.640 that after we finished it would be about my bed time. 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.000 And then I just thought I'd just be ready. I 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:36.960 could just die straight into bed and just worm my 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.960 way and I have a little you know sleep. Well, 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:43.280 if we're talking about diving straight in, you're here because 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.160 you have a novel that's coming out in the United 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:48.959 States in paperback? Is it coming out in paperback or 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:53.880 hard hard back? Over here? Hardcover hardcover of course, yes, 0:08:54.240 --> 0:09:00.000 the real deal. I think we'd go hard yeah, hardcover, Yeah, 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:03.120 hardcover of people that's right here, Yeah, yeah, that's us. 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.559 Oh my gosh. And he's drinking wine. He just pulled 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:09.320 a goblet of wine out from behind the behind the camera. 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:12.040 It's almost it is. It's quite a large one glass, 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:13.920 but with not much wine in it. So yeah, it 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:16.240 does have a sort of goblet vibe to it's Monday night. 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:18.720 I would not drink heavily on a Monday night. Of course. 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:20.520 Well we are here to talk, of course, about his 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:23.800 wonderful novel Essex Dogs, which I had the privilege of reading. 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.400 It's just a it's a wonderful novel. If you like 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:31.320 this podcast because you like interesting stories from history well told. 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.560 Obviously A Sex Dogs is a fictionalization, but it is 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.599 based on a very true story. And that's what I 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:39.840 would like to talk to you about. Oh, that would 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.720 be fun. Let's do it. So tell me the story. 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:47.240 And my achilles heel is French pronunciation because my Eastern 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:50.920 European tongue doesn't curl the right way. But the say 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:53.200 the name of the campaign to save me from myself here, 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:56.880 so as it's still is set in the Cressy campaign. 0:09:57.320 --> 0:09:59.880 Oh Cressy, that's I could have done that. You can say, 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.000 reci Yeah, there's a little there's an accent that throughout 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:07.920 the house made me near Chrissy. But but Cressy is fine. Um. 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:11.719 So that's one of the first major campaigns of the 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:14.720 Hundred Years War, which took place in the summer of 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:16.560 the year thirty and forty six, which is right at 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:18.520 the start of the Hundred Years War. With Hundred Years 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:22.040 War from thirty thirty seven through fifty three were loaded 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:24.760 at the beginning with the Third Reign. I'm gonna I'm 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.120 gonna interrupt before before we dive in for people who 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.720 are just listening and and have heard probably the term 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:32.560 Hundred Years War, but don't know exactly what it is. 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:35.120 Can you set up a bit about what this conflict 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:38.880 was and why they were fighting it for so long? Yeah? Absolutely, 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:43.000 and that is very very cool. The Hundred Years War 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:45.120 is a dispute in the Late Middle Ages in the 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:50.679 fourteenth and fifteenth century between the two royal rival houses 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:53.000 of the Kingdoms of England on the one hand and 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:55.440 France on the other. And at the very core of 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:58.880 the dispute is who should be the King of France. 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.560 Starts with the with the third who claims that he 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:04.959 should be the rifle King of France because he has 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:09.440 a claim through his mother and his cousin Philippa, who 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.280 is the King of France. Philip six, at the outset 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:14.839 Hundreds War says, well, I beg to differ. I am 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:17.200 actually the King of France and I have a claim 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:20.400 through my father and my father the king of Brands. 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:23.160 It's rather wasn't the King of France. But so there's 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:28.040 a but he's he's got I think inarguably a better 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:32.920 claim than Edward. However, there are other reasons for them 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:34.960 disputing who's going to be the King of France, rather 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:36.520 than they both want to be the King of France. 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:38.959 One of them is that you have an anomalous, weird 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.440 position by the time he gets to the fourteenth century, 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:43.800 which goes all the way back to the normal conquest 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:49.600 of ten sixty six, whereby kings of England have lands 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.920 in France, and sometimes that's Normandy and it's great s 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:57.000 extent on the Henry. Second it's Normandy, Aquitaine and Gumain 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.120 Brittany each other an like this, the huge sway either 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:02.960 almost a third of the current territorial land mass of 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:07.200 France is at some point held by English kings technically 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.760 as nobles of France. And that's a weird situation and 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:13.000 changes and evolves throughout the plantation years. But by the 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:14.760 time you get to end of the third there's still 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:18.439 have a small amount of land Gascony, and the French 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:21.120 kings aren't very happy about that, sterrritating to have another 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:27.120 king as one of your lord's vassals Vassels. Yeah, so 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:31.240 part of the reason for for this dispute over the 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:35.000 crown of France is a kind of nuclear escalation of 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:37.520 this argument. End of the third sees that one of 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:42.280 the best ways to counter phillips claim to kick him 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:43.800 out of Gascony is to say, you can't kick me 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:46.319 out of Gascony because actually I'm the King of France. 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:48.640 And you know what, let's have a really long war 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:50.400 about whether or not this is the case, and it 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:54.200 goes generated a hundred years is underplaying. It just goes 0:12:54.240 --> 0:13:00.000 on for six notes, not quite a hundred and sixty 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.960 hundred and seventeen something. Once one of my favorite tidbits, 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.199 I think from one of your books, the book on 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:08.760 the Ward the Roses, is when fast forwarding obviously you know, 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.679 a hundred years from this event, when I hope I'm 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:14.320 doing this right, because it is from your book. Henry 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:17.960 the sixth is trying to establish his claim in France 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:21.560 and they're distributing propaganda posters, trying to trace his lineage 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:23.960 back to St. Louis to be like, no, no, he's 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:27.080 he's right. Look at the poster that we made. They 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:29.560 get right into it and it opens up this enormous 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:32.000 kind of worms which which you then start seeing the 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:35.160 domestic politics of England and France as well of people say, oh, 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:37.560 no way, I should be the king because x y Z. 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:39.679 I mean, that's that's what underpins the wars of the 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:43.400 Roses in England the fifteenth century. Your Plancaster quote unquote 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:46.880 conflict for the crown is really some of the principles 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.640 established in the Hundred As War, which are like I've 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:51.160 not a better claim to the ground than you, and 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:53.800 I'm going to fight you with my now enormous armies 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:58.199 and improving siege weaponry and so on and so forth. Anyway, 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:00.360 said back to the Hundred Years War as well as 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:03.560 a dynastic dispute for the quote unquote dynastic dispute for 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:06.120 the crown of France, it's such a draw in more 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:08.360 and more and more competence around Europe. So you have 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:12.120 the Scots fighting the English, you have Castile drawn into 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:15.200 this eventually, have sort of kingdoms of Portugal drawn into it. 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.040 You have Flanders is an enormously important sort of theater 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:20.800 of hot and Cold War. You have the sort of 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:23.560 German states in the pressing campaign. You have the Battle 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:26.240 of Crescy, as we hopefully get to, you have five 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:29.320 different kings on the battle. So this, this apparent sort 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:32.680 of neighborly dispute between England and France, in fact spills 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:35.400 out into basically the whole of Western Europe fighting each 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:40.320 other in various combinations for generations. So now explain what 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:43.600 the Cressy campaign is. We have King Edward the Third 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:47.560 in England trying to retain his claim in France, and 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:52.280 what happens. So at this point, which is thirty six, 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:55.120 the war is young. War is less than nine less 0:14:55.120 --> 0:15:00.320 and ten years old, and there have been already different 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:02.840 spheres of operation open up. There's fighting going on down 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:06.040 a gascony. There's been a great sea Battle of Choice there, 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:09.080 which is sort of a modern Netherlands. But this is 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.480 the first big invasion by one side of the other. 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:18.960 So in July six d of the Third Lands approximately 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:23.080 fifteen thousand troops on one of the Normandy beaches. And 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.320 whant to say Normandy beaches You probably think D Day 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:28.480 World War two, and you're right to, because it is 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:32.880 a beach on the cutting Tampa Peninsula of Normandy slightly 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:35.160 up from what in the Second Worldar was called Utah 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:38.800 Beach should a place called some Valo where Edwards put 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:41.600 fifteen thousand men onto a beach, and you can sort 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.680 of imagine this as a medieval saving Private Ryan. In fact, 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.640 the idea of a medieval saving Private Ryan, you know, 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:50.320 medieval d Day was the first picture I had in 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:54.120 my head the sparks what became the novel of Esex Dogs, 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.800 because I felt like I'd never seen a kind of 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:01.520 band of brothers saving Private Ryan, an American hard boiled 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.520 version of a medieval amphibious invasion. But that's how the 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:07.040 Cressy campaign starts. Edward the third says, you know what 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.200 I'm after, France, and I'm gonna well, that is he 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:12.880 actually going to try and take Philip's throne in Paris. 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:15.480 Possibly He's certainly going to cause as much trouble for 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:18.360 Philip the sixth of France as possible in northern France 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:20.760 in order to discomfort him so much that possibly his 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.040 nobles are rebelled against him and the people will start 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:25.680 to abandon their their fealty to him. So that's what Edwards, 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:30.240 Edward sets about twelfth of July, he lands his huge army, 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:32.680 probably over the course of the next few days. They 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.160 DeCamp onto the beach. They are opposed by local militias, 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:38.840 but the local militias who are opposing them soon see 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:42.320 that this is an enormous, enormous army, I mean a 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:45.960 gigantic invasion army. This is the biggest army that has 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:49.800 ever been taken from England to France, and they're going 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:53.280 to do some some serious damage. So they would say 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:55.880 the small militia who were on the coast, because Edwards 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.440 kept his invasion plans or the location of his invasion 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:01.320 at least secret spies of in in London for months 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:03.120 and months, they knew an invasion was coming, but they 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:05.600 had no idea where that parallels with d Day in 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:10.479 are striking um, there's there's not much opposition and they 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:12.600 start falling back and so Edward really has them the 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.720 run of the Gotta Tupe Peninsula, this bit of Normandy 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:19.680 that sticks out going up to subar So between Normandy 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:24.879 and Calais. So it's hard without drawing you a map, 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.360 but there's a sort of pointy bit that's not Brittany 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:31.080 Franz that's the bit of Normandy we're talking about. So 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:32.760 and they come in right at the tip of it. 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:37.080 And the French strategy for the first couple of weeks 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.040 is essentially a Fabian one. Is to fall back, try 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.879 and delay the English advances as much as possible by 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:48.200 breaking bridges, by burning things, by but not by engaging. 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:51.960 And so the English do what will become a standard 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:54.520 tactic of the Hundred Years War, and they sort of 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:56.920 launched it in Earnest in thirteen forty six, and it's 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.840 called the Cheval shape. So they set their army out 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:04.159 essentially into the field to just burn and plunder and 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:07.159 cause as much terror and mayhem as possible. It is 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:11.080 to carve a path through the landscape, a path of terror. 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:15.280 Now I wrote Essex Dogs. When I finished writing, I 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:20.119 finished writing it's through March, shortly before the Russian invasion 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:21.960 of Ukraine. But if you can cast your mind back 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:24.320 to Russian tactics at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.080 which was to burn and plunder and rape and kill 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:30.320 and cause as much mayhem and terror as possible. That's 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:33.840 borrowed directly from a long military playbook. And of the 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:36.840 third did not invent the chevrochet. The Mongols have done 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:38.720 it before. I'm sure you know in the Bronze Agent 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:40.520 has happened. You know, we can go back probably as 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:43.000 far as human history and mounted warriors anyway, go to 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:46.840 see examples of similar tactics. It wo, but this is 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:51.679 like Edward really master the English master the chevrochet in war. 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.919 And so the first sort of or probably half of 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:59.200 the Gressive campaign is effectively one big, long, just campaign 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:02.760 of absolute terror, as the English pushed through the Norman 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:05.600 countryside through the sort of kas and all the stuff. 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:08.240 You again, if you know you're saving private Ryan or 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:10.640 band of brothers, you know these little lanes and head 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:15.439 English just burn a sway through it, heading for the 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:19.040 major towns of Normandy, which will lead them to the 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:21.400 same valley, and then they can go up river towards Paris. 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.960 And so in your fictional version, we're joined by ten 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:29.440 men in Essex, Doug. The story is ten men who 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:33.480 are sort of more loyal to each other than any crown. Right. 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:37.080 So this story of the Christic campaign has been told 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:41.120 in history and in fiction many times, but it struck 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:44.120 me when I was thinking about it, or thinking more 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:47.800 generally about the realities of warfare in this period, which 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:50.080 is something I've written a reasonable amount about in my 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:54.800 history books. Struck me that we very seldom see medieval 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:57.400 warfare through the eyes of what in the World War 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:00.359 two film you'd call the ordinary grunts, right, just the 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:04.280 rank and file. The Chrissy Campaign is really famous in 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:08.400 medieval history for things that aristocrats and nobles do. There's 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:10.280 there are lots of little famous sort of vignettes to 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:13.120 set pieces. When end of the Third land on the 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:16.040 beach of sam Lug, for example, he he trips over 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:18.200 in the surf, bangs his nose into the sand and 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:20.280 gets a nose bleed, and he has the quick wit 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:22.280 to say, ah, this just shows the land wants me 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:24.320