Siege of Calais (1346)

date	September 4, 1346 to August 3, 1347
place	Calais
output	Capture of the city by England

Parties to the conflict
Kingdom of England county of Flanders	Kingdom of France
Commander
Edward III.	Philip VI Jean de Fosseux
Troop strength
33,900 men: 5,300 knights, 6,600 infantrymen, 20,000 archers, 2,000 Flemish soldiers	7,000–8,000 citizens
losses
unknown	unknown

Auguste Rodin's sculpture in front of the Calais town hall

The Siege of Calais ( 1346 - 1347 ) by the English under King Edward III. took place during the Hundred Years War between England and France . It ended with an English success.

background

After Edward III, who had been King of England since 1327, as the son of Isabella, had also claimed the French crown of France , Philip VI fell. 1337 in the Guyenne , one of Edward's fiefs . He thereby unwittingly opened the Hundred Years War. Philip was able to repel a first English invasion in 1339. A short period of peace followed after an agreement in 1341. In June 1346, Edward III landed. however with his troops in France and on August 26th defeated the French army of knights at Crécy .

Course of the siege

After the victory at Crécy, Eduard III led. his army to Calais , in order to gain a fixed point on the French coast by conquering this important port city. On September 4, 1346 he began the siege. The city was strongly defended and the commander, Jean de Vienne, a brave knight from Burgundy , knew how to cheer the citizens on to a strong defense. Edward III. surrounded the city from the land side with strong entrenchments, while a large fleet blocked the port. He believed that he could not take such a solid place, defended by a strong occupation, by storm and therefore wanted to force its surrender by starving the inhabitants. On September 15, the commandant of Calais therefore removed 1,700 citizens from the city for lack of food; Eduard III dined magnanimously. these people and allowed them to pass through the English camp. The 500 residents who were soon evicted did not fare so well; they perished miserably between the English camp and the city. Meanwhile, Philip VI. did not fail to horror his faithful city . Several fleets tried to enter the port with crew and food, but only one managed to reach its destination in April 1347.

In May 1347 Philip VI collected. at Arras a strong army, which the entire knighthood of France had joined. The numerical strength of this force was given to 100,000 men, which approached Calais in slow marches and reached Wissant on July 27th . However, the swampy terrain in the area made direct attacks on the besiegers difficult. Philip VI but could only approach the English in two ways, along the coast, which was threatened by the enemy fleet, or through the marshes over the bridge of Nieulay, where the English were strongly entrenched. Both of these things seemed impossible to the French, and the English were therefore asked to come out of their entrenchments and seek a decision in an open field battle on the plain. This proposal was not accepted, and cardinals, who thereupon on behalf of Pope Clement VI. tried to mediate were unsuccessful in their efforts. So Philip VI. left Wissant on August 2, 1347 without having achieved anything and dismissed his army. With the departure of the army, the last hope of the besieged, who had endured all the complaints of the confinement of their city for 11 months, also disappeared.

Jean de Vienne demanded an honorable surrender; Edward III. insisted on unconditional surrender. Such capture of the city would have resulted in looting and destruction. According to the chronicle of the contemporary witness Jean Froissart , Eduard III accepted. Finally, the surrender on the condition that the six most distinguished citizens of the city clad in only one shirt, the rope around their neck and the keys of the city and the fortress in hand. On August 4, 1347, the citizens of Eustache de Saint-Pierre, Jean d'Aire, Jacques and Pierre de Wissant, Jean de Fiennes and Andrieus d'Andres are said to have confronted the English king voluntarily under the conditions mentioned. Despite the humiliating surrender, only the request of the pregnant Queen Philippa of Hainaut Edward III. move to show mercy. He handed over the six hostages to her, who in turn were released by her. Then he entered Calais with the severity of a conqueror. He kept the commanding officer and the knights in captivity, and all the residents of Calais had to leave the city, where English artisans and merchants then settled over time. This policy received the successors of Edward III. the rule over this important fortress for a very long time (until 1558).

consequences

This campaign ended with the capture of the city. But the war flared up again eight years later when Edward III. Son, Edward, Prince of Wales , attacked and captured Bordeaux .

The events of the surrender were recorded in a bronze sculpture entitled The Citizens of Calais by Auguste Rodin in 1895, which is now in front of the town hall. Another sculpture is in London in Victoria Tower Gardens.

The opera of the same name in Italian L'assedio di Calais by Donizetti from 1836, with a libretto by Salvatore Cammarano takes up the material and is based on a work by Luigi Marchionni and a ballet by Luigi Henry from 1827, edited in 1765 by Pierre Du Belloy . The premiere of this opera took place on November 19, 1836 in the Teatro San Carlo in Naples.

The drama of the same name by Georg Kaiser , written in 1912/1913, was inspired by Rodin's bronze sculpture and deals with the events surrounding the capitulation of the city.

literature

Joachim Ehlers : History of France in the Middle Ages . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2009, ISBN 978-3-89678-668-5 , p. 226.
Bernhard Töpfer : Philipp VI. In: Joachim Ehlers , Heribert Müller , Bernd Schneidmüller (eds.): The French kings of the Middle Ages . CH Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-40446-4 , p. 262 f.