FIRE AND SWORDS

Description

TITLE ” FIRE AND SPADE ”

ACRYLIC ON CANVAS YEAR 2018

MEASURES – 100X100 CM

ARTIST ALESSANDRO SIVIGLIA

Crécy was a battle in which a relatively small number of English soldiers, about 12,000 men (depending on the source), commanded by Edward III of England, crushed a very preponderant force of French soldiers, led by Philip VI, of about 50,000-60,000. men, of whom 12,000 knights. The clear British victory depended on the superior use of weapons and the new tactics put in place by the winners (including the tactical use of the spear, intended as a unitary structure of tactical use and formed by a flexible mixed cell of warriors) and demonstrated the importance of the modern military concept of the “firepower”. The effectiveness of the longbow, used in mass, was shown against heavily armed French knights, disproving the idea that archers could not fight closed cavalry and heavily armed units.

In the battle, the French knights, protected by armor reinforced with plates, almost exhausted for having marched through a marsh in order to load uphill the opposing lines under a shower of English arrows, were shot down by long English bows. The result was that a good part of the French nobility – perhaps more than a third – died (but estimates vary according to historical sources and chronicles).

As in subsequent battles, while the archers could not easily penetrate the well-protected armor of the knights, they could however hit the sides of the enemy’s horses that were not protected and kill several or unseat the knights, forcing them to fight off with considerable impacts from armor themselves.

The battle was seen by many historians as the beginning of the end of the age of chivalry; in the course of the battle moreover many of the prisoners and the wounded were passed for the weapons. This was contrary to the code of conduct of the cavalry and the riders riding their horses from that moment were no longer considered “invincible” by the infantry.