Did Edward III have any energy left for his Crécy campaign….?

We all know that Edward III and the Hundred Years War go together, not quite like peaches and cream, but together all the same, and during a truce with France he began to prepare for renewed hostilities when the truce ended. After many long weeks of delay, the date of embarkation for his great army was set for today, 15 May, in 1346 at Portsmouth. His force would eventually land at La Hogue in Normandy on 10 July 1346. It was the commencement of what was to become the English triumph at Crécy just over a month later, on 26 August 1346.

Now, for this present article I’m not concerned with the campaign, but with Edward’s travel arrangements. He went first to Sandwich, and then, when the plans were changed, to Portsmouth, and you’d think that at such a time the king’s attention would be solely on the planned campaign and the arduous matter of assembling and preparing such a huge army as he anticipated. But no, he also had his own pleasure/leisure firmly in mind too, as is shown by the following extract from Life of Edward the Black Prince by Louise Creighton:-

“….[The army] began to gather together at Portsmouth in the beginning of October. The great lords came ready to serve without pay in this war. They were a noble assembly of seven earls, thirty-five barons, and many other gentlemen—all the flower of the English nobility. Thither came the King with all his personal followers. He brought with him thirty falconers on horseback, so that in the intervals of war he might indulge in his favourite pursuit of hawking for water-fowls along the courses of the streams. Besides his falcons, he took with him sixty couples of staghounds, and as many harehounds, that he might hunt when wearied of hawking. Many of the great lords also had their hounds and their falconers with them. Almost every day during the campaign Edward III. and his lords are said to have found time for hunting or hawking….”

And he took them all across to France and kept them close throughout the campaign! Good grief! With that lot I’m surprised he had any time—not to say energy—left for fighting the French!