The second part of the look at Flemish infantry in action.
The Battle of Arques, 4 April 1303
The war between the Flemish insurgents and the French continued after the French defeat at Courtrai. In March 1303 William of Jülich had raised an army in the Westhoek of Flanders, and assembled the troops at Cassel. On 3 April, he advanced to a point close to the border near Arques, not far from St Omer.
The Flemish offensive against St Omer began on Maundy Thursday, 4 April. The Flemings marched in five divisions: first came the men from Ypres, dressed all in red, then two units from St Winoksbergen and its neighbourhood, finally two corps under William of Jülich, consisting of contingents from the Cassel and Furnes district. There was a considerable space between each of these units. The Ypres men crossed the Neuf-fossé and the river Aa and immediately stormed the village of Arques.
The French garrison, which consisted of only sixty bidauts, could not stand up for long against the assault and was killed and the fortress set on fire. The French commander at St Omer, Jacques de Bayonne, summoned his heavy cavalry with a trumpet signal, which started a panic in the fortress. The French nobles were afraid of the Flemings, and hastened to confession before the fight. Priests at the crossroads granted absolution to all who would fight against the Flemings.
Jacques de Bayonne commanded more than 1,300 heavy cavalry, accompanied by foot-soldiers. The dense units of cavalry left the market-square, their banners flying, and advanced against the Flemings. When the French leaders came outside the city, they saw that the men of Ypres were already very close, so they summoned the rest of their foot-soldiers out of the city and drew them up in front of the hospital outside the city walls.
In the French garrison of St Omer there were many leliaarts, Flemish partisans of the king, who knew the district where they formerly lived very well. They knew all about the marching order of the five Flemish detachments. While part of their foot-soldiers had to hold off the men of Ypres in front of the hospital, and could retreat into the city if they had to, the knights of Jacques de Bayonne and the rest of the foot-soldiers left this Flemish unit on their left, and advanced towards Blendecques.
There they turned northwards, crossed the watercourses, and prepared themselves for an attack on the two St Winoksbergen detachments. At the same time, they noticed a whole column of Flemish army waggons. The two Flemish corps thought themselves securely protected by the Ypres men, and had taken no precautions against a French raid. While the French nobles were preparing their formations for an attack, a good number of their foot-soldiers went off to attack the column of Flemish waggons.
These were unprotected, and the men in charge were usually not combatant troops. These poorly equipped men were soon put to flight or killed, and the rapacious French foot-soldiers went straight back to St Omer, with the booty they had seized. The French nobles meanwhile formed up in five units. They were reinforced by 300 heavy cavalry under the burgrave Jean de Lens and Jean de Vervins, so that the total of the French nobles was 1,600.
The French nobles deployed their units opposite the second of the corps from St Winoksbergen, which they hoped to take by surprise. When these French 'battles' appeared out of the wood where they had been hiding, the Flemings drew themselves up at once in battle order.
Jacques de Bayonne had briefed his cavalry about his plan: he meant to destroy the men from St Winoksbergen before the other Flemish corps, which were on both sides of him, could rush to their aid. With his 1,600 heavy cavalry he could risk attacking a rather weak detachment of the Flemish army. At a trumpet signal two 'battles' made a frontal attack on the Flemings, while another 'battle' charged the left and the fourth 'battle' the right. Oudart de Maubuisson stayed in reserve, ready to check or delay the Flemish units that might come to help.
The men of St Winoksbergen were thus attacked by nearly 1,300 heavy cavalry. They defended themselves bravely, so stoutly that one of the French sources says that they fought as if they were all Rolands from the chanson de geste. They laid about them with their pikes and goedendags and wounded many horses. But the French cavalry pressed home their attack with overwhelming force, and thanks to their attacks on both the Flemish flanks they succeeded in more or less surrounding the little detachment. They rode their heavy chargers into the ranks of the foot-soldiers, and made them gradually give way. The Flemings hoped help would come quickly.
The second detachment from St Winoksbergen came to their aid at once. Oudart de Maubuisson was afraid that this corps might surround the French nobles, and he decided to attack forthwith. With their standard-bearer in front, the 300 heavy cavalry turned to the left and charged the Flemings. The cavalry on the heavy chargers rode down the Flemish soldiers, and French foot followed and killed the trampled Flemings or took them prisoner. This Flemish detachment was thrown back, but they managed to take refuge in a garden and there to re-form their ranks.
Maubuisson however got reinforcements, for the lord of Pickigny rushed to his side from the other band of French knights with about sixty heavy cavalry. The two units from St Winoksbergen emerged with heavy casualties. According to the Franciscan friar from Ghent whom we have quoted before, they lost 1,000 men, of whom the majority were servants and waggoners: luckily for them the French heavy cavalry were unable to pursue them, for William of Jülich hastened up with two powerful corps.
Since the prince had only a few knights with him, he gave the order for every man to fight on foot. He made his two groups into a single strong formation, which he drew up in the form of a crown. On the outer edge he stationed his bravest and best-equipped men. Meanwhile the French nobles had regrouped, and were advancing against new opponents. They succeeded in capturing William of Jülich's horse, which was led away too late, but they did not manage to press home their attack to the point of hand-to-hand fighting. They realized that there was no hope of success against the powerful and tightly packed units of William.
Then they tried to lure the Flemings out of their formation in order to ride down individual men, and they sought at the same time to find a weak spot in the crown-formation. But those cavalrymen who came too close to the Flemings were knocked down and killed, and those stout-hearted Flemings who attacked them in small groups were also killed.
The opponents stood their ground, facing each other for nearly two hours. Then the French leaders decided to retreat, for their horses were tired, and many of them had been wounded in the first fighting. They carried out an orderly and methodical retreat, one formation of knights moving out behind another, each under the protection of part of the army, standing ready to charge.
But when William saw this, he advanced to attack the enemy. Then the French troops halted, and made ready for a general charge. As soon as the Flemings halted, the French advanced once more: in this way William forced the enemy to halt five or six times.
The French nobility had some uncomfortable moments as they approached the Neuf-fossé. They hoped to cross this obstacle at Arques, and then the river Aa, in order to return to St Omer by the shortest way, but their retreat was cut off by the men of Ypres, who blocked the crossing of both watercourses.
The men of Ypres had drawn themselves up in crown formation, and seemed unassailable. The French cavalry therefore quickly went to Blendecques, and from there back to St Omer, where the inhabitants were awaiting the outcome of the fighting with fearful apprehension. The French foot-soldiers who had plundered the waggons, were intercepted by the men of Ypres on their way back to St Omer, and suffered heavy losses. William continued his advance up to the city walls of St Omer, remaining there till the next day, but the French cavalry did not appear outside the city till the Flemings had gone away again.
Arques is a very interesting example of warfare in the period 1302–1304 in that we can assess the strength and weaknesses of the French heavy cavalry in one and the same battle. These armored noblemen were able to encircle average or comparatively weak Flemish units and destroy them, but they dared not make heavy charges against powerful and densely packed troops. They had the great advantage of mobility, and could therefore fight the battle whenever and wherever they chose. The Flemish foot on the other hand had to fight defensive battle continually and their success depended on whether the French cavalry dared make a big attack, followed by a violent mêlée. Guiart gives a loss of 300 men in the French army for the battle of Arques, we do not know how many heavy cavalry that involved, but we can assume that it was probably a large number, while as we have heard the Flemings lost around 1,000 men.
The battle of Arques was a Flemish victory in that William of Jülich remained in charge of the battlefield, and this counted as a victory in the Middle Ages. He managed to drive off the enemy, but at enormous cost to the Flemish army, and the victory thus gained yielded little result. William was criticized in Flanders in view of the fact that the losses were so enormous: the Franciscan friar reproached him for having left too much space between the corps of his army, and because he came too late to help the men from St Winoksbergen, who advanced without due care.
