Becoming a Brill Author. Publishing Ethics. Publishing Guides. General Open Access Information. For Authors. For Academic Societies. For Librarians. Research Funding. Open Access Pricing. Specialty Products. Catalogs, Flyers and Price Lists. Accessing Brill Products. Corporate Social Responsibility. Sales Contacts. Ordering from Brill. Editorial Contacts. Offices Worlwide. Course Adoption. Contact Form. An army of 4, English foot soldiers, along with 1, cavalry, and over 1, military engineers and sappers went over to join him and the bulk of his army in what is today southern Belgium.
Meanwhile, an advance party under his cousin, the Duke of Savoy, had besieged the prosperous northern French town of Saint-Quentin. English sappers under military escort arrived ahead of the rest of the English troops to help in the siege.
The constable and with him the cream of the French nobility were captured. The siege was tightened, and the town was overrun on 27 August Fortescue, arguably the most influential twentieth-century historian of the British army. He was describing a time when King Philip I of England led an English army into the field against the French in the late summer of This article will assess largely overlooked visual evidence in order to re-evaluate what remains the prevailing view, barely modified in more recent scholarship, namely that the English arrived late, did little, and went home early.
Modern historians have been just as much swept along by a similar assumption β perhaps even the prejudice β that stout Englishmen could never have submitted enthusiastically to the will of a foreign monarch. In consequence, scholars are stubbornly mealy-mouthed about the contribution made by English soldiers, sappers, and mounted men-at-arms to the multinational campaign of Scholars persist in latching onto any contemporary criticism of English readiness to fight.
Even that most fair-minded of historians, David Loades, damned with faint praise. Ham is also ignored by Cliff Davies, who has written the most sensitive account of the whole campaign. There was undoubtedly heavy criticism from some observers. But to assume that negative comments must outweigh all praise is to normalize an already tainted view of this war.
