The Battle of Caen took place during the First Aquitainian War It was fought mostly between England and France, with Breton troops also present at the battle.
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The battle began in the early hours of the morning when approximately 2000 English troops landed on the beaches just east of Caen, while the English 4th Fleet blockaded Caen's ports, denying the weaker French navy and merchant ships access out of the port, followed by a heavy shelling by the fleet's carracks, destroying the city's coastal dockyards and buildings.
The Siege[]
Following the blockade and shelling of Caen, an army consisting of about 6400 English and 800 Breton mercenaries marching from English-occupied Brittany, reached to the city gates, laying siege to the city, from the west and southern side, while the troops landed just east of Caen, began their encirclement and siege of the city from the eastern side.
The Battle[]
After little over a nine-day siege, the 12,60- man French army arrived from Paris, with high morale, but poorly equipped, with a weak supply line.
The French army split into three regiments - the first regiment, consisting of most of the archers, and some of the infantryman, launched a sudden attack from the south of the city, facing Paris at dawn, where the English army present in that area, were still having their breakfast, giving only a very few time to arm themselves before the archers fired a volley of arrows over the tents, followed by an assault by the French infantryman, successfully reaching the city and freeing it from complete siege.
The second regiment, containing the army's light cavalry, swept across the fields and met the English beside the Orne river, causing chaos among the English soldiers present, who either swam across the river or were cut down by the French cavalry. Only a lucky few reached the west bank of the river without drowning.
After news of the successful assault on the Orne river, the French third regiment, consisting of 6200 troops, now confident of a final victory in Caen and of turning the tides of the First Aquitainian War, began their final assault on the slightly outnumbered English-Breton army inside the now broken walls of the city, expecting the French to arrive after their assault on the English east of the city. By the time the French army reached through the broken wall into the city, a few blocks across to the enemy camp, the remaining English army, along with the Breton mercenaries, were ready on the defensive, armed with pikemen to the front, archers to the back and mercenary swordsmen in the middle.
The French heavy cavalry came first, galloping across the wide avenue when the English archers launched a volley, killing a considerable number of the cavalrymen and their horses, but not enough to delay French morale - the heavy cavalry, followed immediately by the infantrymen, lunged their spears forward and collided directly with the English pikemen, killing and mortally injuring many troops on both sides. Following the deadly collision, French infantrymen and Breton mercenaries fought savagely, some whom lost their sword in the chaos that followed fighting in hand-to-hand combat.
The English-Breton army, although outnumbered, eventually prevailed, using advantage of their better equipped weapons, maneuvering their archers to surround the disarrayed fighting between the French and Bretons, and, according to an inhabitant of Caen who was alleged to have seen the battle across the street through the crack in his door, the English army fired the rest of their arrows onto the soldiers, killing not only the French, but the Breton mercenaries, likely to ensure minimal further English losses and to not need to pay the Breton mercenaries.
Whether or not the English killed the Bretons supposedly on their own side, or that they launched the volley when they saw that all of the Bretons were dead, killed by the French army is unknown, but it is known that the English ended the battle in a decisive victory for the English, who marched through the city, forcing the French regiments to surrender, and slaughtered any who attempted to retreat - the second French regiment was the only to successfully retreat from the battle of Caen.
Aftermath[]
Following the French's overwhelming defeat at Caen, France immediately made peace with England; in the peace deal, John of Montfort became the duke of Brittany, All of Gascony was ceded to England and Flanders was given the Artois region in northern France; now that England and France had a truce, England began their invasion of Scotland, whose independence was guaranteed by the French prior to the First Aquitainian War, leaving a weakened and vulnerable Scotland with no allies into a forced peace deal.
The level of how much the Battle of Caen affected its inhabitants varied, with people near the coast and people to the western part of the city being most affected, along with the fact that during the nine-day siege they'd become so hungry as to begin eating rats, which may have been a primary cause of the minor plague a few months on.
Caen's walls to the west was crumbled and all of its ports and coastal buildings completely destroyed, largely reducing French trade power in the English channel until the city was fully rebuilt in 1408, a mere six years before the Second Aquitainian War began.