Battle of Poiters : took place on 19 September 1356 near Poitiers.  This was the second great English victories over the French during the Edwardian Phase.

Although the battle itself did not take place until mid-September, the English and French forces were on the move as early as August.  The Black Prince had been launching raids throughout north-western France.  Meanwhile, King John II of France attempted to catch Prince Edward’s army in order to eliminate it.  Edward received news that John’s army was approaching so the English decided to retreat.  The French caught up with the English a few miles southwest of the town of Poiters.

A veteran of the battle of Crécy, at which he had fought when he was only sixteen years old, the Black Prince decided on the same tactical scheme employed at that earlier battle. He positioned his troops in a strongly defensive position, in a plain surrounded by natural obstacles, such as a creek on the left and a wood on the back. The luggage wagons, with a great amount of plunder, remained along the old Roman road, the main route from Poitiers to Bordeaux, to give protection to his weak right side. All his men dismounted and were organized in two, or perhaps three units, with longbowmen placed in a V-formation on both flanks.  The Black Prince kept a small cavalry unit hidden in the woods at the rear.

The attacking French forces were divided in four parts. At the front were around 300 elite knights, commanded by general Clermont and accompanied by German mercenary pikemen. The purpose of this group was to charge the archers and eliminate the threat they posed. These were followed by three groups of infantry (dismounted cavalry) commanded by the Dauphin (future King Charles V of France) and the Duke of Orléans and King John.

At the beginning of the battle, the English simulated flight on their left wing. This provoked a hasty charge by the French knights against the archers. However, the English were expecting this and quickly attacked the enemy, especially the horses, with a shower of arrows. Prominent chronicler Jean Froissart writes that the French armour was invulnerable to the English arrows, that the arrowheads either skidded off the armor or shattered on impact. English history of the battle disputes this, as some claim that the narrow bodkin point arrows they used have been proven capable of penetrating most plate armour of that time period. While tests have been done to support this with fixed pieces of flat metal, armour was curved, so the point is debatable. Given the following actions of the archers, it seems likely Froissart was correct. The armour on the horses was weaker on the sides and back, so the archers moved to the sides of the cavalry and shot the horses in the flanks. This was a popular method of stopping a cavalry charge, as a falling horse often destroyed the cohesion of the enemy's line. The results were devastating.

This attack was followed by the Dauphin's infantry, who engaged in heavy fighting, but withdrew to regroup. The next wave of infantry under Orléans, seeing that the Dauphin's men were not attacking, turned back and panicked. This stranded the forces led by the King himself. This was a formidable fighting force, and the English archers were out of arrows: the archers joined the infantry in the fight and some of both groups mounted horses to form an improvised cavalry. Combat was hard, but the Black Prince still had a mobile reserve hidden in the woods, which were able to circle around and attack the French in the flank and rear. The French were fearful of encirclement and attempted to flee. King John was captured.

The result was a decisive French defeat, and a catastrophe for the nation. France would be asked to pay a ransom equivalent to twice the country's yearly income to have the king returned.  John was permitted to return to France to try to raise the required funds.  The French people (and nobility) were unhappy to pay such a huge ransom; therefore, King John II handed himself back over to English custody.  He claimed that he could not pay the required ransom and he died a few months later in captivity.

In many ways, Poitiers was a repeat of the battle of Crécy showing once again that tactics and strategy can overcome a disadvantage in numbers.