Crécy

or Cre y . A village in France, department of the Somme, famous for a great victory obtained over the French, under Philip of Valois, by Edward III. of England, August 26, 1346. In this battle fell the king of Bohemia, the Count of Flanders, 8 other sovereign princes, 80 bannerets, 1200 knights, 1500 gentlemen, 4000 men-at-arms, with the Duke of Alençon and the flower of the French nobility. The English army was drawn up in three lines; of which the first was commanded by Edward, prince of Wales, a isted by the Earls of Warwick and Oxford; the second led by the Earls of Arundel and North amp ton; while the third, or body reserve, was posted along the summit of a hill, under the command of the king in person, attended by the Lords Mowbray, Mortimer, and others. The English lo in this battle was very small.