He Didn't Want A Battle. He Wanted To Watch You Starve.

In October 1355, Edward of Woodstock (The Black Prince) rode out of Bordeaux with roughly 5,000–6,000 Anglo-Gascon soldiers and launched one of the most devastating campaigns of the Hundred Years’ War: not a siege, not a march on Paris, but a fast-moving campaign of destruction across southern France known as a chevauchée. This video explains how medieval warfare was not always about castles, knights, and glorious battlefield charges. Sometimes, strategy looked like burning mills, destroying bridges, looting market towns, and turning a wealthy province into an economic wound. The Black Prince’s 1355 raid through Languedoc traveled roughly 600 miles, struck one of the richest regions in France, and attacked the French kingdom where it hurt most: its food supply, tax base, infrastructure, and political legitimacy. But this story is not just about clever tactics. It is also about the darker reality of medieval strategy. The suffering fell overwhelmingly on ordinary people: farmers, millers, merchants, townspeople, and families whose homes and livelihoods became targets in a dynastic war. The chevauchée reminds us that “strategy” can be brilliant and brutal at the same time. Black Prince chevauchée, Edward of Woodstock, Hundred Years War strategy, 1355 Languedoc raid, medieval economic warfare, Edward III France campaign, Battle of Poitiers background, Battle of Crécy strategy, English longbow warfare, medieval raids, chevauchée explained, Black Prince France raid #History #MedievalHistory #HundredYearsWar #BlackPrince #MilitaryHistory #EdwardIII #France #England #WarStories #MedievalWarfare