User:Gog the Mild/sandbox
Opposing forces
[edit]The number of men under Northampton's command has been estimated as either 2,400 or 3,000 English plus Bretons to take the total to between 3,000 and 5,000.[1] It is unclear how many of this force fought at Morlaix, as a small contingent was left to contain the garrison of Morlaix.[2]
There is disagreement among modern historians as to the size of the French army. Three contemporary chroniclers give 20,000; 4,500 cavalry and levy infantry "without number"; and just "a huge army".[3] The modern historian Alfred Burne mentions 15,000 and dismisses earlier estimates of 30,000.[4] Kelly DeVries writes "perhaps ... as many as 15,000", footnoting this to Burne and mentioning other estimates. He accepts that the English were heavily outnumbered, "perhaps by as many as four to one".[5] Jonathan Sumption states that Charles of Blois had 3,000 cavalry, 1,500 professional infantry and an unspecified number of Breton levy infantry, he describes the last as "a motley force".[6]
- ^ DeVries 1998, p. 139 n. 13.
- ^ Sumption 1990, p. 402.
- ^ DeVries 1998, p. 141.
- ^ Burne 1999, p. 71.
- ^ DeVries 1998, p. 139.
- ^ Sumption 1990, pp. 401–402.