Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. To appreciate his full relation to the events of his time, we must recognise the decadence of French military glory, which had been so uninterruptedly brilliant during the preceding three centuries, as well as the progress which England had been mak ing in military art. This first made itself felt in the defeat at Crecy, and later in the prostrating disaster at Poitiers.