Black Monday 1360 - Historic UK
Black Monday changed the course of the Hundred Years War when a freak hail storm appeared from nowhere, killing over 1000 English soldiers and 6000 horses....
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Black Monday 1360
by Ellen Castelow
“It was not for nothing that my nose fell a-bleeding on Black Monday last, at six o’clock i’ the morning.” William Shakespeare, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, ii. 5‘Black Monday’ refers to Easter Monday, 13th April 1360, so-called after a freak hail storm killed over 1,000 English soldiers during the Hundred Years’ War between England and France.
This terrible storm produced more casualties than any previous battle of the war.
The Hundred Years War had started back in 1337 and was a struggle between England and France over who should control France. In October 1359, Edward III of England crossed the English Channel to France with a huge invading force. By 13th April he had sacked and burned the suburbs of Paris and was now besieging the town of Chartres.
As night fell, a sudden storm blew up. Edward’s troops were camped outside the town and their tents were no match for the tempest that would follow. A huge drop in temperature was followed by lightning, freezing rain, high winds and huge hailstones* which pelted both man and horse. The soldiers screamed in fear and panic as their startled horses stampeded.
The carnage was described as “a foul day, full of myst and hayle, so that men dyed on horseback [sic].”
There was no escape from the killer storm: tents were torn apart by the howling wind, soldiers fled in panic, two of the English commanders were killed and the king was forced to his knees, pleading with God for mercy.
