A chevauchée was a campaign of organized destruction intended to break resistance and make neighboring communities submit. Its logic was exemplary violence: devastate one place so that others opened their gates without another assault. Later family and national memories emphasized honorable conduct while filtering out much of this cruelty. Chivalric reputation could therefore coexist with warfare directed at property, livelihoods, and civilians.
Notable Point · 18:38-24:49
Chevauchees expose the brutality behind chivalric memory
Edwardian chevauchees used deliberate devastation to coerce communities, complicating later images of the Hundred Years' War as an age of honor.