Juxtapose
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This came from an event early-on in the Hundred-Years war at the battle of Crécy. In 1337, based on his claim to the French throne as a descendant of Philip IV through his mother, Edward III of England refused to do homage to the French King Philip VI. The resulting war that started shortly afterward between France and England continued, with periodic truces, until 1453. The Battle of Crécy, fought on Saturday, August 26, 1346 was the first of several significant battles during which the English longbow triumphed over crossbowmen and armoured knights.
A group of some twelve thousand English troops, most of them archers, defeated a French force treble their own size, firing an estimated half-million arrows over the course of the day. To honor this heroic feat, Edward knighted every single archer who survived the battle (almost all of them - English casulaties were a scant few hundred). Afterwards, they would prove thier rank to the laymen by drawing their sleeves back and showing the mark where bowstring upon bowstring had worn away the flesh on their wrists to an ugly callous. This was their undeniable medal and ticket into the upper class - the "Wrist o' Crécy".
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