English History's Most Important Forgotten Battle

True, most people have never heard of this.
"Exactly 800 years ago on Sunday, in a field next to what is now the airport of Lille, a battle was fought which determined the history of England.
Today few people in the UK have heard of Bouvines. It has none of the ring of an Agincourt or a Crecy. Probably that it is because England lost it. But the battle of 27 July, 1214 was just as significant as England's later victories over the French. Maybe more so.
"Bouvines is the most important battle in English history that no-one has ever heard of," says John France, professor emeritus in medieval history at Swansea University."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28484146
Here's some more-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bouvines

 

"It is quite extraordinary that in the two world wars Bouvines church was in the hands of the Germans - but they never pulled down the stained glass windows showing the German emperor, Otto, in headlong flight," says Alain Streck. "Maybe they did not look hard enough!" "Verry interesting." - Arte Johnson Thanks for posting this Gordon.

 

Bouvines , not known ? When you type it on Google you get 490.000 results and their was a huge 800th anniversary this year as well .




http://www.bouvines2014.fr/

 

It tends to be overshadowed by Runnymede, Skip. Just us Mediaeval anoraks that usually familiar with it.

 

The Battle of Cattle?

 

Aye, I can't find any online explanation for the name at all. Maybe Skip will enlighten us.

 

I was just being a smart @$$, Gordon. The Wiki link you referenced has:

Date 27 July 1214 Location Bouvines, County of Flanders,Kingdom of France

 

Guessed that, but I'm always interested in linguistics and you got me thinking.

 

Ah. So you're interested in why the place is called Bouvines. I couldn't find anything either. Maybe it was a big dairy or beef area back in the day.

 

You guys need to buff up your Google-Fu.

French Wikipedia and Google Translate
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouvines&prev=/search%3Fq%3DBouvines,%2Bfrance,%2Bcommune,%2Bname%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3D8rw%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-USfficial%26channel%3Drcs%26biw%3D1609%26bih%3D961

 

I feel appropriately shamed, Takao.

Shoulda thought to use Google Translate. Good find.

 

The student becomes the master, Grasshopper....

 

Well, I wouldn't mind walking on rice paper and grabbing pebbles, but I will not lift a red-hot cauldron with my forearms. That's just a bit over the top IMHO.

Besides, once is enough. h34r:

 

Nice to see Bouvines remembered, a battle that saw the Angevin Kingdom of France slip away. It happened on King John's watch which really didn't help his poor rep.

(I'm British FYI)

Josh.