n the summer of 1423, when two armies, one English, one Burgundian, gathered at Auxerre to meet a Dauphinist army marching into Burgundy for Bourges. This French army contained a large number of Scots under the Sir John Stewart, who was given command of the entire force, and the two sides met at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne on 31st July 1423. The Dauphinists, numbering perhaps 10,000, were drawn up on to the Eastern bank, the Anglo-Burgundians, totalling perhaps 4,000 men, under the Earl of Salisbury, who had continued to command the English field army after the death of the Duke of Clarence at Baugé, on the Western one.
Neither army was willing to attempt an opposed river crossing, although the Yonne is quite shallow at this point, but after three hours Salisbury ordered the advance and, waist-deep in the water his army begun to cross. The river was just over 50 yards wide and the English archers gave covering fire while the men-at-arms crossed. Meanwhile, another English force under lord Willoughby forced a passage through the Scots across the only bridge and cut the Dauphinist army in two. The Dauphinist fronts soon begun to crumble but the Scots refused to flee and were cut down by the hundred.
Over 3,000 of them fell by the bridge or on the river bank and over 2,000 prisoners were taken, including John Stewart and the commander of the Dauphinist forces, the Count of Vendome. The Dauphinists fled back to the lorie, leaving many prisoners behind and over 6,000 dead. Flushed with victory, the English and Burgundians looked forward to conquering the rest of France.