anding on 1st August 1417, the king appointed his brother, the Duke of Clarence, as Marshal of the Army, and sent the Earls of Huntingdon and Salisbury out with strong contingents to capture the local towns and castes. This achieved, the king marched with all his power on the city of Caen, where he arrived on 14th August. Since Edward III had passed this way seventy years before, Caen had been completely walled, but the Conqueror's great Abbaye aux Hommes, and his wife matilda's Abbaye aux Dames, lay outside the enceinte, and were swiftly occupied. Clarence moved into the Abbye aux Dames, the king into the Conqueror's foundation, while the royal artillery train was brought up and began to bombard the city walls.
The Bombardment went on until 4th September, when the king ordered a general assault. This succeeded in penetrating two main breaches in the outer walls, but the king's assault troops were then driven back by counter-attacks, by a storm of crossbow bolts and by buckets of hot lead, lime and boiling water poured on them from the walls and rooftops by the citizens. The king's troops recoiled before the fury of the townspeople but clung on in the rubble, exchanging bowshots with crossbowmen on the rooftops.
Fortunately for the king, on the far side of the town, the Duke of Clarence was having better luck. His men breached the wall, forced a passage through the town's streets and took the defenders in the rear. The defence collapsed and the English troops rampaged through the streets of the town, cutting down all who stood against them, pillaging the houses and townspeople. By that evening the town was in English hands, but the great castle, which still overtops the buildings of the city, was still held by the French. They held out until 20th September.