History is battle oriented since battles marked the course of history of Nations and determined to a great extent the destiny of people.
Bouvain,probably should be given a greater attention in school books,but
its real importance lies in the field of Military History and it is a shining beacon in the darkness of Middle Ages in Europe,where the achievements of arms are particularly mediocre,with the exception of Bouvin,Bertrand du Gueslin,and the feats of the mongol cavalry.
The first lesson from it is that the French forgot the lessons of such great victory;if they hadn't forgot, the battles of Crecy Poitiers and Azincourt would have had a different outcome.
What happened in Bouvain was this:the king of France was facing 50000 men(the centre consisting of 30000 Burgundian infantry) of the Imperial army,three times as many as the French;when both armies stood in their battle lines,theFrench line was the one third of the Imperial line,since the French knights were in'battles' of 700 knights,dense formations in a narrow front.When he saw that,father Gerin,who was a Royal herald and and at the same time chief of the king's Staff,ordered the various commanders:"extend your lines,so no enemy will ouflank you,face front".When the array was restructured,the French battle line had the same length with the Imperial one but three times less density.The Burgundians were first to advance,very slow and cumbersome formation.The French centre pinned down the Burgundians,the right of the French broke the Imperial left,St Paul and Melun multiplied their attacks agaist the flanks of the Burgundian centre and the Imperial lines disintergrated.
The medieval cronichlers overexaggerated numbers,but the above numbers are indicative of the situation.The french forgot what Guerin had done and we see them in the Hundred Years War in dense formations,easily cut down by the English longbowmen.