Heritage > 'British Battles'

Agincourt

25th October 1415

Henry the Fifth had come to the throne of England in 1413 after a succession of civil wars and revolts. He was of the House of Lancaster and perhaps in a bid to consolidate his position at home as well as to gain further realms he attacked France.

The English and the French were at this time inextricably linked thanks largely to the Norman Conquest of 1066. The ruler of one was always looking to take the crown of the other as a matter of course.

To attack France would take no small achievement, Henry still did not have the total loyalty of some nobles and his relatively small army seemed doomed at the outset.

His force had taken the port of Harfleur and in the autumn of 1413 he and between 6,000 and 12,000 men marched towards Calais to return home. The French, who had as yet not launched a major offensive against the invaders, were stung into action by the calls for some knights to fight for France (and perhaps they knew that the English were suffering from what we would know as combat fatigue). They blocked the road to Calais, which was held by the English, with a force of some 30,000 men. Thus Henry found himself facing an army of nearly three to four times that in strength of his own.

It was near the small country town of Agincourt that the battle-weary English army and the relatively well-rested French faced up to one another.

The French were considered by many, even the English, to be far too powerful for Henry to defeat this time but there was little choice other than to do battle.

The French contingent was lead by the Constable of France, Charles d'Albret, who prior to the battle dismissed both Henry's call for a truce and his more chivalrous call to decide the battle in single combat with the Dauphin, the man whom Henry wished to replace as the next King of France.

The battle lines were drawn. The outlook did not favour Henry and his men, the French were confident of victory.

The French were led from the front by their brightly adorned Knights to neutralise the few English Knights and smash through the lines of infantry and archers beyond. This was the form of the battles of this time. Behind them were the infantry who were to follow their 'betters' into the field and to kill or take captive any English who remained standing.

Any battle, no matter how well-planned by the opposing generals, is at the mercy of the weather. Agincourt proved no different. It had been raining for some days, not unknown in late autumnal Western Europe, and the ground was heavy underfoot.

This was to prove to be the undoing of the French.

Shakespeare tells us of Henry's rousing speech before the battle, this is probably an over-dramatised version of a true event. This was perhaps enough to settle the English resolve. The English placed their faith in England, St George and King Harry. They also placed their faith in their longbows.

The longbow was the most impressive weapon of it's day. A good bowman could strike a target deep into enemy lines and with such a force that the arrow could go straight through the body of the unfortunate enemy. This force was also enough to penetrate the French armour of the Knights.

The French were so confident of success and fearful of the longbow that they threatened to cut off the middle two fingers of any English archers they captured. From this we now have a famous British signal of today in that the English taunted the French by raising their two fingers to show that they were still able to draw their mighty longbows.

The French attacked, their cavalry making slow progress through the muddy fields.

Guillaume De Martel, Sire De Balqueveille bearing the Oriflamme standard.
This sacred banner signified war to the death.

The English archers then opened fire, deadly arrows rained down on what was possibly the cream of the French nobility. Knights and horses fell under the weight of the deadly arrow storm, unable to manoeuvre with any great effect. The French infantry were then assailed by the English time and again. The infantry had seen their cavalry virtually cut to pieces and the sheer aggression shown by the English led to them falling back where they could. One account tells of how some 500 French Knights were lost in the battle, among them d'Albret himself. The same account tells us that a total of 5,000 French were killed that day with the English dead numbering fewer than 200. The English had secured a fantastic victory. The longbow had won the day.

Although Henry and his army left France for home the victory of Agincourt did win him the promise of the French King that he would be entitled as his heir to rule France upon his death. To strengthen these bonds Henry married a French princess, a common diplomatic move in these days.

France was not to suffer the rule of the English kings for too long however and by the mid-15th century only the port of Calais remained in English possession.

Perhaps the main lesson learnt and consequence discovered of the battle was that the age of chivalry, the age of the mounted Knight winning the day was coming to a very rapid close. The longbow, made of good English Yew, had ushered in a new age where the longbowman was now of more military value than an armoured horseman.



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