Battle of Agincourt

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{{Infobox Military Conflict |conflict=Battle of Agincourt |partof=the Hundred Years' War |image=Image:Agincour.JPG |caption=The Battle of Agincourt, 15th century miniature |date=25 October (St. Crispin's Day) 1415 |place=Agincourt, France |result=Decisive English victory |combatant1=Kingdom of England |combatant2=Kingdom of France |commander1=Henry V of England |commander2=Charles d'Albret |strength1=5,900 troops 900 men-at-arms and 5,000 archers (Longbowmen) |strength2=36,000 troops 11,200 mounted men-at-arms, 18,000 dismounted men-at-arms, 6,800 crossbowmen(few archers) |casualties1=150-250 |casualties2=12,000-18,000 dead or wounded with over 1,000 prisoners }} Template:Campaignbox Hundred Years' War The Battle of Agincourt (French: Bataille d'Azincourt) was fought on 25 October 1415 in northern France as part of the Hundred Years' War. The battle was fought on a rainy day, the feast day of Saint Crispin, between the English and Welsh army of King Henry V and the French army of King Charles VI. The latter was not commanded by the incapacitated King himself, but by the Constable, Charles d'Albret, and various notable French noblemen of the Armagnac party.

The battle is notable for the use of the English longbow and its effect being an early demonstration of the modern military concept of fire power. The battle was also immortalised (and somewhat fictionalised) by William Shakespeare in his history play Henry V. Though according to tradition the English won a decisive victory despite being outnumbered, new research contests that claim.

1 The campaign
2 The battle
- 2.1 Notable casualties
- 2.2 Sir Peers Legh
3 Modern re-assessment of Agincourt
- 3.1 Were the English as outnumbered as traditionally thought?
4 Popular myths
5 See also
6 Bibliography
7 External references
8 Notes

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The campaign

Henry V had invaded France for several reasons. He hoped that by fighting a popular foreign war he would strengthen his position at home. He wanted to improve his financial position by gaining lands in France which would secure him revenue. He also wanted to take nobles prisoner who would either pay ransoms or extort money from the French King in exchange for returning home. The latter tactic is a version of "Danegeld", which English kings had successfully employed before. Evidence also suggests that several lords in the region of Normandy promised him their lands when they died, but the King of France confiscated their lands instead.

Henry's army landed in northern France on 13 August 1415, and besieged the port of Harfleur. The siege of Harfleur took longer than expected. The town surrendered on 22 September, and the English army did not leave until 8 October. The campaign season was coming to an end, and the English Army had suffered many casualties through disease. Henry decided to move most of his army (roughly 9,000) to the port of Calais, the only English stronghold in northern France, where they could re-equip over winter for the campaign season of 1416.

During the siege, the French had been able to call up a large feudal army which d'Albret deployed skilfully between Harfleur and Calais, mirroring the English manoeuvres along the river Somme, thus preventing them from reaching Calais without a major confrontation. The end result was that d'Albret managed to force Henry into fighting a battle that, given the state of his army, he would have preferred to avoid.

The catastrophic defeat that the French suffered at the Battle of Agincourt allowed Henry to fulfill all his campaign objectives. He was recognised by the French in the Treaty of Troyes (1420) as regent and heir to the French throne. This was cemented by his marriage to Catherine of Valois, the daughter of King Charles VI.

Henry V did not live to inherit the throne of France. In 1422, while securing his position against further French opposition, he died of dysentery at the age 34, two months before the death of Charles VI. He was succeeded by his young son, Henry VI, during whose reign the English were expelled from all of France except Calais by French military successes, encouraged by Joan of Arc, under the new French king, Charles VII.

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The battle

The battle was fought in the defile formed by the wood of Agincourt and that of Tramecourt, at the northern exit of which the army under d'Albret, Constable of France, had placed itself so as to bar the way to Calais. The night of 24 October was spent by the two armies on the ground, and the English had but little shelter from the heavy rain which fell. Early on the 25th, Henry deployed his army (now only 900 men-at-arms and 5,000 archers because of disease (mainly dysentery)). It is probable that the usual three "battles" were drawn up in line, each with its mounted knights and men-at-arms on the flanks and the dismounted men-at-arms in the centre. The English knights were clad in sturdy iron helmets and short-sleeved chain-mail tunics beneath studded leather vests, and were placed shoulder to shoulder four deep. The English archers being thrown forward in wedge-shaped salients with spikes in the ground to cause a horse charge to veer off, almost exactly as at the Battle of Crécy. Many English archers were naked below the waist due to the continuing dysentery of the march, and the English's last meal was four days previous. Once in formation the archers were not allowed to leave and had to relieve themselves right where they stood.

The French were arrayed in three great lines called "battles" with knights in each packed with 40 men deep. On each French flank were the mounted men-at-arms(2,200 in total, 1,100 on each flank), most of whom were the 'cream' of France, including 12 princes of royal blood, while the centre contained dismounted men-at-arms and the rear was made up of 9,000 mounted men-at-arms. Altogether, there were roughly 36,000 Frenchmen compared to 5,900 Englishmen.

An important factor in the battle was the terrain, which was very muddy from recent rains. This deep mud favored the English force because, once knocked to the ground, the heavily armored French knights would find it very difficult to stand back up, eliminating the French knights as an effective force of arms. The mud was deep enough that more than one knight suffocated after being knocked into it. The deep mud also served to prevent the French artillery from taking part in the battle. The French crossbowmen were, as usual, relegated to the rear of the knights and men-at-arms, much to d'Albret disapproval, even though he him self pushed to the front. French accounts state that prior to the battle Henry V gave a speech reassuring his nobles that if the French prevailed the English nobles would be spared death – being captured and ransomed instead. However, the common soldier would have no such luck and therefore he told them they had better fight for their lives. Image:AgincourtMap.jpg

For three hours after sunrise there was no fighting; then Henry, finding that the French would not advance, moved his army further into the defile. Near 400 yards from the French line the archers dug-in pointed wooden stakes called palings, at an angle, to ward off cavalry charges, and opened the engagement with a single flight of arrows. It should be noted that these palings were an innovation. At Crécy and Poitiers, two other similar battles between the French and the English, the archers had not had them.

The French force was not an army but a group of knights who came together at the request of Charles VI. They were undisciplined and careless of the lessons of Crécy and Poitiers, and were quickly stung into action. The French mounted men-at-arms charged to destroy the archers, only to be decimated and then driven back in confusion. The constable himself headed the leading line of dismounted men-at-arms, but weighed down by their armour and sinking deep into the mud with every step, they struggled to reach and engage the English men-at-arms. Wallowing in the mud, they were easy targets for the English bowmen. Once the French reached the English line it became worse: the French were far too closely packed to even lift their weapons to attack the enemy. However, as casualties mounted and prisoners were taken the French started to engage the line properly and with strong effects. The thin line of the defenders was pushed back and King Henry was almost beaten to the ground. But at this moment the archers, using hatchets, swords and other weapons, penetrated the gaps in the now disordered French, who could not cope with their unarmoured assailants, and were slaughtered or taken prisoner. The second line of the French came on, only to be engulfed in the mêlée. Its leaders, like those of the first line, were killed or captured, and the commanders of the third line sought and found their death in the battle, while their men rode off to safety.

The only success for the French was a sally from Agincourt castle behind the lines. Ysambart D'Agincourt seized the King's baggage. Thinking his rear was under attack and that they would then arm the prisoners, Henry ordered the slaughter of the captives, (who could easily have armed themselves with the weapons strewn about the field). The nobles and senior officers, wishing to maintain their ability to ransom the captives, refused the task and the job fell to the common soldiers. Henry's actions may have been savage, but if the captives were to arm themselves, his army would have been crushed between the French forces and the prisoners.

In the morning Henry came back to the battlefield and killed any wounded French who had survived the night in the open. All the nobility had already been taken away and any commoners left on the field were too badly injured to survive without medical care. Total English losses were put at thirteen men-at-arms (including Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York, a grandson of Edward III) and about 100 of the foot soldiers. The French lost 12,000 at least and more wounded, including the constable, three dukes, five counts and 90 barons (see below); 1000 more were taken prisoner, amongst them the Duke of Orléans (the famous poet Charles d'Orléans) and Jean Le Maingre, marshall of France.

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Notable casualties

Antoine of Burgundy, Duke of Brabant and Limburg (b. 1384)
Philip of Burgundy, Count of Nevers and Rethel (b. 1389)
Charles I d'Albret, Count of Dreux, the Constable of France
John II, Count of Bethune (b. 1359)
John I, Duke of Alençon (b. 1385)
Frederick of Lorraine, Count of Vaudemont (b. 1371)
Robert, Count of Marles and Soissons
Edward III, Duke of Bar (the Duchy of Bar lost its independence as a consequence of his death)
John VI, Count of Roucy
Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York (b. 1373)

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Sir Peers Legh

When Sir Peers Legh was wounded in the Battle of Agincourt his Mastiff stood over him and protected him for many hours through the battle. Although Legh later died, the Mastiff returned to Legh's home and was the foundation of the Lyme Hall Mastiffs. Five centuries later this pedigree figured prominently in founding the modern English Mastiff breed.

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Modern re-assessment of Agincourt

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Were the English as outnumbered as traditionally thought?

Until recently, Agincourt has been feted as one of the greatest victories in British military history, but in Agincourt, A New History (2005), Anne Curry makes the claim that the scale of the English triumph at Agincourt was overstated for almost six centuries.

According to her research, the French still outnumbered the English and few Welsh, but only by a factor of three to two (12,000 Frenchmen pitted against 8,000 Englishmen and Welshmen). According to Curry, the Battle of Agincourt was a "myth constructed around Henry to build up his reputation as a king". The legend of the English as underdogs at Agincourt was definitely given credence in popular English culture with William Shakespeare's Henry V in 1599. In the speech before the battle, Shakespeare puts in the mouth of Henry V the famous line "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers".However, it will be years before other historians will have been able to go over her data and decide whether her theory is correct.

Some early reviewers of the book have been enthusiastic, but it remains to be seen whether her thesis will stand up to scrutiny after the book has been subjected to the critique of a wider scholarly audience.

A later book by Juliet Barker Agincourt: The King, the Campaign, the Battle claims 6,000 English and Welsh fought against 36,000 French, that is, odds of six to one, from a French heraldic source. The same test of wider scholarly scrutiny is also yet to be withstood. These are the numbers that most historians now would rely on.

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Popular myths

It has long been told that the famous "two-fingers salute" and/or "V sign" derives from the gestures of English archers, fighting at Agincourt. The myth claims that the French cut off two fingers on the right hand of captured archers and that the gesture was a sign of defiance by those who were not mutilated.

This may have some basis in fact - Jean Froissart (circa 1337-circa 1404) was a historian as the author of The Chronicle, a primary document that is essential to an understanding of Europe in the fourteenth century and to the twists and turns taken by the Hundred Years' War. The story of the English waving their fingers at the French is told in the first person account by Froissart, however the description is not of an incident at the Battle of Agincourt, but rather at the siege of a castle in another incident during the Hundred Years War. Also, Froissart is known to have died before the Battle of Agincourt. It was most probably used at Agincourt but was not invented there.

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Bibliography

Agincourt: A New History by Anne Curry. Pub:Tempus UK 1 May 2005. ISBN 0752428284
Agincourt: The King, the Campaign, the Battle by Juliet Barker. Pub: Little, Brown 6 October 2005. ISBN 0316726486
Military Heritage did a feature on King Henry V Battle of Agincourt (Military Heritage, October 2005, Volume 7, No. 2, pp. 36 to 43); ISSN 1524-8666.
The Face of Battle by John Keegan offered fresh interpretations of the battle at the time it was published, and a scientific look at how horses behave on the battlefield; it is a study of three classic English battles - Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme.

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External references

{{cite web

| title=Battlefield Detectives - Agincourt
| work=Crowd Dynamics Ltd Battlefield Detectives - Agincourt
| url=http://www.crowddynamics.com/Battlefield%20Detectives/Agincourt.htm
| accessdate=September 9 | accessyear=2005
}}