2 – Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt
The Battle of Agincourt is a vehicle for many themes. The arrogance of the French knightly class, the pucker of the English peasantry, the devastating power of the longbow and the beginning of the end of close-quarters combat. The battle also featured some of the least chivalric episodes of the Age of Chivalry, not least Henry V’s execution of French POWs or the longbowmen who marauded the battlefield, stabbing fallen French knights between the visors as they lay drowning and writhing in the mud. Agincourt is a key component of the Anglo-French rivalry still felt today. What few people know, though, is that the battle came at the climax of a disastrous campaign and long retreat towards the English Channel.
To say that Henry’s plan didn’t—for want of a better phrase—go entirely to plan would be something of an understatement. To force the issue of his claim to the French throne, he landed at the coastal city of Harfleur in August 1415 and, with his army of 8,000 men, began laying siege to the city. However, a series of unexpected events (namely the strong resistance of the outnumbered but determined defenders and an untimely outbreak of dysentery amongst Henry’s ranks) meant the siege took much longer than expected. And once the city had been taken, its walls were so badly damaged that Henry had to leave a large garrison there to hold it.
Deciding not to march on Paris, Henry instead took the remnants of his decimated (and presumably still dysenteric) army and began skirmishing across the French countryside, raiding his way toward the English-held port city of Calais. The whole time, however, he was being pursued by a large French force trying to capitalize on a golden opportunity to remove the troublesome king once and for all. Henry’s flailing army was eventually outmaneuvered. And on October 25, 1415, they were forced to fight the numerically superior French on the sodden farmland of Agincourt, Artois. But this time it would be the French who would experience a dramatic reversal of fortune.
Launching themselves headlong across churned-up, sludgy farmland into the English longbowmen and their defensive stakes, French casualties rapidly started mounting. As the French—many of whom were hungover as sin from the night before—fell, the weight of their armor and wave after wave of men crushing into them from behind stopped them from getting up, making them easy pickings for the lightly clad English. Furthermore, Henry’s steadfast leadership throughout the battlefield was exemplary—much more so than the incapacitated French king Charles VI who, due to mental illness, believed he was made out of glass and therefore too fragile to fight. Ultimately, the English suffered around 600 losses to the French 7,000-10,000. And Henry was able to march back to Calais, and later England, a hero.