The story of Agincourt and King Henry’s plans to substantiate his claim on the French throne across a narrow muddy, recently tiled field with an army starved, march weary and suffering from sever dysentery is a powerful tale of true chivalry and bravery over arrogance.

These days the field itself is covered in tall grasses and some of the woods that hemmed the battle in and affected the outcome are gone but it is still a place of commemoration steeped in the legend of the great battle. While the original museum at Agincourt left a lot to be desired the current exhibition is excellent and features concise information presented in an interesting and varied style that will be enjoyable to both pernickety historians and families. There are mannequins dressed in battle garb with projected faces, which though a little alien will definitely help keep children interested, a scale model of the battlefield and several very interesting relics. Obviously the best time to visit is in October when battle commemorations are held.

The story of the Battle of Agincourt:

Henry, the leader of a powerful and disciplined force had set of for France in what records tell us was a fleet of 1500 ships after the French had launched repeated raids on the British coast line. Henry was confident his excellent archers could easily defeat the French, however once the British arrived they suffered a series of set backs and on the eve of the final battle, Henry and only a small portion of his men, five thousand archers and nine hundred men at arms, who had been marching for more than a fortnight after setting off with food enough for only eight days gathered on the edge of the field in total silence. Historians say that it wasn’t only the exhaustion of the men and the almost certainty that they were going to die in battle the following day that made them silent, Henry was also threatening to cut of the ears of those who spoke. On the other side of the field, the French force of almost thirty thousand made merry, shouted insults at the English and planned which of the English nobility they planned to capture would be worth the greatest bounty.

On the day of the battle both forces were ready early and stood facing each other off separated by about a thousand yards. Henry knew his forces would only become weaker the longer they waited to fight whilst there was some consideration in the French camps for a plan to wait for the English to starve without fighting them. At around eleven in the morning, while the French forces, lacking discipline, were starting to wander from their formations, Henry’s forces moved.

England’s archers were one of Henry’s strengths and the barrage of arrows they fired into the disorganised French rabble was to set the tone for the rest of the battle. The following French cavalry charge was a disaster, as was the first charge of French men at arms who had to squeeze their ranks through the narrowest part of the field in reach the English lines which meant they had little room to fight when they encountered the line. The rapidly falling French bodies against the English line created obstacles for the supporting waves to negotiate and the heavily armoured men at arms fighting through thick mud and with little space fell victims to the English archers who picked up the weapons of the fallen French and in small groups began to surround them.

Surrendered French prisoners began to out number the English forces and fearing they would don fallen weapons Henry ordered prisoners to be slaughtered. This instilled fear into the as yet un-mobilised third French line who dispersed, leaving Henry the victor able to continue his campaign and in 1420 to become regent to the French throne.

Written by  Anthony Harrison.

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