Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

ew medieval battles have such iconic status,
Mat least for the English-speaking world, as
Agincourt. Courtesy of Shakespeare, ably
assisted by Lawrence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh,
the battle conjures up images of the victory of the
mud-spattered common archer over the shining,
aristocratic French knight. It caps the triumvirate of
longbow victories, topping Crecy and Poitiers.
The narrative of Agincourt is familiar to all.
Henry V invaded France in 1415 in pursuit of his
claim to the French crown. Landing in the west of
the Duchy of Normandy, he besieged Harfleur,
which surrendered after two months when it became
clear that no French army was coming to its relief.
His army then turned to march across Normandy,
aiming for the port of Calais and home. The decision
was less about tweaking the nose of the French king
with a stately progress through territory that had once
been in the hands of the English crown, than about
ensuring sufficient shipping to get his army, already
suffering the hardships of campaign and first effects
of dysentery, home.
The English force struck out across the Norman
countryside very swiftly, taking no time to invest any
of the towns along the route. Henry had issued strict
instructions forbidding the pillaging or burning of the
countryside on pain of death. This may have been a
political gesture - he was claiming lordship of the
land after all - but also ensured that the small and
vulnerable army stayed together and was slowed
neither by stragglers nor by the burden of loot.
On 20 October French heralds endeavoured to
arrange a time and place for a battle, but Henry
equivocated, making plain that his intention was to
l"6cich Ccl lais. The French army had by this time
manoeuvred itself between Henry and his
destination and battle was inevitable.
The armies that faced each other were uneven,
but perhaps not hugely so. The English force left
Southampton with 12,000 men, and whilst many
had fallen it seems that Henry stood between the
woods of Tramencourt and Agincourt with around
1,500 men-at-arms and 7,000 archers. The French
army that faced them was around 12,000 strong,
about two-thirds men-at-arms.
The battle commenced with a charge of French
cavalry, perhaps 800 to 1,000 strong. These 'crack
men-at-arms who had the best mounts', had been
tasked with dispersing the English archers so that the
main wards, all on foot, might advance against the
English with impunity. The first flights of arrows,
'as dense as a hailstorm', broke them, however, and
as they turned and fled they ran into the advancing
men-at-arms, disordering their ranks. The situation
was made worse as the archers' arrows coming into
the flanks of the advancing men-at-arms, 'which by
their very force pierced their sides and the visors of
their helmets', caused them to close in on the centre,
compounding the already densely packed ranks,
disordering and slowing their advance, which was
already hindered by the rutted and muddy ground.
Slowed, disordered but did not stop it. Neither at
Agincourt, nor at the other two 'longbow' victories of
Crecy in 1346 and Poitiers in 1356 were the French
assaults completely stopped by firepower alone. The
archers on the flanks may have continued to put
arrows into the struggling mass of French men-at-
arms, but it was their English counterparts who did
the greatest execution. It was they, not the archers,
who created the piles of dead so vividly described