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Battle of Agincourt

February 06
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The Battle of Agincourt is one of the most well known in English history. Well documented, at least from the view of the English, was the strength of the opposition and how they (French) were defeated by a weak, hungry army through the use of the longbow. It is hard to decide whether the English were truly accurate, or making up stories as propaganda against the French.

Calais was Henry's main objective. Henry V had just retreated from a siege at the town of Harfleur and was hoping to make Calais where he intended to cross the channel back to England. At the time Henry was being pursued by Constable d'Albret, a French noble who had gathered a large army with the intent on crushing the English before they escaped to Calais. Henry had the lead, but was interrupted when he came across the river Somme. Instead of forging the flooded river and fighting the resistance on the other side, Henry led his troops to a new crossing.

By the time Henry had set up camp, d'Albert had caught up with him. Outside the town of Maisoncelles the two army's waited until down in almost total silence. On October 25, 1415, 1,900 English troops, of which a great deal were archers (some sources say 1,000) stood opposite the French troops on a muddy field. The French numbered (again, this figure may prove to be incorrect) 20,000 strong, with 1,600 heavily armored knights. To protect themselves, the archers planted 8ft. long stakes into the ground to form a thicket line, which would impale the horses if the cavalry charged. The English had no reserves, so they formed three lines, with men-at-arms (normal infantry with somewhat good weapons, armor, and training) with rows upon rows of archers stacked behind them. The infantry were to act as the wall, with shields side by side like that of a phalanx, which would further protect the armor less archers. As for the French, three columns were formed, with a couple rows of infantry, archers in the rear, and crossbowman somewhere in the middle, (apparently, these were mercenary troops from Sweden and Italy who listened very little to what the French had to say). On their flanks were the knights, whose intent was to swing around and chop up the English infantry and archers from the sides.

The one problem for the French cavalry was the fact that it had been raining for two weeks, and the 900ft. long field was a sea of mud. In some instances, again this may be the English talking, the mud would have been as high as two feet. This would have made it impossible for the French to charge the Enlgish with lightning speed. What the French had hoped was that the English, after their retreat from Harfleur, would be so sick and tired that they would put up a poor fight. Indeed, after marching 250 miles in 17 days the English must have been weak from hunger and very, very tired.

Around noon, the English forced the French into charging by firing arrows at them. The French did not like the idea of charging through mud, but had little option. Also, d'Albert and all his knights had formed a line right in front of the artillery, which deemed it useless. As the French advanced, the Welsh longbow man opened fire. Hundreds of arrows with a range of 250 yards came crashing down on the French knights, cutting many to bits. The French infantry faired no better due to their lack of speed and armor. As for the crossbowman and archers, their bows could not come close to matching the Englishman's range, and were forced to pull back.

The French were lucky enough to reach the English lines, but the shield wall proved too powerful for the French to breach. Most French infantry were crowded together and at times knocked into the mud, creating havoc. Many were crushed under the weight of their comrades while others suffocated in the mud. The rest of the infantry were captured and meant to be held for ransom, which would have given Henry plenty of money that he needed. Sadly, after a French cavalry charge on the unprotected English camp, which took no prisoners, Henry had the prisoners executed. A third attack ensued, but the French could not penetrate the English formation. After seeing so many of their allies die, most French left the field with no hope of victory.

Henry's victorious troops, having won the day, collected their booty and fled to Calais, where they boarded transports back to England. The battle was another failure for the French, especially the knights. As with other battles, the simple English infantry and peasant long bowman defeated many a knight, most of whom spent their entire lifetime training for combat. The battle did not bring about the death of the knight, but it did hasten their demise.

BATTLE PHUN: Though the Battle of Agincourt was a serious affair, one enjoyable tale did come out of it. There is a saying that the famous "middle finger salute" first appeared during the battle. French knights, after capturing English archers, would cut off their middle finger. The middle finger was important for the archer because it was needed to pull back the string on the bow. By cutting it off, the French had hoped to humiliate the English. At Agincourt, English long bowmen, upon seeing the French knights, would mock them by lining up and giving the middle finger, all 1,000 of them.