Taking advantage of faction war in France during the summer
of 1415, King Henry V of England planned to press his claim to the French
throne by accomplishing a swift take over of the coastal port of Harfleur and
then, in a symbolic gesture, storming through the formerly held English
territory of Normandy on his way to English held Calais.
Since Harfleur took longer to fall then expected and since its
eventual take over unified warring factions in France ,
Henry V’s triumphant march to Calais
turned into a dysentery filled attempt to escape a superior French force that
was bent on their destruction.
By the time the two forces met just outside the town of Agincourt , Henry’s army had
dwindled to a force of 7000 sick and weakened soldiers. Across the field, the might of the French
army stood ready with numbers estimated at 30,000 strong. One English scout reported back to his
commander, “you are just about to fight against a world of innumerable people”
(Fiennes, 192).
For hours the two armies eyed each other, neither wanting to
make the first move. Then Henry ordered
his army to march steadily forward in a straight line; when the column was
within 700 metres of the enemy, the English archers hammered their 6 foot
stakes into the ground and waited for the command to fire.
As a means to insure that they would never be a threat to
France again, the over-confident French army had vowed to cut-off the two key
active fingers of any English archer captured alive; so, as a final act of
defiance, each man now held two fingers up to the great French host, daring
them to come and collect their prize.
When the order to fire was finally given, 5000 skilled archers sent
volley after volley into the air; the French charged and, within the first 90
minutes of the battle, 8000 Frenchmen were killed.
It is believed that the deciding factors in England’s
stunning victory at Agincourt were the awesome killing power of the English
longbow, and a terrain which worked against the great numbers of the French
army, funneling them into a killing corridor that also created a crowd effect,
as knights in heavy armour lost their footing in the mud of freshly plowed, rain-soaked
fields, line upon line of them were pulverized by the English directly in front
as well as crushed by a continuous surge of their own attacking troops from behind.
From the French perspective the chronicler Pierre Cochon
recorded that the defeat “was the ugliest and most wretched event that happened
in France
over the last one thousand years” (Fiennes, 235). The nobility of France , who had made up a
disproportionately large part of the French army, were decimated: entire
dynasties were wiped out as family members, often covering two generations of a
family, were killed (Fiennes, 233).
For Henry V, King of England, the victory set the stage for
his recognition as heir-apparent to the French throne and regent of France .
Fiennes, Ranulph. Agincourt: My Family, the Battle ,
and the Fight for France London : Hodder
& Stoughton, 2014.
