Under a cold, grey sky on the morning of 25th October 1415, two armies stood facing each other, 1,000 metres apart. Separating them was a muddy, ploughed field, set between thick woods on either side. One of the armies, the French, presented a mighty force of jostling knights, resplendent in glittering armour beneath hundreds of brilliant banners.
The other, the English, was just a quarter the size - a small compact band arranged in tight formation. Along its front rode a bare-headed knight on a small grey horse. The sharp-eyed would have noticed the three leopards of England and the fleur-de-lys of France pictured on this surcoat and, more significantly, the lack of spurs on his armoured heels - King Henry of England was addressing the men ready for battle, and like a true soldier would be fighting on foot alongside his troops.
Riding up and down the ranks to enthusiastic cheers, Henry encouraged his men with stirring words. And the soldiers certainly needed encouragement as they had marched some 260 miles in 17 days with barely enough rations for half that time.
Most of them had to live off nuts and berries, picked along the way, and were suffering from diarrhoea. Now, close to the tiny village of Agincourt, their road to Calais-and the way home to England- was barred by the largest French army they had ever seen.
Ten weeks earlier, in mid-August, the English had landed 10,000 strong on the French coast and captured the port of Harfleur. But the capture had taken far longer than expected, and by the time the town surrendered one Englishman in five was dead, wounded, or too sick to fight. Henry also had to leave 1,200 men there to guard the town, and this left him with less than 6,000 soldiers with which to conquer France.
At this point most commanders would have cut their losses and sailed home. But not Henry. He knew that Harfleur was too small a prize for so much effort and expense, so he had to go on. Yet now his army was too weak to march on to capture Paris as he had hoped to do.
Eventually, he decided to march 160 miles across Northern France to Calais, and English-held port, to demonstrate that he was master of Normandy. If the French army could be tempted to fight him along the way, so much the better. As it turned out, the French army did challenge him, determined to smash the invaders.
For three hours they watched each other, but nothing happened. Henry knew his army's morale was as high as he could make it. The 900 men-at-arms and 5,000 bowmen were good men, but they were exhausted and could not hold out without supplies much longer.
Finally, at around 11am, Henry made his move. 'Banners advance! In the name of Jesus, Mary and St. George,' he cried. Trumpets blaring, the English trudged forward 700 metres. Within 'extreme bowshot' (250-300 metres) of the enemy, the army halted and the archers hammered long, sharpened stakes into the ground, pointing towards the enemy. Henry was hoping to provoke the French into attacking him here where they would have to squeeze between the woods on either side and have to charge over stick wet ground.
The French, however were in confusion as the knights were eager to be first to attack. The commander, Constable d'Albret, finally got the army into three lines, two on foot (each perhaps eight deep and 8,000 strong) and the rear one mounted. Even so, 3,000 crossbowmen were sandwiched between the first two lines, with their firing line cut out by the unruly knights.
Suddenly the English acted and the 'air was darkened by an intolerable number of piercing arrows flying across the sky to pour upon the enemy like a cloud laden with rain'. The arrow strike stung the French into life. Over 1,000 mounted knights lumbered forward to charge the English archers on the flanks. But arrow after arrow found its target and only about 150 reach the stakes, where they were impaled or thrown from the saddle and hacked to death by the archers. The surviving horses fled in panic, charging straight into the first line of men-at-arms advancing on foot.
Though crippled by the arrow storm, the immense French first line staggered on towards Henry's royal banner in the centre. The massive onslaught sent the English men-at-arms relling 'a spear's length'. But the French were so packed together that they could not even use their weapons. Seeing the French disorder, the archers threw down their bows and joined the battle with swords and axes.
The battleground became a slaughterhouse. 'More were dead through press than our men might have slain', wrote and Englishman later. Indeed, a knight in 25-30kg of body armour needed help to get up, and many were suffocated when others fell on top of them, as happened to Edward, Duke of York, commander of Henry's right wing.
The nimble-footed archers, who 'beat upon their (the French) armour with mallets as though they were smiths hammering upon anvils', enveloped the struggling French. At the same time, the French second line came on, but succeeded only in reinforcing the crush and preventing their comrades from escaping.
A TERRIBLE DEFEAT
After an hour or so the fighting was nearly over and the English were busy taking prisoners for ransom. Then, around 2pm, the English baggage was raided by the French peasants at the same time as the French third line seemed about to attack. For a moment the situation looked highly dangerous, since the English were still heavily outnumbered. Henry acted at once. He ordered all but the most valuable prisoners to be killed to fee their guards to fend off the new attack. But the throat-cutting ended when the French third line retreated. The battle of Agincourt was over.
In the three hours of battle over 8,500 Frenchmen were killed and France lost half its nobility- either killed or captured. The battle that was such a glorious victory for the English had cost them a mere 100-odd casualties.
