[Archers] Agincourt, 25 October 1415

[Garth Groff]

Noble friends,

Today is St. Crispin's Day, 25 October. This is the anniversary of the 
Battle of Agincourt in 1415 during the Hundred Years war against France.

On this day, Henry V's small English army turned to face a much larger 
French force on ground the English king had carefully selected. The 
English army consisted of about 5,000 English and Welsh archers, and 
about 1,000 dismounted knights and men-at-arms. The English army was 
hungry and wracked by dysentery. The French army was the flower of their 
chivalry, with over 1,200 of their finest mounted knights, at least 
10,000 heavy men-at-arms afoot, supported by several thousand common 
infantry and crossbowmen. The French army may have numbered as many as 
36,000 men.

Henry had chosen his battlefield well, a rise at the end of a narrow 
freshly plowed field, with thick woods to either side. After being 
galled by long distance arrow volleys, the French were finally goaded 
into charging into this death trap. The English archers poured clouds of 
arrows into the packed men-at-arms who were already struggling through 
the thick mud. The press became so severe in front of the English lines 
that the French had little room to swing their weapons. When a French 
knight or soldier fell, few could rise again from the mud before the 
were trampled by their own men pressing forward.

By the end of the day, between 7,000-10,000 Frenchmen lay dead in the 
mud, with another 1,500 taken prisoner. The finest army of France had 
been crushed. It took several years (and thousands of Scottish 
mercenaries) to rebuild the French forces. English losses were put at 
just over 100 men.

The Battle of Agincourt is often described as the greatest triumph of 
the English longbowman. It was not the first in France during the 
Hundred Years War, nor would it be the last (many of those Scots would 
later die from English arrows).

If you would care to learn more about this great battle, Wikipedia has a 
very good summary with some interesting illustrations: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt .

Kind regards,


Lord Mungo Napier, A Scot Who Is Thankful He Wasn't There