On the 24th day of October in the year of our Lord 1415 two armies found themselves head to head on a narrow strip of ploughed muddy earth recently planted with corn. King Henry V had under his command an exhausted army that suffered from dysentery and out numbered 3 to 1. The French were confident of victory and spent most of the evening in great cheer. The English would spend the night in silence awaiting day break. The weather was cold and wet; the recently ploughed and planted field was soaked from recent rains.
Daylight broke upon the field on October the 25th with both armies preparing for battle. Knight’s would dress in their armour and mount their trusty steeds. Men at arms would dress in armour and prepare their blades for the task at hand. Archer’s would string their bows and be ready to loose their arrows. The French army was made up of mostly knights and men at arms in contrast to the English whose army was made up of mostly archers. The English Archers were English and Welsh long bowmen equipped with yew longbows. Their arrows equipped with the deadly armour piercing bodkin point.
The armies had taken to the field in line of battle by 7 a.m. no one moved until around 11 a.m. Henry made the bold decision to make the first move. He ordered the army to move forward to the narrowest part of the battlefield protecting his flanks by the woodlands. During this time the English were vulnerable, as archers had to turn their backs to the French to take up their palings (pointed wooden stakes) then again to drive back into their new positions.
Henry V’s archers would be ordered to nock and draw their arrows and then they loosed a galling fire upon the French. It could be estimated that 75,000 arrows rained down upon the French in one minute. Close to 300,000 arrows would have been loosed at the French in four minutes. The French attacked the center of the English lines hoping to capture Royalty and Nobles to ransom. During this intense struggle King Henry V was struck in the head. The blow knocked off his crown and left a hole in his helmet. The French were exhausted from the march through mud now churned up even worse by horses. Heavy armor immobilized the French Knights and men-at-arms making them easy prey. Archers that had spent their arrows now used axes, swords, and mallets to dispatch the less maneuverable French. The first French line of battle's wounded and dead piled up in the mud. The next two French lines of battle would continue to pile up in the mud many wounded suffocated. The French attacked the King’s baggage train in the rear. Henry feared he was now being attacked from the front and rear. He ordered the prisoners to be killed so that they could not pick up discarded weapons and rejoin in the battle. English Knights refused to kill their prisoners wanting to ransom them instead. Henry would dispatch 200 archers to take care of this deed. The prisoners were stabbed in the eye, throats cut, or beheaded, and cut to pieces. Once Henry discovered the battle was in hand he halted the executions. The French casualties are believed to have been from 7,000 to 10,000 with 1,500 nobles taken prisoner. English casualties were estimated at a few hundred.
On a cold, miserable wet day in a muddy field death found thousands of men in many forms. One English soldier was said to have died from a gun stone. During the battle the Duke of Brabant was not recognized as a noble because he had borrowed a servant’s tabard, his throat was cut. The battle field was littered with dead and dying. Arrows had killed or wounded many. Men stuck in the mud in heavy armor unable to get up would see their visors raised and watch as the point of a dagger entered their eye bringing death. Heads were crushed by mallets and hammers. Some say death also found chivalry on that cold wet St. Crispin's Day near Agincourt. May those men that died during the Battle of Agincourt RIP
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