Fought on Saint Crispin's Day, which gave Shakespeare his most famous battle speech
25 October; 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers' — Henry V, Act IV Scene 3.
History · Medieval
The Battle of Agincourt
25 October 1415
Hundred Years' War, Lancastrian phase
An exhausted, dysentery-ridden English army under Henry V, trying to reach Calais, was brought to battle by a much larger French force on a narrow, newly ploughed and waterlogged field in the Pas-de-Calais. English and Welsh longbowmen shattered the French men-at-arms in the mud, killing much of the French nobility and opening the way to the Treaty of Troyes.
How to spot them
- ▸Clue patterns: Saint Crispin's Day, longbows, a narrow field between two woods, deep mud
- ▸Fought while the English were marching for Calais after taking Harfleur
- ▸Shakespeare gave it the most famous battle speech in English
- ▸The French constable and three dukes were among the dead
What happened
A newly ploughed field narrowing between two woods, churned to knee-deep mud by rain
The frontage funnelled the French men-at-arms into a crush.
Sharpened stakes hammered into the ground in front of the archers
A defence against cavalry, ordered by the English king on the march.
The order to kill the prisoners, given when the baggage train was attacked
Still one of the most debated decisions of the Hundred Years' War.
A king who had been shot in the face by an arrow at 16, four years before commanding here
Henry V, wounded at Shrewsbury in 1403.
The victory that led, five years later, to a treaty making an English king heir to France
The Treaty of Troyes, 1420; Henry married Catherine of Valois.
A two-fingered gesture supposedly born here — a story with no medieval evidence
The tale that captured archers had their bowstring fingers cut off is modern folklore.
Quick-fire facts
- •It was fought on 25 October 1415, Saint Crispin's Day, near the village of Azincourt in the Pas-de-Calais.
- •Henry V commanded the English; the French were led by the Constable Charles d'Albret and Marshal Boucicaut, the king Charles VI being unfit to command.
- •The English had taken Harfleur in September and were marching for Calais when they were intercepted.
- •The English and Welsh longbowmen, protected by sharpened stakes, were decisive; the field's mud trapped the armoured French.
- •French dead included the Constable d'Albret and the dukes of Alençon, Brabant and Bar; Charles, Duke of Orléans, was captured and held in England for 25 years.
- •English dead were few; they included Edward, Duke of York, and the Earl of Suffolk.
- •Henry ordered the killing of French prisoners during the battle, apparently fearing a renewed attack.
- •The victory led to the Treaty of Troyes in 1420, which recognised Henry as heir to the French throne and married him to Catherine of Valois.
- •Shakespeare's Henry V (1599) contains the Saint Crispin's Day speech, 'we few, we happy few, we band of brothers'.
- •The story that the V-sign originated with English archers at Agincourt has no contemporary evidence.
Drill it — 10 cards
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Sources
- Juliet Barker — Agincourt: The King, the Campaign, the Battle
- John Keegan — The Face of Battle Its opening study is a reconstruction of Agincourt.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Battle of Agincourt