Battle Of Agincourt Facts: History, Significance Of The French Throne

The battle between France and England to end the hundred years of war was called the Battle of Agincourt.

Henry V governed England between 1413 to 1422. He is one of England's most beloved kings, known for his triumph against the French at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, when he was 29 years old, during the hundred years' battle with France.

Henry V is known for his military prowess, and he is the focus of a late-16th-century work of William Shakespeare.

In the hundred years' struggle, the Battle of Agincourt had been an English victory. In this battle, 600 years ago today, King Henry V of England moved his troops to win over the French warriors.

The fight, which took place on the morning of October 25, 1415, was a crushing setback for the French. Shakespeare's Henry V and later versions for the big screen and television popularized the story of Agincourt.

At the Battle of Agincourt, Henry's force was most likely approximately 5,000 men-at-arms, knights, and archers. The English force was primarily made up of archers, who helped them win the fight.

Only about 1,000-2,000 knights and men-at-arms with strong plate armor were among Henry's 8,000 forces at Agincourt. The geography benefited Henry's army and handicapped its adversary by reducing the numerical superiority of the French army by shortening the front. It would keep any moves from overwhelming the English ranks.

The strength of the French army has been estimated to range from 30,000 to 100,000 men. The French plan of Agincourt was to attack the English archers with massed cavalry.

Battle Of Agincourt History: Time, Date, Location, Place

On October 25, 1415, the Battle of Agincourt was a pivotal war in the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), in which the English triumphed over the French.

The battle followed other English victories in the Hundred Years' War, such as the Battles of Crécy (1346) and Poitiers (1356), and paved the way for England's annexation of Normandy and also the Treaty of Troyes, which made Henry V the heir to the French power.

The Hundred Years' War was a two-century-long intermittent battle between France and England. The legitimacy of the French crown's inheritance and the possession of various French territories were at stake.

In 1337, King Edward III of England declared himself 'King of France' above Philip VI of attacked Flanders. There had been a considerable pause in the conflict when Henry V ascended to the English throne around 1413.

In 1396, a 28-year ceasefire was publicly established, sealed by the wedding of the French monarch Charles VI's daughter to England's King Richard II. However, Henry V renewed English ambitions in France to regain his authority at home.

When Henry IV from the House of Lancaster stole the crown of Richard II in 1399, England had been riven by political strife. Since then, there has been a conflict between nobles and the Royal Family, extensive anarchy across the kingdom, and multiple assassination attempts against Henry V's life.

The crisis in England, along with the reality that France was suffering from its political crisis, Charles VI's illness had culminated in a power struggle among nobles it was an opportune time for Henry to pursue his claims.

The Battle Of Agincourt Significance

Above all, the fight dealt a major military blow to France, paving the door for more English conquests and victories. The aristocracy of France, weakened by loss and split amongst themselves, could not effectively oppose future attacks. Finally, in 1419, Henry conquered Normandy, which the Treaty of Troyes succeeded in 1420.

The most evident outcome of the Hundred Years' War was that both England and France were anxious to avoid a recurrence of a conflict in which both parties had spent their troops and resources for naught. Consequently, both rulers and the people of both countries devoted their efforts to other undertakings.

In the time leading up to the Battle of Agincourt, it appeared as if King Henry V was driving his troops to disaster. But instead, the long-running battle was a series of hostilities undertaken by England over France from 1337-1453 as the English Kings attempted to seize the French region and power for themselves.

What happened after the Battle of Agincourt?

After the fight, the English returned home, and Henry V did not come back to France till 1417 when he conducted a vigorous campaign that culminated in a treaty recognizing him as the heir to the French King, Charles VI. The triumph had a significant impact on national morale.

After a half-century of military failure, the English triumphed at Agincourt, winning at Poitiers and Crécy.

Llantrisant's Black Archers participated at Agincourt. The archers were descended from the legendary Black Archers, who spared the life of the Black Prince in the War of Crécy. The appreciative Prince granted them a piece of property in Llantrisant that would be theirs and their descendants forever!

Did Henry V defeat France?

Henry V (1387-1422), one of England's most famous rulers, conducted two victorious expeditions to France, cheering the outnumbered forces to victory at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 and finally gaining complete control of the French monarchy.

To pay for the invasion of France, King Henry would have to sell his crown jewels. When Henry V took the throne, he inherited his great legacy; his grandfather's title to the French crown.

The war with France had begun in 1337, as well as the years of conflict had drained England's resources significantly.

As a result, by the time King Henry's men were willing to board the channel, he was short on cash. The citizens of London alone gave him an amount of money that today would be worth roughly £3.5 million.

Sir Richard Whittington, the inspiration for the children's narrative character Dick Whittington, was one of them. However, the people's wealth was inadequate. As a result, Henry was forced to pawn many royal jewels, especially King Richard II's diamond and ruby-encrusted crown with a gold collar called the 'Pusan d'Or,' as a guarantee of repayment.

An English force captured Soissons, a little town in Northern France, at the start of 1415. The English army moved out of Harfleur on its hundred miles trek to Calais on October 8, 1415.

There was no trace of Bardolph at the Somme estuary, and French forces prevented the crossing in his replacement. Henry had sailed the English Channel including 11,000 soldiers two months ago and laid claim to Harfleur of Normandy.

The town surrendered following five weeks, where a third of Henry's men were killed in battle or died of dysentery, which had developed due to the unclean circumstances in the English base. The majority of the French army died of suffocation.

About 5000 longbowmen, each releasing 15 arrows per minute, unleashed a total of 75,000 arrows in a single minute, creating an arrow storm that was claimed to have covered the sun's light.

The recently tilled field at Agincourt had become a wet swamp after many days of severe rains. The French knights, already burdened by the heavy metal armor, were compelled to slither their way into the English line, sometimes plunging below their knees in muck.

The cavalry could not overrun the archers, who had hammered pointed stakes into the mud at an inclination in front of themselves as the first French line approached the English line.

Because the majority of the Englishmen lacked armor, they could easily maneuver the mud and dispatch the French troops. Maybe the outcome might have been altered if the French force had decided to wait for an English assault rather than advance on their own volition.

Following the English defeat of the first French force, King Henry captured survivors and imprisoned them amid the woods in the English camp.

One group of about a dozen captives was trapped inside a building that was subsequently set ablaze, as reported by a French knight. King Henry commanded the execution of all French prisoners, which many historians regard as an early version of a war crime.

In addition, hundreds of French nobles and warriors were killed by numerous arrows that pierced their armor.

Though King Henry's military might is often credited with the triumph at Agincourt, the fight was gained by English archers. Only about 1,500 men-at-arms and knights made up the 9,000-strong English military; the others were archers equipped with longbows and, on rare occasions, knives or poleaxes.

Archers started firing arrows behind homemade barricades and wooden stakes whenever the French cavalry approached.

Several lines of Frenchmen were slaughtered, whereas the English lost a few men in the battle. When their arrows ran out, the archers approached the knights with their armaments and engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

The St. Crispin's Day Speech is Henry V's most renowned monologue, and for a good reason. These stirring words are spoken to a swarm of gallant English soldiers.He said, 'Pon our return, the honor shall be more. But let us not, I say, o'er do it here. My men talk of the battle's fearful odds: 'Five to one!'.

About 6,000 soldiers of France died during the battle, while just over 400 English soldiers died. Though the deaths were not especially controversial, French chroniclers did not condemn Henry's actions, many have since called them an early instance of a war crime.

The English won the battle. However, the war was lost. At the same time, Agincourt is considered among the most lopsided triumphs in medieval history.