Battle of Agincourt

During 1415, King of England, Henry V, decided that because through his great-grandfather Edward III, he should be king of France next in line. However, the France did not acknowledge Henry V's claim and mocked his right on his throne in England. Disgusted by the behavior of the French, he gathered the might of England and sailed off to Normandy to war. They landed in Northern Normandy on 13, August 1415 and besieged the port town of Harfleur with his army of 12,000. Although Henry was successful in taking the port town Harfleur, his victory came with a huge sacrifice; half of his army either died or injured due to the siege and lingering disease. Also, the campaign season is coming to an end. Despite all the facts telling Henry to go back to England, he marched forward with his remaining army across France to Calais, the English stronghold in Northern France, where they could re-equip over the winter. While Henry's assault on Harfleur, the French took this time and raised a massive army of 36,000 which assembled around Rouen. When Henry marched to the North, the French blocked the English army from crossing the River Somme to Calais. With the blockade, Henry was forced to move down South to find a passage around the blockade. When the English finally crossed the River Somme and resume their marching toward Calais, once again the French blocked their passage to Calais between Tramecourt and Agincourt. With no way out, the English had to fight their way to Calais. Given the state of the army, the English had very little food, marched a long distance, suffering from a lingering disease, one would say the French would definitely have a decisive victory over the English since they are more well-fed, better equipped and have a massive number of men at arms. However, the English turned the table around and came out victorious with little casualties, where the French suffered massive casualties. This epic battle is known as the Battle of Agincourt. The English victory remains a question to this day; how did the English win the battle of Agincourt? Scientists and historians seem to have putted an answer together. Through the brilliance of the English army's defenses, the terrain of the battle and the stupidity of the French army, the English prevailed and won this battle and gained eternal fame and glory throughout history.

During the English's march towards their stronghold Calais, the French had cut off the route of the English at a place known as Agincourt. Without any another routes to go around the French army, the English have no choice but to fight the overwhelming French army. With no relieve from Mother England, tired from marching, plagued by constant illness and lack of food, how in the world did the English win against France who are well-equipped and have an overwhelming number? It turns out that their placement on the battlefield and their choice of weapons contributed their victory. The English army comprised mostly of English and Welsh yeoman archers; compare to the men at arm, the archer's number is six to one to the men at arm's number. With so few men at arm available to Henry (reason why there are so little men at arm was because Henry lack the finance to hire so many men at arm, so he hired archers instead because they are cheaper), he decided to organized his army in the old English way, having all the men at arm gather in the middle, forming a vanguard and had archers protect their left and right flank. This formation is very effective since they are fighting in a narrow strip of land with trees surrounding the battlefield left and right, the flank will force the French into the middle, where the vanguard lies. But however, the French army doesn't only have men at arm; they also have a massive number of cavalry. With one swoop of their cavalry charge, the English flanks will easily give away and the French will have a massacre on the English vanguard. But the French underestimate the English; the real power of English is not their skills in swordsmanship or their cavalry, it lies within the archers and their deadly longbows. Longbows are about 2 meters long used by the English, Scots and Welsh. Made especially from yew trees since they have different structures of wood in the tree itself; the heartwood gives the bow the stiffness and the softwood gives the bow the flexibility. The Longbow is very difficult to master since it requires great strength and time to actually wield it. The English practices with the bow since the beginning of age 7 and they have gain immeasurable strength and accuracy to hit a target at a distance of 249 yards or 228 meters. Will their constant training, 12 arrows can be shot under 1 minute, making English longbow a deadly ancient machine gun. In contrast to the crossbow that the French wield, only 4 bolts can be fired less than 1 minute. The English longbow's ferocity had been demonstrated in the battle of Crecy and Poitier which gave the English decisive victory because of their longbow men. In the battle of Agincourt, the Longbow men will once again shower their adversary with their steel-tipped hail. However, two problems from using English longbow men in this battle; they are vulnerable from a cavalry charge since they protect the flank of the vanguard and secondly, they are out of range in their position. So Henry made a daring risk; an extreme scary advance forward for 750 yards to gain range for the archers. Luckily for him, the French are too disorganized to know that the English advanced forward. However, the archers are still vulnerable from cavalry charge. Henry used one of the most classic defenses: the stakes. Originally, the longbow men are protected by obstacles or pits. Perhaps he was inspired by the battle of Nicopolis. He had trees cut and shaped into a sharp spike and planted them into ground in front of the archers with an angle which make the cavalry charge ineffective and would force them to veer off. As the battle commenced, the French were surprised and frightened by the ferocity of the English army and the never-ending steel-tipped hailstorm. From a massive force, the French were losing men rapidly; Cavalries were ineffective and the men at arms were too slow in their advancement. Because of the English longbow men and their brilliant defense, the table was turned around and the French lost the battle.

Another factor which contributed to the victory of England was the terrain of the battle; no matter how great the numbers of your force are or the deadly weapons your army has, the terrain holds the key to the victory of the battle. In the battle of Agincourt, the English used the terrain to their advantage. The terrain of the battlefield is a narrow strip of land with thickets of trees left and right side of the strip. The land which the battle took place were farmlands recently sown and dug for winter wheat. Furthermore, there was a heavy rainfall on Agincourt which made the land soft and absorptive. Henry used all these to his advantage against the French army. Since the ratio of archers and men at arm was 6-1, he placed his archers near the woods with their stakes pointing outward with an angle, preventing any enemy cavalry charge against the archers or have the cavalry circle around them to their rear side. With no way for the French to outflank the English, they will just have to take them out will the might of their army. Their army was divided into three waves; the first wave was to decimate the archers. However, because of the incoming arrows, they have to bring their visors down, which obscured their vision and they crashed into the stakes, which killed most of the riders and their cavalry unit. With the first wave almost entirely killed, the French sends their second wave which comprises mostly their heavy infantry unit. This is where the terrain comes into play, since the battlefield as sown dug and watered, the moment the French step into the battlefield, they slowed down, slipped and sank into the soil. The reason why they sank because they were too well equipped, wearing a full armor sank the French and slowed them down. With their slow advancement, the archers simply target the immobilized French troops as they march toward them slowly. However, because the second wave was too vast to be simple taken out by arrows, the second wave arrived at the vanguard and the close-quarter combat commenced. Although they arrived, those who arrived at the vanguard with extreme fatigue and tiredness, simple put out of misery with a single wave of a sword or a pole arm. With the addition of the pile of dead bodies before the second wave, it became very difficult to fight while trying not to fall to your demise. Although the English Vanguard is putting up a fight, they were also tired from fighting a seemingly endless stream of enemies. Fortunately, the archers came to the rescue as they flank the French. With no room or space to swing their weapons, they were brought down with ease and killed. Because the English killed and captured so many French, the third wave got scared and ran away. The field of battle is an important key to decide the outcome of the battle.

Lastly, the most unlikely factor which contributed the outcome of the battle was the stupidity of the French. The reason why they are regard as "stupid" was because they are too overconfidence in the outcome of the battle, their assault were disorganize and they were too emotional in the battle. Before the day of the battle, the French were too confident that they will win the battle so during the night; they drank and had parties through the night. By contrast to the English, because they have lack food and drinks, they remain alert and somber. By the day of the battle, the majority of the French army, except the commoners and the servants, were drunk and swaggering which distracts and fogged their mind for battle, where as the English, sharp-mind and ready for the day to come. Secondly, the French were much disorganized in both military and in leadership. In formation, they were just organized into three simple waves to attack the English army, who had a better chance to tackle the French army because they have a better formation. The French also have no leaders to control the army; although according to history, the Constable of France was suppose to lead the army. However, no one really knew who really the leader of the France army was. The leadership should have been fallen to the Duke of Brabant or Duke of Orlean, but they were too busy counting the ransom to be made, they pushed their supposing leadership to no-one. Worse yet, during Henry's risky and scary advancement to gain bow range, they should have been slaughtered or massacred by the French. However, nobody in the French army did that. In fact, they watched the English advance as if they were giving them a chance for revival or something similar to that. Finally, the French were too vengeful in their battle which obscures their common sense to do something logical. Many of the French troops had their fathers and grandfathers who fought and humiliated in battles such as Crecy and Poitier and they were determined to get revenge on the English. Many men at arms were eager to participate in the vanguard despite the opinion of the more experienced lords and knights. This factor led the downfall of the French army as they were too overconfidence and emotional before and during the battle and as the result, they were completely defeated by their seemingly weak and small opponent.

In conclusion, the English won the battle of Agincourt because of their brilliance in defenses, their use of terrain to turn the tide around and the most unlikely factor, the stupidity of the French. And because of the victory in the Battle of Agincourt, Henry was recognized by the French and signed a treaty of Troyes, crowned him as the heir and regent of the French throne which concluded Henry's ambition to the be the king of France.

Cornwell, Bernard. Azincourt. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2008. Print.

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