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Subject: Excerpt Of History
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 09:52:34 EDT


BATTLE OF AGINCOURT:
October 25, 1415


During the Hundred Years' War between England and France, Henry V, the
young king of England, leads his forces to victory at the Battle of
Agincourt in northern France.

Two months before, Henry had crossed the English Channel with 11,000
men and laid siege to Harfleur in Normandy. After five weeks the town
surrendered, but Henry lost half his men to disease and battle
casualties. He decided to march his army northeast to Calais, where he
would meet the English fleet and return to England. At Agincourt,
however, a vast French army of 20,000 men stood in his path, greatly
outnumbering the exhausted English archers, knights, and men-at-arms.

The battlefield lay on 1,000 yards of open ground between two woods,
which prevented large-scale maneuvers and thus worked to Henry's
advantage. At 11 a.m. on October 25, the battle commenced. The English
stood their ground as French knights, weighed down by their heavy
armor, began a slow advance across the muddy battlefield. The French
were met by a furious bombardment of artillery from the English
archers, who wielded innovative longbows with a range of 250 yards.
French cavalrymen tried and failed to overwhelm the English positions,
but the archers were protected by a line of pointed stakes. As more
and more French knights made their way onto the crowded battlefield,
their mobility decreased further, and some lacked even the room to
raise their arms and strike a blow. At this point, Henry ordered his
lightly equipped archers to rush forward with swords and axes, and the
unencumbered Englishmen massacred the French.

Almost 6,000 Frenchmen lost their lives during the Battle of
Agincourt, while English deaths amounted to just over 400. With odds
greater than three to one, Henry had won one of the great victories of
military history. After further conquests in France, Henry V was
recognized in 1420 as heir to the French throne and the regent of
France. He was at the height of his powers but died just two years
later of camp fever near Paris.



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