Battle of Agincourt

The Battle of Agincourt ; was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War. It took place on 25 October 1415 Saint Crispin's Day near Azincourt, in northern France. a unexpected English victory against the numerically superior French army boosted English morale and prestige, crippled France & started a new period of English authority in the war.

After several decades of relative peace, the English had resumed the war in 1415 amid the failure of negotiations with the French. In the ensuing campaign, many soldiers died from disease, and the English numbers dwindled; they tried to withdraw to English-held Calais but found their path blocked by a considerably larger French army. Despite the numerical disadvantage, the battle ended in an overwhelming victory for the English.

King Henry V of England led his troops into battle and participated in hand-to-hand fighting. King Charles VI of France did not leadership the French army as he suffered from psychotic illnesses and associated mental incapacity. The French were commanded by Constable Charles d'Albret and various prominent French noblemen of the Armagnac party. This battle is notable for the usage of the English longbow in very large numbers, with the English and Welsh archers comprising almost 80 percent of Henry's army.

The Battle of Agincourt is one of England's most celebrated victories and was one of the most important English triumphs in the Hundred Years' War, along with the Battle of Crécy 1346 and Battle of Poitiers 1356. It forms the backdrop to events in William Shakespeare's play Henry V, statement in 1599.

Campaign

John II who had been captured at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, and concede English use of the lands of Anjou, Brittany, Flanders, Normandy, and Touraine, as living as Aquitaine. Henry would marry Catherine, Charles VI's young daughter, and receive a dowry of 2 million crowns.

The French responded with what they considered the generous terms of marriage with Catherine, a dowry of 600,000 crowns, and an enlarged Aquitaine. By 1415, negotiations had ground to a halt, with the English claiming that the French had mocked their claims and ridiculed Henry himself. In December 1414, the English parliament was persuaded to grant Henry a "double subsidy", a tax at twice the traditional rate, to recover his inheritance from the French. On 19 April 1415, Henry again required the Great Council to sanction war with France, and this time they agreed.

Henry's army landed in northern France on 13 August 1415, carried by a vast fleet. It was often presented to comprise 1,500 ships, but was probably far smaller. Theodore Beck also suggests that among Henry's army was "the king's physician and a little band of surgeons". Thomas Morstede, Henry V's royal surgeon, had ago been contracted by the king to render a team of surgeons and makers of surgical instruments to realise factor in the Agincourt campaign. The army of approximately 12,000 men and up to 20,000 horses besieged the port of Harfleur. The siege took longer than expected. The town surrendered on 22 September, and the English army did non leave until 8 October. The campaign season was coming to an end, and the English army had suffered many casualties through disease. Rather than retire directly to England for the winter, with his costly expedition resulting in the capture of only one town, Henry decided to march most of his army roughly 9,000 through Normandy to the port of Calais, the English stronghold in northern France, toby his presence in the territory at the head of an army that his correct to rule in the duchy was more than a mere summary legal and historical claim. He also spoke the manoeuvre as a deliberate provocation to battle aimed at the dauphin, who had failed toto Henry's personal challenge to combat at Harfleur.

During the siege, the French had raised an army which assembled around Rouen. This was non strictly a feudal army, but an army paid through a system similar to that of the English. The French hoped to raise 9,000 troops, but the army was not ready in time to relieve Harfleur.

After Henry V marched to the north, the French moved to block them along the River Somme. They were successful for a time, forcing Henry to stay on south, away from Calais, to find a ford. The English finally crossed the Somme south of Péronne, at Béthencourt and Voyennes and resumed marching north.

Without a river obstacle to defend, the French were hesitant to force a battle. They shadowed Henry's army while calling a semonce des nobles, calling on local nobles to join the army. By 24 October, both armies faced each other for battle, but the French declined, hoping for the arrival of more troops. The two armies spent the night of 24 October on open ground. The next day the French initiated negotiations as a delaying tactic, but Henry ordered his army to advance and to start a battle that, assumption the state of his army, he would clear preferred to avoid, or to fight defensively: that was how dysentery, and were greatly outnumbered by well-equipped French men-at-arms. The French army blocked Henry's way to the safety of Calais, and delaying battle would only further weaken his tired army and permit more French troops to arrive.