The King believed it a good opportunity to get three things he wanted,—a wife, a fortune, and the French crown. The King of France and his most powerful rival, the Duke of Burgundy, had each a daughter. To make sure of one of them, Henry secretly proposed to both. After long and fruitless negotiations the French King declined to grant the enormous dowry which the English King demanded. The latter gladly interpreted this refusal as equivalent to a declaration of war.
289. The Great Battle of Agincourt, 1415.
Henry set to work with vigor, raised an army, and invaded France. He besieged Harfleur, near the mouth of the Seine, and took it; but his army suffered so much from sickness that, after leaving a garrison in the place, he resolved to move north, to the walled city of Calais. It will be remembered that the English had captured that city nearly seventy years before (S240), and Henry intended to wait there for reenforcements. (See map facing p. 128.)
After a long and perilous march he reached a little village about midway between Cre'cy and Calais. There he encountered the enemy in great force. Both sides prepared for battle. The French had fifty thousand troops to Henry's seven or eight thousand; but the latter had that determination which wins victories. He said to one of his nobles who regretted that he had not a larger force:
"No, my fair cousin;
If we are marked to die, we are enough
To do our country loss; and if we live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honor."[1]
[1] Shakespeare's "Henry V," Act IV, scene iii.
A heavy rain had fallen during the night, and the plowed land over which the French must cross was so wet and miry that their heavily armed horsemen sank deep at every step. The English bowmen, on the other hand, being on foot, could move with ease. Henry ordered every archer to drive a stake, sharpened at both ends, into the ground before him. This was a substitute for the modern bayonet, and presented an almost impassable barrier to the French cavalry.
As at Cre'cy and Poitiers, the English bowmen gained the day (SS238, 241). The sharp stakes stopped the enemy's horses, and the blinding showers of arrows threw the splendidly armed knights into wild confusion. With a ringing cheer Henry's troops rushed forward.
"When down their bows they threw,
And forth their swords they drew,
And on the French they flew:
No man was tardy.
Arms from the shoulder sent;
Scalps to the teeth they rent;
Down the French peasants went:
These ere men hardy."[2]
[2] These vigorous lines, from Drayton's "Ballad of Agincourt" (1606), if not quite true to the letter of history (since it is doubted whether any French peasants were on the field), are wholly true to its spirit.