A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

Henry compelled to retire upon Calais.

Henry had intended to cross the Somme at Blanchetaque, where Edward III. had passed it. False information was brought him that the ford was guarded. In reality, the feudal army was as yet only collecting near Abbeville, around the standard of the Constable d’Albret, a man but little fitted for his post. Had Henry passed at once he might have reached Calais without a great battle; as it was, he was compelled to follow the river upwards, and time was afforded to the French to collect their forces, and seek their own destruction in a pitched battle. Henry sought a ford across the river for a long time in vain. He passed Amiens, and had got within a league of Ham, in a very dangerous position among the strong fortresses of Ham, St. Quentin and Péronne, when at length a ford was discovered near Béthancourt. The Constable, who was at Péronne, might have destroyed him in the passage. He let him pass unmolested. Following feudal fashion, he sent to ask Henry to name a day and place for the battle; but whatever external chivalry may have been visible in Henry, his military character was that of a hard, practical, modern soldier. He answered that there was no need to name day or place, as he was always to be found in the open fields. For four days the armies followed almost parallel lines of march, the French making no use of their superiority in numbers to disturb the quiet advance of the English, although they spread nightly among the villages for shelter. At length the Constable, with singular want of prudence, took up his position a little to the north of Hesdin and Cressy, on a small confined plain, where his large army, of at least 50,000 fighting men, was jammed in between two woods. This force consisted almost entirely of nobles and their feudal followers, who in their foolish pride of class had rejected the assistance of the infantry of the towns. The ground was arable land, and the soil deep and heavy, so that the heavy armed French in their splendid harness sank deep at every step, while the English, clad mostly in leather jerkins, and many of them barefoot, moved with comparative ease. The night, we are told, was passed in riot by the French; in sober preparation or religious exercise by the English.

AGINCOURT.
October 25. 1415.

1. English Archers.

2. English men at arms.

Battle of Agincourt. Oct. 25, 1415.

The French drew themselves up in three massive lines or battles; the two first dismounted and fought on foot, for which their heavy armour but little fitted them; the third line retained their horses, as did two small wings intended to crush the archers. The state of the soil obliged them to adopt a defensive method of fighting quite contrary to their habits. The English advanced upon them—the archers in front, the heavy-armed infantry behind, the mixed archers and infantry on the flanks. They are described as having a miserable, ragged appearance after their weary march, as contrasted with the splendour of the French. Henry rode among them, cheering them with the memories of bygone victories. He had previously ordered every archer to supply himself with a stake sharpened at each end, which he was to plant before him, and thus make a moveable palisade. At eleven o’clock, after a brief and useless parley between the armies, Sir Thomas Erpingham, the English Marshal of the Host, tossed up his baton with the cry “Now strike,” and the battle began. The English advanced a few steps, expecting a charge from the enemy, but the hostile ranks remained immoveable; they were, in fact, planted knee-deep in the mud, and afforded a fine aim for the English archers, who did not spare them. At length, putting their heads down to avoid as much as possible the fatal arrows, the first line came heavily on, and the mounted wings began to close round the English; but the stakes of the archers served them in good stead. Of the horses, a large proportion tripped and fell in the rough ploughed land; not one in ten of their riders, we are told, came hand to hand with the archers. Unsupported and almost immoveable, the infantry broke. The archers seeing their plight, issued from between their stakes, threw down bow and arrow, seized their axes and maces, and fell headlong upon them. “It seemed,” says the chronicler, “as though they were hammering upon anvils.” The men-at-arms fell beneath the furious charge, and were smothered by their own companions as they fell over them. The same fate awaited the second line. The English men-at-arms had come up to support the archers, and the battle was fiercer, and for a time more equal. Certain of the French knights, under the Duke of Alençon, swore to take the life of Henry, and did their best to keep their oath. One of them cleft in two the golden crown on the helmet worn by Henry, and Alençon killed his cousin, the Duke of York, at his side. It was in vain; the English steadily advanced; the defeat of the first line, the rush of the fugitives, disordered and confused the cavalry, and they turned and fled. The English were already masters of the field, when news was brought that a fresh enemy was in their rear, and flames were seen arising from the village of Maisoncelle behind them. Henry, afraid of this new attack, and of a rally of the fugitives, gave the terrible order that all the prisoners should be killed. When his troops hesitated, he told off 200 archers to do the work; and already very many had been killed in cold blood, when the discovery that the alarm was a false one induced Henry to revoke his order. Of the 10,000 Frenchmen who died 8000 were of noble blood; among them were the Dukes of Alençon, Brabant, and Bar, the Constable d’Albret, and all the chief officers of the army. The Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, the Counts of Vendôme and Richemont, and Marshal Boucicaut, with 15,000 knights, remained prisoners. Besides the Duke of York and the Earl of Oxford, the English had lost 1600 men. The King, with his triumphant army, at once proceeded to Calais, and thence to England. He attributed his wonderful success to Heaven, whose instrument he was in punishing the crimes in France. “Never,” said he to the Duke of Orleans, “was greater disorganization or licentiousness, or greater sins, or worse vices than reign in France now. It is pitiful even to hear the story of them, and a horror for the listeners. No wonder if God is enraged at it.”

The French Government falls into the hands of the Armagnacs.

The destruction of princes and feudal nobles at Agincourt seems to have annihilated the Armagnac party. The hatred of the Dauphin for the Duke of Burgundy prevented the unity which such an event might have produced. He summoned Bernard of Armagnac from the south of France, where he then was, and gave himself completely into his hands, making him Constable, Governor-General of the finances, and Captain of all the fortresses of France.