Chevauchee
“Can this cockpit hold the vasty fields of France? Or may we cram within this wooden O the very casques that did affright the air at Agincourt?” - Shakespeare, Henry V
Henry V left Harfleur on October 6, 1415 with a core force of 900 men-at-arms and 5,000 archers with the intent of marching to Calais, another English-held city about 160 miles away, in eight days. He traveled light, leaving all his artillery and baggage at Harfleur, and with most of the archers mounted.
For the first few days, he made good time. On the 11th, he reached Arques, next to Dieppe, and the next day reached Eu on the Bresle River. The English army looted and pillaged as they went on this grand chevauchee, heading north towards the Somme River and the tidal ford at Blanche-Taque-used back in 1346 by Edward II on his way to Crecy. However, on the 13th, a few miles from the ford, a French prisoner captured by his scouts told of a French force of 6,000 under Marshal Boucicaut had fortified the crossing with sharp stakes.
Henry V’s army marched eastward looking for another ford, but at each point, the French shadowing his army appeared, denying any crossing. After eight days, the English provisions started to run out, along with the very real danger of the loss of discipline from foraging and drunkenness. Henry resorted to hanging a man in full view of the army for stealing from a church, although much earlier in the march the entire abbey of Fecamp was burned to the ground. On the 15th, the English reached Abbeville, but found the bridge destroyed. The next two days found the English marching south east along the Somme through Pont Remy, Hangest-sur-Somme, Crouy, and Picquigny trying to find a bridge or ford. At Corbie, French men-at-arms galloped across the bridge and killed some English archers before retiring. After this event, Henry V ordered that sharpened stakes be prepared and carried by all archers--to initial grumbling but eventual advantage.
Cutting across the neck in a loop of the river, he found two unguarded fords at Voyenne and Bethencourt. He quickly posted a few hundred archers across the river on the 19th, and rebuilt the approach causeways through the marshes so the rest of the army could cross easily. A small force of French horsemen was repulsed, and the crossing went on.
The French under Boucicaut and Constable d’Albret cautioned to let the English go, but hot blooded spirits like the Dukes of Orleans, Brabant, and Bourbon, and the Count of Nevers were spoiling for a fight. And well should they-the French outnumbered the English by about four to one, if not higher, and half were mounted and armored men-at-arms. Indeed, the fall of Harfleur galvanized the French, and various nobility now heeded the call to arms. The French army soon numbered 60,000. However, 20,000 were ill-armed peasants and almost half the rest were valets, pages, grooms, and other attendants. At a council of war at Rouen, the French voted 30 to 5 to pursue and fight the enemy.
On October 20, three French heralds arrived at Henry V’s camp to announce the army’s intent to battle of the English. Henry V warned against interrupting the English journey to Calais and said that the English force would not look for a fight, but would not run away from one either. Then, he dismissed the heralds back to their camp at Peronne, a mere six miles away.
“When the heralds asked what road he would take, he answered, ‘Straight to Calais, and if our enemies try to disturb us in our journey, it will not be without the utmost peril. We do not intend to seek them out, but neither shall we in fear of them move either more slowly or more quickly than we wish to do. We advise them again not to interrupt our journey, nor to seek what would be its consequence: a great shedding of Christian blood.” [Titi Livii Foro]
Although expecting to be attacked the next day, the French did not, and the next day, Henry V’s force continued their march in a drenching rain. After a couple days of soggy marching, the English crossed the River Ternoise and camped near the village of Maisoncelles on October 24. Here, Henry first glimpsed the French forces, and the sight made some of his nobles quite pale. Sir Walter Hungerford wished for 10,000 more archers, and the King rebuked him immediately.
“Thou speakest foolishly, for by the God in Heaven, on whose grace I have relied, and in whom I have a firm hope of victory, I would not, even if I could, increase my number by one.” [Henrici Quinti Angliae Regis Gesta]
Still, he formed for battle atop a ridge, and though the French declined the attack, they had yet stopped his march to Calais. He released the prisoners he had captured and sending some of them to the French camp with a promise of returning Harfleur plus reparations in exchange for letting him be. It’s not quite the stern stuff of Shakesperean movies, but it adequately reflected the dangerous situation his force was in.
The French rejected the offer. Both sides prepared for battle.
The French determined that the English should be the ones to attack. the field of battle was newly sown with corn, about two miles long by one miles wide, though narrowing in the middle to about a half a mile. Woods formed a sidelines of sort and screened the villages of Agincourt to the west and Tramecourt to the east. Maisoncelles was south of the battlefield. The three days of torrential rain had turned the field into mud.
The French formed up in three lines, the first of about 6-8,000 armored knights and men-at-arms on foot, as was the 3-4,000 of the second line, but the third line of about 4,000 was mounted. Two small detachments of 500 or so mounted men waited on the wings. “The French were so loaded with armor that they could not support themselves or move forward. In the first place they were armed with long coats of steel, reaching to the knees and lower and were very heavy, over the leg harnesses, and besides plate armor most of them wore hooded helmets; wherefore the weight of the armor with the softness of the wet ground, as has been said, kept them as if immovable, so that they could raise their clubs only with difficulty.” [Jean de Wavrin (or Waurin)]
A contingent of French gunners and crossbowmen were also on the field, although the jostling of the overconfident French-all of whom wished to be in the first line-pushed these missile troops to the flanks.
“They had archers and crossbowmen enough, but they would not let them shoot, for the plain was so narrow that there was no room except for the men-at-arms.” [Jean de Wavrin (or Waurin)]
The English formed into three men-at-arms groups, with Henry V in the center, the Duke of York on the right, and Lord Camoys on the left. All the English men-at-arms were dismounted. In between were archers, plus the flanks held forward-deployed archers. All the archers implanted sharpened stakes as an obstacle to mounted attacks, and all were under the command of Sir Thomas Eppingham. A small baggage train guard of 10 men-at-arms and 20 archers were stationed in the rear.
“The archers were for the most part in their doublets, without armor, their stockings rolled up to their knees, and having hatchets and battle-axes or great swords hanging at their girdles; some were bare-footed and bare headed, others had caps of boiled leather, and others of osier covered with harpoy or leather.” [Jean de Wavrin (or Waurin)]
The French plan, such as it was, was for the mounted wings to chase away the English archers on the flank, and the men-at-arms to demolish the center. The English plan was to shaft the French into defeat-an English longbow arrow could puncture just about any armor at 60 yards. Henry V, shrewd about counting as well as pre-battle psychology, noted the rumor that any archers captured by the French would have three fingers (needed to draw a bow string) cut off. The armies deployed about 700 yards apart...and then, nothing.
The Battle
“He which hath no stomach to this fight, Let him depart; his passport shall be made, And crowns for convoy put in his purse: We would not die in that man’s company that fears his fellowship to die with us. This day is called the feast of Crispian: He that outlives this day and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that shall live this day and see old age, Will yearly on this vigil feast his neighbors, And say, “To-morrow is St. Crispin,” then he will strip his sleeve and show his scars, And say, “These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.” - Shakespeare, Henry V
For four hours, neither side moved. Henry V finally decided to goad the French into an attack, and at 11 a.m. had Sir Thomas Eppingham move the archers up about half way. Henry V followed by the rest of his army. The stakes were pounded back into the ground and the arrow fire began at a range of 300 yards. The French attacked.
The mounted men-at-arms on the wings attacked the flanking bowmen, but protected by stakes and firing at point blank range, the English not only drove off the attack, but caused considerable confusion in the French ranks in the process. The horses, maddened by wounds, retreated and trampled everything in their path-including the edges of the first line. The French gunners and crossbowmen, blocked from firing anyway, were swept away by the fleeing wings.
“And most of the rest, through fear, gave way and fell back upon tehir vanguard, to whom they made a great hindrance; and they opened their ranks in several places, and made them fall back and lose their footing in some land newly sown; for their horses had been so wounded by the arrows that the men could no longer manage them. Thus, by this principally and this adventure, the vanguard of the French was thrown into disorder, and men-at-arms without number began to fall; and their horses feeling the arrows coming upon them took to flight before the enemy.” [Jean de Wavrin (or Waurin)]
Meanwhile, the English continued to rain arrows on the slow-moving men-at-arms. The ankle-deep quagmire that was the battlefield sapped the strength of the French, and the flanking bow fire as well as the idea that only other knights are proper combatants for knights crowded them towards the center. Yet on they came, but as they slipped and fell, or were pushed over, or wounded by arrows, they were ground into the mud. Losses mounted as they suffocated in the mud or from the press of bodies above. It was impossible to regain footing. Eventually, enough crashed into the English men-at-arms, and the English line gave ground. But the impact had been spent, and although the outnumbered English men-at-arms bent, they did not break. The archers soon attacked in ferocious hand-to-hand as what was left of the French knights were too packed and exhausted to offer much resistence.
Meanwhile, the second French line under the Duke of Alencon, also disordered and also weakened, struck the English. Furious fighting took place around Henry V and the Duke of Gloucester. Gloucester fell wounded, Henry V fighting over him until someone dragged the Duke to safety. Meanwhile, the Duke of Alencon, having left to try and rally the increasing number of fleeing French, rallied enough to force his way back into the battle. Indeed, he gets the credit for hacking part of Henry’s crown off his armor until he was finally beated to his knees. Alencon surrendered to Henry V, but was cut down by an English knight as he removed his helmet. As the second line routed, the English pulled about 3,000 ransomable prisoners from the heaps lying on the muddy field, killing the rest of the French men-at-arms.
The French Duke of Brabant failed to encourage the third line of the French to attack, and almost singlehandedly charged the English. He was eventually unhorsed and captured. The Count of Marle and Count of Fauquemberges swore to kill Henry V or die trying, and prepared a final charge with about 500-600 mounted knights.
It was at this time, with a still-uncommitted third French line, that a few French knights and several hundred peasants attacked the baggage camp. Some items were stolen and the raid driven off.
Henry V, by now concerned with the number of still-armored prisoners taken and with the possibility of fresh attacks, ordered most of the prisoners killed, and threatened to hang anyone who disobeyed his order. An esquire and 200 archers began the butchery, which included burning a number of the French alive in a house. Those initial exempted were the elite nobility who were worth a considerable amount in ransom. The lone exception was the Duke of Brabant, whose throat was slit because none recognized his considerable value.
The attack third line of 600 mounted men-at-arms failed, and sure enough, the two Counts died. Henry V then put a stop to the prisoner massacre.
All told, the English lost about 250 men, the majority archers, but also including the Duke of York, Earl of Suffolk, and a handful of knights. The French, adding prisoners captured by the English, lost between 7-10,000, including the Dukes of Alencon, Bar, Brabant, nine Counts, 92 barons, 1500 knights, and the rest men-at-arms. Among the captured-at least those who survived the prisoner massacre-were the Dukes of Bourbon and Orleans, marshal Boucicaut, Counts of Eu, Richemont, and Vendome, and 1500 knights.
The English dead, except for The Duke of York and Earl of Oxford, were placed in a barn and the entire structure fired in a huge funeral pyre. The two nobles were boiled to separate flesh fron bone, and the bones taken back to England. The next day, the English army continued its march, reaching Calais on October 29. Henry, dissuaded by his companions from launching another attack on surrounding French towns, sailed back to England on November 16, reaching London by the 23rd.
“Old men forget, yet all shall be forgot, But he’ll remember with advantages what feats he did that day. Then shall our names, familiar in his mouth as household words, Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, be in their flowing cups freshly remembered. This story shall a good man teach his son; and Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by, from this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered; We few, we happy few, we band of brothers, for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition; And gentlemen in England, now a-bed, Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap while any speaks that fought with us upon St. Crispin’s Day.” - Shakespeare, Henry V
More Agincourt
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