Battle of Azincourt

The battles of Azincourt is held the October 25th 1415 during the Guerre One hundred Year old. She opposes the French troops (between 25 000 and 45 000 men) with the English quota extremely of roughly 10 000 men (between 6 000 and 15 000, according to the sources). This battle is an important defeat for the French camp; the heavy cavalry, made less effective by a muddy ground and the English cuttings off, is transpierced by the archers in majority Welsh, equipped with large arcs ( long bows ) with very long range.

This battle, where the French knighthood is put in rout by lower English soldiers of number, will be often regarded as the end of the era of the knighthood and the beginning of the supremacy of the remote weapons on the fray, supremacy which will nothing but do be reinforced thereafter thanks to the invention of the firearms. It will be, in reaction, a major cause of the epopee of Jeanne d' Arc, then of the investment in the artillery which will become a French speciality.

For the English, this battle will remain one of the most celebrated victories, in particular by William Shakespeare.

Configuration of the ground and weather conditions

The battle has place in the clearing between the wood of Azincourt and that of Tramecourt, in current Pas-de-Calais (62). In north, with the foot of the hill and in coldly plowed fields, is the army ordered by Charles Ier d' Albret, Connétable of France, which placed itself there to prohibit the passage towards Calais with the English forces which conducted a campaign on the Somme. The night of October 24th occurs on the ground for the two camps. A heavy rain falls all the night on the two little sheltered armies. The battle field, all in length, strongly are softened, particularly French side, placed in the bottom of the hill where a brook runs and where water streamed all during the night.

Provision of the armies

With the point of the day, the 25 (the Saint-Crepin), Henri V lays out his small army (approximately 1000 knights, 6 000 archers and a few thousands of infantrymen). It is probable that the three Bataille S usual were placed on a line, each one with its archers on the sides and the dismounted men-at-arms occupying the center; archers being placed ahead in projections in the shape of corner, almost exactly as with the Battle of Crécy.

The French, on the other hand, are grouped on three lines and in mass. They are definitely more numerous than the English, but in Azincourt, they cannot use the power of their load. The muddy ground makes slip the horses heavily charged. The four successive waves of attack empêtrent the ones in the others.

The artillery in particular cannot be deployed in thick mud and the principal rafters as usual are behind the knights and the men-at-arms. All are with foot, except some knights on the sides, for if required charging the archers with the adversary. The French commentators estimate that the knights have to fear little because, if they are captured, a ransom will be versed to release them. It is not the case of the rank and file , made up of privates. Those may find it beneficial to dearly defend their skin and with good to fight.

Course of the battle

During the first three hours after the rising of the sun, there is no combat. Henri V of England, estimating that the French would not advance, makes move back its army in the clearing.

The Archer S take refuge behind piles which they brought and planted in the ground to avoid the loads of Cavalerie.

Seeing the English retreat, the knights of France, undisciplined, not taking account of the report/ratio of the scouts, forgetting the lessons of the battles of Crécy and Poitiers, decide to charge.

The Archer S English accommodate them by several flights of arrows, which immobilize the first ranks. The riders, whose horses slip on the muddy ground, put foot at ground. Their successive loads are pushed back in confusion. The constable himself directs the principal line men-at-arms dismounted. Under the weight of their armours, they are inserted deeply in mud with each step. They reach the English lines however and start the combat with the men-at-arms English. During a short moment, the combat is intense. The thin line of the English defenders moves back. Henri V is almost put at ground. At this time, the Archer S, take their axes, swords and others weapons, and penetrate in the disordered rows of the French. Embourbés, those cannot be driven to face their attackers. Their men all are killed or captured. The second line of the French camp advances, to be absorbed in the fray and undergoes the same fate, followed third line, whose commanders seek and find death. The only success of the French camp will be obtained by Sally, Ysambart d' Azincourt lord of the castle of Azincourt, located behind the French camp, which manages to capture… the luggage of the English king.

Contrary to the orders of Henri V, the men-at-arms English benefit from the victory and make many prisoners hoping to draw ransom from it as it is then the use, estimating moreover that it would be not very Christian to kill them. The king then orders with his own men-at-arms to massacre all the prisoners. Returning even the next morning on the battle field, it makes liquidate the French casualties who survived.

Assessment

The total losses of the English are of 13 knights (of which the Duc of York, grandson of Edouard III, killed by the duke of Alençon) and a hundred privates. The French lose 5 000 knights of which the constable, several dukes (Jean Ier d' Alençon; Charles, Duke of Orleans, that of the Literature; Edouard III of Bar; Antoine of Burgundy; duke of the Brabant), 5 counts (of which Philippe of Burgundy and the count Robert de Marle), 90 barons and a thousand of other knights were made prisoners. The only ones to survive will be those which will have preferred not to take part: “This combat, the duke of Brittany, Jean, although it had been called, did not attend. Having come with Amiens with a great number of its Breton, commonly estimated at ten thousand men, he liked to better await the exit of the war there, rather than to expose itself of too close with the dangers. The finished battle, it took again the way of its duchy, without same to have seen the enemies, but not without some damage for the localities where it passed. ”

A disastrous peace for France will be signed with Troyes, five years later.

The rout of the French knighthood of Azincourt, which makes following those of Crécy, Poitiers and Nicopolis, definitively removes France of large feudal and an exceeded design of the war whereas English and Othomans already organized plain and disciplined armies: the French, twice higher of number but, almost all drunkards, incompetents to obey a chief single and placed in impossibility of making operate the horses, as with the battle of Poitiers, sixty years before, would have had interest to negotiate with Henri V, which had given up its dream to assert the crown of France.

This battle marked a turning in the art of the war in Europe: more handy and more articulated armies, (like was already that of Edouard III) demolish heteroclite masses of drunkards full with useless bravery.

See too

Siège of Harfleur
the historical part Henri V of Shakespeare is held at the time of the battle of Azincourt

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