The Battle of Agincourt

At dawn on October 25 in the year 1415, the French army confronted the English army to fight for the French crown.

King Henry V of England had arrived at Agincourt in Northern France with an army of around 6,000 men, including men-at-arms, mounted knights and longbowmen. The French army numbered 25,000 and included 15,000 mounted knights along with numerous crossbowmen.

Overnight it had rained continuously. The battleground was wet and muddy. The French stood tightly packed between two forests struggling to stay dry. To make matters worse for the English, they had walked or ridden more than 270 miles (430 kilometres) in the previous 17 days to reach the battleground. They were tired, hungry, many were ill and they carried heavy stakes cut from the woods to the south.

From dawn, the armies stood in battle formations facing each other for four hours. The French army, drawn from all over France began to argue amongst itself as to when they should attack. Meanwhile, King Henry moved his troops to within shooting range some 300 yards (300 metres) away, they dug their stakes in the mud angled towards the French with the points up. They then began to fire with thousands of bows raining down on the French.

In response, the French charged at the English. Henry’s archers then fired at the horses bringing down hundreds of riders who fell to the mud unable to move in their heavy armour. They either suffocated in the mud, were trampled by riders following or where knifed by advancing English troops.

In half an hour the battle was over. The French had lost 10,000 men and the English a mere 500.

The English held the weapon that had literally brought the mounted knight to the ground: the Welsh longbow capable of shooting a rider from 400 yards (400 metres). With an experienced archer able to shoot nine arrows a minute, the advantage was not simply one of distance over the riders on horses, it was an advantage of speed over the comparatively slow and cumbersome crossbow.

With their new technology, the English had reinvented the battle and brought to an end the dominance of the mounted, fully armoured knight.


Source: James Burke, "Connections", Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1978, pages 59-62.

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