Battles that Changed History: Agincourt

Disclaimer: (ENGLISH NOT BRITISH) Furthermore, I should have stated that some of the story (with dubious evidence) was added to make it more interesting for the crowd. The cutting off of fingers etc. was most likely a modern addition but it captures the attention of younger students. There is also always going to be a discussion as to the real effectiveness of the longbow versus plate armor. The English won this battle so their view might be given more credence. The 9th Grade Excel class elective studied the Battle of Agincourt. We discussed the knight, chivalry, the causes of the 100 Year's War, and the impact of the longbow before we talked about this battle. Fun fact, I went home and found I had a temperature of 103. Thought I was a bit off--but we persevere. Any mistakes I made can now be blamed on illness. A random student even makes a Monty Python reference at the end. The students wanted to vote on the last battle but I say...I am not sure which one yet. Also, I apologize for referring to the English as British. That would not be the case until the 1700s. In my defense, I was teaching about 18th century Great Britain in another class at the time and it just happened.

[PwnstarUK]

This is good but a few inaccuracies are told and repeated and even printed in reputable history books id like to mention :-
English longbowman had light armour and other weapons like bills, sword and bucklers etc.. they were just like infantry of the day but also had longbows. some would even have the full knight armour but just not the social standing to be a man at arms.
The English slaughtered the low class prisoners but not the high born noble french prisoners. The 1200 they left alive were the cream of french upper classes including nearly all their military leaders who were taken back to england.
Even bodkin arrows from an english 120lb longbow dont go through 15th century french armour of the day 95% of the time. Not enough to cause a war ending injury anyway. they had chain mail under the plate and gambeson under that. You cant keep that level of protection on and be moving about for long a lot of the deaths would be from them lifting their visors to get a breath or see where they were going ( the eye sloths point upwards in the pig face bassinets of the day so you couldnt see forwards or down without looking at the floor so opening the visor was necessary to even get a bearing on where to walk.) The reason they longbowmen were so awesome was their power and accuracy to shoot into the eye slots like this guy says they could do it over and over due to compulsory practice every sunday for all males of working age in england being an actual law enforced in henry V's time. We basically has super unreal skilled longbow, en and the french were really angry at poor low class archers shooting their upper class noblemen in their armour.
The flicking the v's and cutting off the fingers thing is totally made up sadly, its been repeated so many time you can see it many times in historical stories but there is no basis in fact for it. but the truth is even more disgusting. they saved up their toilet solids and liquids in vases and made it even more minging with god knows what else and would sling it at the french and the vases break showering the french lords and princes with their poop :)

I know you didnt mention it but longbow men only ever shot straight as in flat at the enemy not upwards in an arc so the arrows drop on an enemy . That was pointless and would do nothing to the well armoured french. Most of the bodies found at agincourt that died of arrow wounds were on a flat or slightly upwards trajectory fired from 5-10m right in their face . contrary to what they show in movies where thousands of arrows are fired in swarms. up in the air.. you could kill horses that way which isnt totally useless but even the worst equipped guy on the battlefield had a helmet that could resist arrows at 400m coming downwards.

I do love the idea that this history gets taught in other countries though and enthusiastic good teachers are doing their best to make school interesting.. The Wallace Collection in london is a free museum with all the weapons and armour from agincourt remaining with explanations and information of how it all worked etc.. well worth a visit if your in the UK.

[jay]

Good story telling very engaging! You come across as a teacher i would happily sit and listen to!

[ImWithBigRed]

I’ve studied the Battle of Agincourt and have visited the battlefield a number of times and this is one of the best videos I have seen about the battle. An excellent overview. Congratulations.

[stuartfitch]

Agincourt was probably the battle that made the English longbow the legendary weapon it is today. There was other battles won by the longbow but not quite in the scale of agincourt.

The remarkable thing about the bowmen was that they were only peasants who, by law in those times had to practice with a longbow for so many hours per week. This law ensured the Kings of England always had a plentiful supply of experienced bowmen.

[Boccherini]

And the English and British still use the "two-fingered salute" to this day.

[rickj.]

This was an absolutely brilliant explanation of the battle and the surrounding circumstances. Thank you for posting it!

[carlsagan]

Looks like the English had a lot... at stake

[miguelencanarias]

Excellent, just excellent. Engaging and accurate description of the battle. Well done, sir.

[bazza]

Ok, so there were a couple minor inaccuracies but this is a pretty well balanced overview of the battle, well researched and brilliantly delivered; the students must have been following every word. I think that in a lesson of this length the content was just right.

[KubernetePirata]

I got here because I was looking for a soundtrack of a Total War game featuring the battle of Agincourt. The lockdown also send me down a rabbithole of history & medieval warfare enthusiasts. So I wanted to know what are the texts of 2017 still says about the Agincourt. From the rabbithole, it seems now that the armour can actually protect the knights so the bows aren't the only factor. Maybe the rabbthole findings of mine will be finalized in the academia in the near future? (I won't go over it since the other user already made a detailed response of what I found).

[tudorfanman]

Fabulous piece of history, enjoyed it. From an Englishman!

[destresschiropractic]

Even though I am not in your class, I learned a lot. Your teaching helped my understanding of 'The King". Thanks

[Vitross]

An important thing to mention i think is that so much of the french nobility died in this battle that it allowed the french king to establish a professional army loyal to the king because the remaining nobility didnt have the power to stop him.

[TheAaronExperience]

Nice presentation. I had the pleasure of visiting Azincourt, Crecy and Poitiers, all the major battles of the Hundred year war. The topography of Azincourt did indeed help the English defensive position as the area between Tramcourt and Azincourt is a long and low rounded hill. As such any army that would attack would naturally advance concentrated along the crest of said hill.

[fliksc]

Hi there, can I just say that I'm a post-grad from the UK in Medieval History, and for a while a teacher. This is some really interesting teaching, I like your perspectives with this, and some of the more un-orthodox analytical angles. I think the way we study history in the UK especially when it's our own history can be quite different, it was great to see this.

Thank you very much!!!

Edit- Thought I'd give you 3 of my favourite takes which I like about Againcourt too-
1) The English king staring at at overwhelmingly large French forces, with ailing and sick troops. (Welsh subjects too- interesting morale....)
2) The change of Morale.. throughout the entire battle. Arrows were really inacurate at long range- even English longbows, )
3) The post-battle results, but also the knowledge of the men to fight on, even though they knew many would yet die from disease even if they won. (The bait tactic was interesting, and suprisingly sees little under-use after this battle)

[joecct]

You could say the French caught the English with their pants down.

[_WhatsInAName_]

The French almost literally caught the English with their pants down

[whiteknightcat]

Oh, go ahead, you can say keniggits. And you can add the vicious French taunting as well. I'm actually surprised the student even knew about Monty Python given their age. Many American adults aren't even familiar with them, and I find it sad that so many just don't "get" British humor.

[pittsburghmcconnell]

awesome, thx again ..the fields got fertilized in more than one way that day.

[leth]

If the French had charged when Henry's army moved forward the archers would have been totally open to attack. Instead they waited and most likely watched as the archers re installed their wooden stakes. When they finally attacked their horses were met with a wall of spikes.