The rest were English and Welsh archers, who wore only the minimum of defensive armour and carried the longbow, a weapon virtually unique to their island. Of these, only nine hundred were men-at-arms, the human tanks of their day, clad from head to toe in plate armour and universally regarded as the elite of the military world. The siege had taken its toll, however, and of the twelve thousand fighting men who had embarked on the expedition, only half that number were now assembled on the field of Agincourt. On one side stood the bedraggled remnants of an English army that had invaded Normandy ten weeks earlier and, in a major blow to French pride, captured the strategically important town and port of Harfleur. The contrast between them could not have been greater. Read ExcerptĪs first light dawned on the morning of 25 October 1415, two armies faced each other across a plateau in an obscure corner of north-eastern France which was about to become one of the most famous battlefields in European history. Populated with chivalrous heroes, dastardly spies, and a ferocious and bold king, Agincourt is as earthshaking as its subject - and confirms Juliet Barker’s status as both a historian and a storyteller of the first rank. But she also takes us beyond the battlefield into palaces and common cottages to bring into vivid focus an entire medieval world in flux. She paints a gripping narrative of the October 1415 clash between outnumbered English archers and heavily armored French knights. It is the classic underdog story in the history of warfare, and generations have wondered how the English - outnumbered by the French six to one - could have succeeded so bravely and brilliantly.ĭrawing upon a wide range of sources, eminent scholar Juliet Barker casts aside the legend and shows us that the truth behind Agincourt is just as exciting, just as fascinating, and far more significant. It has been immortalized in high culture (Shakespeare’s Henry V) and low (the New York Post prints Henry’s battle cry on its editorial page each Memorial Day). From a master historian comes an astonishing chronicle of life in medieval Europe and the battle that altered the course of an empire.Īlthough almost six centuries old, the Battle of Agincourt still captivates the imaginations of men and women on both sides of the Atlantic.
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