On the 25th October 1415, St Crispin’s Day, the hosts of England and France clashed at Agincourt in Picardy, what happened that day was to become the stuff of legend, as portrayed by Shakespeare in his play “The Life of Henry V”. The British and French armies that lined up on the field were very different, not just in the way they fought, but in the way they were recruited, led, there social status and the political situation that they were being drawn from. What was that political situation?

Henry V had come to the throne during a turbulent time in British politics. His father, Henry Bolingbroke, had seized the throne in 1399 from his nephew Richard II. Henry IV’s main concern was with consolidating his hold on power in England, it was a turbulent reign and there were several insurrections against the British crown, in both England and Wales. However in 1413 Henry IV died.

When Henry V came to the throne, hopes were high, one contempory writer, Thomas Walsingham claimed ‘Now spring had come to melt the winter snows’, and Henry was able to deliver. In 1413 Henry reburied Richard II, this was an action of political genius, it finally established

It is impossible to ignore this as one of the social factors for the English victory. The resolve of the French troops had been damaged by the civil war. French soldiers at the battle would have had little certainty of who they were really fighting for, the Burgundians and the Gascons both signed treaties with King Henry and were against the rest of their countrymen. This was a huge advantage for the English, being able to exploit the divisions in their enemies.

This was in a definite contrast with the political events in France at the time of the British invasion of 1415. The French leadership was in crisis, their leaders divided, their king insane and the country immersed in civil war.

In his book, “The Agincourt War”, Alfred Burne discusses the British army at Agincourt saying “it was a small army, but it was homogenous and it possessed a degree of discipline that was quite unique for that epoch.” Indeed Henry enjoyed completely silence on the eve of battle, and throughout the entire campaign, soldiers who stole from or molested the local population were hung.

Some topics in this essay:
Richard Holmes, French English, King Henry, English Kings, Thomas Erpingham, Philip Bold, Indeed Henry, Alfred Burne, King England, Normandy” Dauphin, civil war, alfred burne, political situation, british victory, social reasons, social reasons british, reasons british, reasons british victory, british victory agincourt, charles vi, french society, government france, henry throne,