AGINCOURT

. The greatest English victory of the Hundred Years’ War came when France was divided by the Armagnac-Burgundian feud. Henry V seized this opportunity to invade France and forcibly reassert a dubious claim to the French throne. Henry captured Harfleur and then marched north toward Calais. On October 25, 1415, a hostile force cut off his route. An exhausted English force of 1,000 men at arms and 6,000 archers confronted perhaps 25,000 French. Henry shrewdly profited from the restricted, muddy terrain and so deployed his troops to defeat an adversary ill served by a divided command. English archers provoked the overconfident French into an assault that squandered their numerical advantage, allowing the outnumbered but disciplined English to encircle and destroy the uncoordinated French mass. At least 5,000 French died and many French peers were captured, while English casualties were trivial. The dramatic victory proved crucial to Henry’s ambitions. With Armagnac forces devastated, he was emboldened to undertake the occupation of Normandy and to conclude an alliance with Burgundy. The resulting Treaty of Troyes gave him widespread recognition as the legitimate heir to the throne of France.

Paul D. Solon

[See also: ARMAGNACS; BOUCICAUT; CHARLES VI; HENRY V: HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR]

Burne, Alfred Higgins. The Agincourt War. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1956.

Hibbert, Christopher. Agincourt. Philadelphia: Dufour, 1964.

Jacob, Ernest Fraser. Henry Vand the Invasion ofFrance. New York: Macmillan, 1950.

Jarman, Rosemary Hawley. Crispin’s Day: The Glory Of Agincourt. Boston: Little, Brown, 1979. Keegan, John. The Face of Battle. New York: Viking, 1976.