Saint Crispin’s Day and the Battle of Agincourt

                          Saint Crispin’s Day and the Battle of Agincourt

       Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, taking place in 1415 (605 years ago) between the forces of France and her various allies and the invading English forces under the command of King Henry V. Shakespeare, by having his character Henry V repeatedly refer to the day of the battle as St. Crispin’s Day, otherwise saved this obscure saint from being lost, save for experts in hagiography, to the mist of history.

            Agincourt was the third of a trio of famous battles in the course of the 100 Years War; the other two were Crecy (1346) (I reviewed the Battle of Crecy in an earlier post) and Poitiers (1356).  The English won all three of these battles.  In the end they lost the war.  If you should want a comprehensive review of the 100 Years War, the four volume treatment by Jonathan Sumption (The Hundred Years War I – Trial by Battle; The Hundred YearsWar II – Trial by Fire; The Hundred Years War III – Divided Houses; The Hundred Years War IV – Cursed Kings and The Hundred Years War - Triumph and Illusion is authoritative.

      The English forces, likely numbering in the range of 7,000, were compelled to do battle with a numerically superior French force likely numbering in excess of 20,000. All else being equal, the English force should have expected to be annihilated. As is typical in the case of significant historical events, however, all things were not equal. The French and their allies were disorganized, and overall command of the battlefield was never achieved.  Rather, individual nobles led their own contingents forward in a disorganized and sometimes conflicting manner.  The terrain favored the English in several ways.  The French “artillery,” crossbowmen (largely Pisan mercenaries) were not effectively deployed, and they had the unenviable task of shooting uphill.  That same terrain required the French forces, both mounted and on foot, to attack uphill over a recently plowed field that, consequent to the recent rain, was more mud than dirt. The French knights and men at arms, slogging their way uphill, were a “target rich environment” for the rain of arrows let loose by the English longbows; assuming Henry’s forces numbered 7,000, likely 5,800 were longbowmen, each releasing four to six arrows a minute.

      Another factor was that the very size of the French force worked to its disadvantage in that those behind continued pressing forward, hoping for their moment of glory, even while those at the front were being slaughtered. It was not quite the situation suffered by the Romans at the hands of Hannibal at Cannae, but then likely it was not hugely better.

      While comparative casualty figures are effectively impossible to ascertain, it is clear that the French were badly mauled with significantly more casualties than the English. Further, a significant number of French nobles fell in contrast to only two English nobles. Also, a significant number of French knights who had been captured in anticipation of being ransomed were executed.  The validity of the execution order, given by Henry V, is to this day debated.

      For an excellent review of the battle, see Juliet Barker's Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England. It is also covered in volume four of Sumption’s treatise.

      As invented by Shakespeare in Henry V, Scene iii, the St. Crispin’s Day speech would immortalize Henry V:

WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here

But one ten thousand of those men in England

 That do no work to-day!

 KING. What’s he that wishes so?

 My cousin, Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;

 If we are mark’d to die, we are enow

 To do our country loss; and if to live,

 The fewer men, the greater share of honour.

 God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.

 By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,

 Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;

 It yearns me not if men my garments wear;

 Such outward things dwell not in my desires.

 But if it be a sin to covet honour,

 I am the most offending soul alive.

 No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.

 God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour

 As one man more methinks would share from me

 For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!

 Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,

 That he which hath no stomach to this fight,

 Let him depart; his passport shall be made,

 And crowns for convoy put into his purse;

 We would not die in that man’s company

 That fears his fellowship to die with us.

 This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.

 He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,

 Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,

 And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

 He that shall live this day, and see old age,

 Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,

 And say “To-morrow is Saint Crispian.”

 Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,

 And say “These wounds I had on Crispin's day.”

 Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,

 But he’ll remember, with advantages,

 What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,

 Familiar in his mouth as household words-

 Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,

 Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-

 Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.

 This story shall the good man teach his son;

 And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,

 From this day to the ending of the world,

 But we in it shall be remembered-

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

 For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

 Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,

 This day shall gentle his condition;

 And gentlemen in England now-a-bed

 Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,

 And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

 That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

 

           HERE IS A LINK to Kenneth Branagh’s masterful rendition.

          Not recited in the list of nobles who were part of the battle was Edward of Norwich, the Duke of York (a grandson of Edward III)   He was killed while defending the king.

            In 1420 Isabeau of Bavaria, queen to the incapacitated Charles VI, signed the Treaty of Troyes, granting the French Crown to Henry V and his heirs in place of her son. Further to that treaty, Henry V married Catherine of Valois; she would be the mother of Henry VI with the Valois inherited mental instability that would contribute to the Cousins War (a/k/a the War of the Roses); HERE IS A LINK to a discussion of that situation. Henry V died in 1422. Joan of Arc would join the fray in 1429; while she would be in the field just a year and a half she helped turn the tide, and the 100 Years War would end with England holding only the region of Calais.  It would be lost in the reign of Mary (a/k/a Bloody Mary).

     October 25 is as well the anniversary of the elevation of Henry II to the throne upon the death of Steven of Blios, thereby bringing to an end "The Anarchy,' and the 1854 Battle of Balaclava and the better known "Charge of the Light Brigade" during the Crimean War. The latter engagement did not go so well for the British forces.

The Second Battle of Philippi

 The Second Battle of Philippi

 

      Today is the anniversary of the Second Battle of Philippi (42 b.c.), the final battle in the civil war between forces loyal to Brutus and Cassius, leaders of the assassins of Julius Caesar, and those of Marc Antony and Octavian. It was by any measure a significant engagement; the opposing armies may have totaled 200,000 troops.

 

      There were actually two battles of Philippi some three weeks apart, the first being on October 3.  In the first battle, the forces under the command of Cassius faltered, and Cassius in turn committed suicide (actually he had one of his servants kill him).  At that same battle, however, forces of the command of Brutus were able to push back those of Octavian, actually capturing his camp.  At the second battle, fought on October 23, Brutus’ forces were routed and his camp was captured by forces under Octavian.  Brutus, with remnants of his forces, retreated, but he would ultimately commit suicide.

 

      For those familiar with the HBO series Rome, in that presentation the two Battles of Philippi were condensed into a single engagement.  In addition, it portrayed Cassius as having fallen in battle and Brutus having commit suicide by wading into the battle after stripping off his armor.  While certainly a heroic suggestion, that is not what happened.

 

            Now in clear control of the Roman Empire, the Second Triumvirate of Octavian (Caesar’s heir), Marc Antony and Lepidus would jointly rule until they would eventually fall on one another, with Octavian emerging victorious as the first Roman Emperor.

The Battle of Hastings

 The Battle of Hastings

Today marks the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings.

1066 has already been a tumultuous year in England. On January 5, Edward the Confessor died, leaving the English throne to Harold Godwinson (King Harold II). Harold’s family, the Godwins, were the most powerful in England. Harold was himself an earl, and as well the brother-in-law to Edward the Confessor, the latter having been married to Harold’s daughter Edith. William of Normandy, also known as William the Bastard, claimed that he had been designated as Edward’s successor and that Harold had once promised him that he, Harold, disclaimed any right to the throne, leaving it instead to William. In addition, Harold Hardrada of Norway asserted a claim to the English throne.

Sometime in September, Harold Hardrada had landed his troops in the north of England. After fast marching his troops north, the army of Harold Godwinson met the invading army of Harold Hardrada (supported by Tostig Godwinson, Harold’s brother) at the Battle of Stamford Bridge (HERE IS A LINK to a posting on those events). The invading army was defeated, and Hardrada was killed. Learning of William’s invasion in the south, Harold had to turn his army around and fast march it south in order to respond to this new threat. Those forced marches were some 240 miles each way. Or that is what we thought.  In a recently released book, Harold: Warrior King by Tom License it is argued that Harold's army did not march but rather sailed, an entirely plausible thr=eory in light of the availability of excess ships left behind when Harold Hardrada's greatly depleted army retreated.

For reasons that have baffled many later historians, Harold, upon arriving in London, quickly turned his troops, already exhausted from the march, toward Hastings (again, if License's theory holds true they were not eachuasted from a march). Regardless, he did so notwithstanding that reinforcements were due to arrive the following day. Still, Harold led his forces towards William’s beachhead, leaving word for the reinforcements to actual up as soon as possible. Those reinforcements included the archers.

The Battle of Hastings proper (there was an earlier skirmish) probably began around 11 in the morning. Through most of the day the forces of Harold prevailed – attacks on the shield wall were not effective, and the Norman archers were not effective firing up-hill. Harold holding his own against William would have been for Harold a win. As observed by Frank McLynn in 1066-The Year of Three Battles:

 

[Harold] knew he had only to hold out until nightfall when reinforcements were certain to arrive; he could play for a draw but William had to have a win.

The Norman infantry having failed to break through, William sent in his calvary. Attacking uphill, they did not have the force necessary to break through. When William’s flank started to fail (the Breton forces) and William was unhorsed and rumored to be dead. Harold’s forces began an advance downhill, their shielded wall still intact and functionally invulnerable. But then the advance lost its momentum, perhaps due to the death of its leader Leofwine, Harold’s brother. William’s forces pushed back and in order Harold’s forces reversed themselves back uphill. It was then a battle of attrition, and the Norman invaders were lost at a lower rate than were Harold’s forces. A combined archery and armored calvary assault finally broke the shield wall, and the battle dissolved into combat between small units ensued. Harold and the remaining troops around him were attacked and Harold fell to multiple sword blows and a lance through his chest. 

Maybe an hour after Harold fell, reinforcements, including additional housecarls, arrived.

The accepted, albeit almost certainly apocryphal, story is that Harold fell after being struck in the eye with an arrow. The Bayeux Tapestry may be interpreted as saying such. However, the “King Harold was killed” heading is over two figures (neither wearing a crown), one with an arrow in his eye and the other being struck down by a sword. If the former is meant to be Harold, the famous arrow in the eye as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry may be a later invention. It is not mentioned in the earliest accounts of the battle. In addition, in medieval iconography, an arrow in the eye is the punishment afforded a perjurer. Having gone against his oath to leave the throne to William, some might have felt it poetic justice, even if not based in reality.

By Christmas William was crowned King of England and was in Westminster Abbey accepting pledges of fealty from England’s mobility. Still, the next two decades of his reign would see numerous rebellions and challenges, including one from his own son Robert.

            As for the Bayeux Tapestry itself, HERE IS A LINK is an animated (and translated) version.

                A body of reinactors will this year, the 959th anniversary of the battle, demonstrate what it likely was like to be there that day.

 

            The English like to claim that the Norman Invasion was the last invasion of England. This is not true. For example, during the Barons War, a French force invaded and had control of a significant portion of southern England, and the Isle of Wight was invaded in 1545. But the Norman Conquest is the last successful invasion of England.

The Death of Pompey Magnus

                                                            The Death of Pompey Magnus

          Today is the anniversary of the death (assassination) of Pompey the Great on his (almost) arrival in Egypt.  Having lost the Battle of Pharsalus (48 b.c.) to Julius Caesar, he fled to Egypt hoping for refuge and the opportunity to raise a new army.  The Egyptians, knowing that Caesar would be on Pompey’s heals, arranged for his assassination before he reached the shore.  For those of you who enjoyed the HBO series Rome, while Pompey was killed in sight of his wife, there were more assassins than the one depicted, and it took place in the boat, not as Pompey walked to shore.

            It was an ignominious end to an amazing life.  He almost defeated Caesar earlier in the year at the Battle of Dyrrhachium. Previously, with Caesar and Crassus, he had been part of the First Triumvirate.  He was three times Consul of Rome, and three times he was awarded a Triumph. According to Josephus as recounted in The Jewish Antiquities, after conquering Jerusalem and settling a dispute as to local control he entered the Holy of Holies of the Temple, but took nothing of its riches.  

        Robin Seager's Pompey the Great: A Political Biography is recommended, as is Pat Souther's Pompey the Great. You might enjoy as well Mike Duncan's The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic.

Today is also the anniversary in 1066 of the arrival of the troops of William of Normandy (soon to be “the Conqueror”) in England. 

The Last Viking Invasion of England and the Battle of Stamford Bridge

  The Last Viking Invasion of England and the Battle of Stamford Bridge

Today is the anniversary of the battle at Stamford Bridge in 1066, it ending, for all intents and purposes, the Viking invasions of England.  Beginning in the 8th century and the famous raid of Lindesfarne (June 8, 793), England had repeatedly suffered both Viking raids and invasions/migrations.  King Canute II (one of only two English kings denominated “the Great”) was an aspect of this chain of events; he was himself Danish.

King Edward the Confessor, who was himself “English” in that he was Anglo-Saxon,  died on January 5, 1066; he was childless.  The crown was assumed by Harald Godwinson.  His dispute with William the Bastard of Normandy over whether Harald had previously agreed to surrender the crown to William would ultimately lead to the Battle of Hastings.  In the meantime, Harald Godwinson had to deal with an invasion from Norway led by another claimant to the throne, Norwegian King Harald Hardrada; Hardrada was supported in this invasion by Tostig Godwinson, Harald Godwinson’s brother. 

Two factors were crucial to the resolution of the Battle of Stamford Bridge.   First, the invading force was dispersed on both sides of the river.  Thus, when the English army attacked the Norse contingent on the south side of the river, they outnumbered their opponent.  Second, the intelligence of the Norse army failed; they did not realize the English army was already present and ready to launch an attack. Another factor whose weight is unknown is that the invading army has days earlier defeated an English army (The Battle of Fulford) led by Earls Morcar (an exiled Northumbrian) and Edwin (Mercia), possibly leading to complacency.

It being a warm day, the invading army had left much of their armor on board their ships. Initially, the English forces largely massacred the Norse forces on the south side of the river.  They then proceeded to attack over the bridge, an effort that, in what was almost certainly an apocryphal story, was delayed by a single Viking yielding an ax who single-handedly killed some forty soldiers before he was himself slain.  With the English having now crossed the bridge, the two armies again faced one another.  Ultimately, the Norse army would collapse consequent to its lack of armor and the deaths in battle of both Harald Hardrada and Tostig.  The few Normans who survived the battle entered into a truce with Harald agreeing to leave and never return.  While the invading fleet filled some 300 ships, the Norse survivors of the battle were able to return home in only 24 of them.

According to an article in The Guardian, Country diary: Before Hastings was the Battle of Stamford Bridge. And it happened right here, 960 years ago today (September 25, 2026), the location of the Battle of Stamford Bridge has now been located. 

Harold Godwinson must have welcomed the end of this threat to his seat on the English throne.  Then he learned that the forces of William of Normandy had landed in the south.

I have in hand but have not yet had opportunity to read the recently released Tom License Harold - Warrior King and am looking forward to his insights including the assertion that the English army sailed, rather than undertaking a forced march, south to meet Willaim.

The Assassination of Flavias Aetius

 The Assassination of Flavias Aetius

      Flavias Aetius was the Roman commander at the Battle of Chalons (451), where along with forces of the Visigothic Empire, it under the command of its King, Theodoric, the Huns under Attila were defeated.  Flavias had been appointed magister militum (essentially “supreme commander” of all Roman military forces) by Valentinian III, a particularly weak (and in this era that is saying something) emperor.  While Boethius is oft identified as the last gasp of the Roman Empire’s (or at least its western components) intellectual life, Flavius Aetius can equally be described as the last of the great western Roman generals.  Gibbons called him the Last of the Romans

      Only three years after Chalons on September 21, 454, Aetius was assassinated by Valentinian.  Within the year, Valentinian would in turn be assassinated by friends of Aetius while Valentinian’s guard watched; the members of the guard had been followers of Aetius. The shrinking remnants of the Western Roman Empire would finally collapse in 476 with the deposition of the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, Romulus Augustus.

 

The Battle of Poitiers

    The Hundred Years War, which actually lasted 116 years, is famous for the fact that it is remembered for three primary engagements, each of which resulted in a decisive English victory, and still in the end England lost the war. Today is the anniversary of the first of those engagements, the Battle of Poitiers fought in 1356. The other two battles were Crecy in 1346 and Agincourt in 1415.

    Poitiers is the outlier among these three; it did not involve an attempted uphill charge of the French against a prepared line of English archers, men at arms and other infantry. In addition it involved an important contribution by an English calvary force. But there the dissimilarities end. The French, while significantly outnumbering the English forces, were again hampered by poor chain of command. And the final casualty count was far in favor of the English.

    The English forces, which included a significant contingent from the French province of Gascony, were led by Edward the Black Prince, son of Edward III and heir apparent (the throne would go eventually to Richard III, son of the Black Prince and heir presumptive while his father lived). At that time Gascony was the remaining remnant in France of the Angevin Empire assembled by Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitain; Bordeaux its capital was larger than London. A dispute over Gascony was the impetus for the Hundred Years War. 

    The Black Prince and many of the force that had fought at Crecy were there as Poitiers loomed; they knew what lay ahead. In October, 1355 they began a chevauchée (think Sherman's March to the Sea) through Southern France, then returning to Gascony. Over the winter and into the spring of 1356 numerous towns were captured with some nobles switching their alliance to the English. Meanwhile in that summer another English army invaded Normandy and did significant damage to French property and alliances.

    In August of 1356 the English/Gascon forse set out north and then north-east in another chevauchee some 50 miles wide, described by David Green as “deliberately destructive, extremely brutal ... methodical and sophisticated." The Black Prince at 51. Meanwhile the French King John continued to focus on unsuccessful seige operations in Normandy, attempting without success to dislodge dug-in English forces at Breteuil, a venture described by Sumption as "a pointless endeavour". Jonathan Sumption,  Trial by Fire. The Hundred Years' War (Vol II) at 224. Eventually he convinced the English garrison to abandon Breteuil with safe passage, an agreement they could take with them their loot and treasure, and a substantial additional payment (a/k/a a bribe). Only then did the French army, buttressed by some 200 Scotsman, move against Edward’s forces, they now each maneuvering for an advantageous field of battle. Meanwhile a French force of maybe 700 was ambushed by the English with some 240 killed or captured. At that point King John turned to make battle while the forces of the Black Prince picked and fortified with stakes and trenches a position from which they, unmounted, would answer a French assault.

    After fruitless negotiations for English safe passage back to Gascony a French army of some 15,000 (maybe 11,000 men at arms, 2000 light infantry and 2000 crossbow men). organized against the English/Gascon army of maybe 6,000 (3000 men at arms, 2000 bowmen and 1000 Gascon light infantry). At dawn on September 19 the French organized some 500 yards in front of the English’ prepared position, but they did not advance for some two hours. The battle began with French mounted forces attacking the bowmen arrayed on the two flanks. On one side they were hampered by a swamp the horses could not traverse. While many of the horses were protected from arrow fire by armor on their chests and heads, their hindquarters were not protected, and a continent of archers moved so they could shoot at the unprotected areas. The first French assault fell largely to the English longbow, although hand-to-hand combat on the English right flank was an important contributor to repulsing that onslaught.

    And then came the second French attack of some 4000 men at arms, an often hand-to-hand battle that waged for two hours. Here the flexibility of the English/Gascon forces proved vital; while the French may be praised for following their orders the English and Gascon proved flexible in responding to threatened breakthroughs; Green in his Battle of Poiters (pp. 52-53) commended "an extremely flexible tactical response" while Hoskins in In the Steps of the Black Prince: The Road to Poitiers, 1355–1356 (p. 192) observed that having fought together since 1355 the Black Prince's army was disciplined as a unit. Eventually the contingent fighting with the dauphin (the French heir apparent) and two of his brothers retreated, which it seems all the French forces took as a signal to disengage. From the French perspective the timing might not have been more disadvantageous; at that point all English reserves were committed.

    A lackluster third attack had no real bearing on the battle, while the fourth, comprised of maybe 4000 men at arms, some fresh and some survivors of an earlier wave, around the French king John, marched at the English position with the French national banner, the Oriflamme unfurled - under it all French were forbidden to take prisoners; all combat was to the death.

    While the details are debated, the English took a two prong approach to this now forth onslaught. First, a group of unknown size mounted their horses, rode around the flank, and from the rear attacked the French forces. At the same time, the main body, led by the Black Prince, moved forward from their secured position, advancing on the main French body. Eventually the French force collapsed and disintegrated. The bearer of the Oriflamne was killed and that national banner captured as was, eventually, King John himself and his son Philip.

    While casualty figures are notoriously difficult to ascertain, the French likely lost 2500 men-at-arms, and an equal number of other soldiers. Meanwhile, the English likely lost 40 men-at-arms and an unknown number of infantry and bowmen. 

    The Black Prince’s army retreated to Gascony with the French king in hand. After several fits and starts including a treaty providing for John’s ransom that the dauphin rejected as too costly, John was freed in return for the French transferring to the English significant territory in France and a ransom of 3 million ecu (the 1360 Treaty of Bretigny).

    David Green’s The Black Prince (2011) is a good resource, as is Peter Hoskin’svSteps of the Black Prince: The Road to Poitiers, 1355–1356 (also 2011). Still, Jonathan Sumption’s monumental five volume history of the Hundred Years War (The Hundred Years War I – Trial by Battle; The Hundred Years War II – Trial by Fire; The Hundred Years War III – Divided Houses;The Hundred Years War IV – Cursed Kings; and The Hundred Years War V - Triumph and Illusion) is without a bout the definitive treatment.