Hastings & Agincourt: The Most Famous Medieval Defeats Between England And France | Chronicle

[Music] on the morning of the 14th of October 1066 the first Savage blows were struck in what was to become the most famous battle in British history the Battle of Hastings the outcome of the Fateful meeting between the Saxon Army of King Harold II of England and the French forces of William Duke of Normandy was to have far-reaching effects 4. as the sun set on the blood-stained slopes of senlak Hill William had not only killed a king and destroyed an army he had sounded the death knell for the Anglo-Saxon way of life when [Music] foreign

[Music] England had evolved through centuries of confusion and chaos the Romans had abandoned the country to its fate in 410 A.D and thereafter succeeding waves of Invaders from Northwest Europe settled to blight the land with never-ending Wars eventually it was the Anglo-Saxons Who Rose to dominate carving the country into great kingdoms ruled by powerful Earls in the 9th century the Vikings a fierce seafaring Warrior Race from Scandinavia made their first visit bringing death and Havoc with their lightning raids along the coast it was only their defeat by King Alfred the Great at Eddington in 878

that prevented them from making a Total Conquest of England although the great king did allow them to keep the land they had captured in Mercia and East Anglia sadly what understanding and Harmony existed during Alfred's Reign soon disappeared after his death and before long the fighting started afresh it was Ethel red the unready who was eventually forced to seed land to the Vikings in an attempt to buy peace and by the year 1013 the unthinkable had happened Ethel read the second a Danish King wore the crown of England in 1042 upon the death of hardik

Knute Ethel Red's son Edward was summoned and offered the throne King Edward known as the Confessor was 38 when he became king having spent 27 years of his life in Exile most of this time was spent at the court at the Duke of Normandy for Edward's mother Emma was eldest daughter of Richard the first Duke of Normandy a key figure in Edward's peaceful accession to the throne had been a noble descended from Viking stock his name was Earl Godwin of Wessex was the descendants of Richard and Godwin who were eventually to become bitter Rivals for

the English throne and it was their respective claims which would eventually bring them to battle at Hastings the first of these men was William Duke of Normandy son of Richard the first foreign born in about 1028 William was the illegitimate son of Duke Robert and our letter atana's daughter when his father died in 1036 William inherited his title and for the next 10 years his life was continually threatened by would-be usurpers dubbed William the bastard by his Rivals William was hurled into the Maelstrom of Norman politics where he survived by becoming a capable Soldier and

consummate politician [Music] the second major figure in the story was Harold godwinson son of Earl Godwin of Wessex six years older than Duke William Harold came from a remarkable family his father Godwin had risen from obscurity during the Reigns of the Danish Kings to become Earl of Wessex and he had married into the Danish royal family Harold was the second of his five sons all of whom were ruthlessly ambitious in 1045 Harold's sister Edith married King Edward the Confessor and from their humble beginnings the godwins had at last risen to become the foremost family in

the land when Harold's elder brother was outlawed for treachery it was Harold himself who became heir to his father's eldom William and Harold were both very determined hard-headed no-nonsense magnates of their particular period William of course is known as William the bastard he was the son of the previous Duke of Norman there and a Washerwoman who took his attention came to the duchy in 1035 after a very turbulent youth several attempts to assassinate him by his factions in the Norman scene therefore he is very much a pragmatic man of no-nonsense fellow first to last of

the two I suppose Harold was the more cultivated man there is some evidence that he was a man who went in for the good things in life certainly had a very nice mistress called Edith swan neck and he was related to Edward the Confessor the king of course because he was in fact his brother-in-law had been his sister to say Harold's sister who was married to Edward the Confessor but without as they say providing any issue for the throne both had linkages both men with the days of the Danes and the Vikings and so forth

and each believed they had a very good claim to the throne history hit is an award-winning streaming platform built by history fans for history fans enjoy our Rich library of documentaries covering key events and locations of the medieval period history hits medieval offering features leading historians such as Dan Jones Elena yanega and Cat German not only that but with a rich library of audio documentaries covering every period of History through our network of podcasts sign up now for a free trial and Chronicle fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use

the code Chronicle at checkout a remarkable contemporary record of the lives of Harold and William exists to this very day the Magnificent Bao tapestry is a series of embroidered linen panels depicting a Norman view of the events which led to the Battle of Hastings some 230 feet in length the breathtaking tapestry was reputedly commissioned by William's half-brother Odo and now hangs in the museum at Bayo [Music] King Edward's marriage to Edith remained childless it is possible that King Edward had already decided that he wished William of Normandy his cousin once removed to succeed him and

so to counter the influence of the godwins and their own claim to the throne the king brought in trusted Norman advisors but care was required for King Edward desperately needed the military power of the godwins in order to keep Viking Raiders at Bay in return for their help and support the godwins demanded more power and more titles soon a power struggle had developed between the king and his leading family creating uncertainty and instability throughout the country matters came to a head when in September 1051 Godwin's Army gathered near Gloucester determined to bring Edward to battle

but Godwin could not have foreseen that his enemies would unite into a massive Army against him and cornered and heavily outnumbered he was forced to surrender to King Edward's Justice as punishment for that reason he and his sons were given just five days to leave England however within a year of King Edward's Triumph the godwins had returned the famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicle a magnificent contemporary record of events recalls Earl Harold came by ship from Ireland to the mouth of the river seven on the borders of Somerset and Devon and did much plundering the people of Somerset

and Devon gathered to fight him and he put them to flight and killed more than 30 good things King Edward had 40 small vessels fitted out to lie and wait for Earl Godwin who was in Bruges but he reached this country before they knew anything of it and won over the people of Kent the people of Sussex and Surrey and many more besides then he sailed back towards the Isle of Wight until Earl Harold joined forces with him they won to their side all the people along the coast once again the Specter of Civil War

loomed over King Edward's government for the godwins clearly enjoyed popular support in the country when the citizens of London finally gave their backing to the godwins King Edward had little choice but to reinstate them the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded the mood of the time [Music] it's hateful to almost all men to have to fight the men of their own race for there were few important men except Englishmen on either side besides all men were unwilling to risk increasing the danger of leaving this land open to Invasion from abroad if both sides destroyed each other decided that

wise men should act as go-betweens to arrange a truce Godwin's Oldham was restored to him with all his possessions and his sons were likewise treated the council reconciled the sides and they outlawed all Frenchmen who had promoted Injustice and counseled Evil Within this realm [Music] this forced removal of King Edward's Norman advisers represented a serious setback to Duke Williams Ambitions to become king it is thought possible however that during Harold's enforced absence from the country William visited the English Court to discuss the succession with King Edward and Edward promised to name him heir to the

throne in 1053 Earl Godwin died leaving Harolds to inherit his title and he served King Edward loyally fighting rebellions in Wales in the North it was in 1064 that King Edward dispatched Earl Harold on an important and Fateful mission that was to have a crucial bearing on future events he was to journey to Duke Williams Court in Normandy to confirm William's succession upon King Edward's Death William of Fortier an ex-soldier and the chaplain to Duke William remembered the visit well traveling upon his errand Harold was forced to make landfall on the coast of pontier where

he and his companions were thrown into prison by count guy when Duke William heard he sent Messengers and secured Harold's release by prayer and thread William then took Harold with proper honor to ruen the Duke rejoiced to have such an important guest one who in England was second only to the king Harold's War fielded to the Duke he took an oath of his own free will to represent Duke William at King Edward's Court who also swore to use his powers to ensure that at King Edward's Death the kingdom of England should pass to the Duke

in the panels of the Bayo tapestry Harold has depicted swearing the oath with his hands resting upon boxes of holy relics it should not be forgotten that in an age when Superstition was still inextricably linked with Christianity an oath was regarded as a bond and to break it was to invite divine retribution Harold returned to England and as far as the Normans were concerned he was now the Duke's vassal but in January 1066 King Edward the Confessor died and within days Harold godwinson completely ignoring his sworn oath of only two years earlier was crowned King

of England King Harold's main claimed at the throne rested on his preferment and election by the witan or King's Council furthermore Harold claimed that King Edward had changed the succession on his deathbed in Harold's favor frightened messenger took word of Harold's coronation across the channel to William who received the news with a mixture of incredulity and rage how dare this Saxon upstart who had sworn fealty to him now claim the throne the course of events was Now set William determined to bring Harold to battle and to reclaim what he believed was rightfully his he immediately

set about building an invasion Force William the conqueror's Army which he was collecting in Normandy ready to invade Britain really comprised two main sections first of all there are those local Normand Lords and magnates who owed him a certain amount of military surface possibly 40 days a year in return for the lands they were holding from him in Normandy those what you might say his first team but because he was not underestimating was William the problem of fighting Harold he also applied for and received a great many mercenary applications from other uh Knights and so

forth so after loose ends and literally came along for the loot if you might say not particularly on the side of William but he was paying them and he said there might well be rewards in Britain for them so who has a lot of bretons you'll have other kinds of French Knights as well a few Germans even who were in this very kind of polyglot Army although the basis of it was of course Normans as you might suppose now there are three sorts of soldiers it comprise first of all the knights which we all think

of from the Bayer tapestry or the kite-shaped shields their chainmail hellbergs and their lances they were possibly about oh a couple of thousand of those then there were the foot soldiers and The Archers maybe 7 500 or so between them when we say archers we are talking about the short bow of course not the Longbow of later generations this was a far less devastating weapon but I use for fire instrument to have at your disposal the minute arms were equipped much the same as the knights but fought only on foot over in England it was

a different situation from that in Normandy whereas the Normans now use their horses to fight on as well as to move them to the battlefield over the channel in England we had the last of the Danish traditional type Army organizations horses were very much used yes certainly for the king and stains and it has cars but they were used only for Mobility they always dismounted the fight as had done the Vikings and the Danes in the previous centuries they had of course as by way of a separate weapon from what the Normans had the feared

battle ax The Great Battle axes or the shield wall would be indeed a daunting thing to face at any time whether on Horseback or not so the two armies which are going to meet at Hastings really represented two distinct types of military organization William the mounted Knight with his great charges up the hill at senlak and so forth he represented the future the great age of the knighting armor was about to begin and would last for the next 250 years or so on the other hand Harold's Army represented the last of the old Danish Norse

type armies which always fought on foot using their horses to get them to the battlefield but then dismounting to form the famous Shield wall and then fight it out with their battle axes all over Normandy a flurry of frenetic activity now began great ships were constructed Provisions were gathered in and weapons were forged and stockpiled ever the politician William also secured the blessing of Pope Alexander who was Keen to enforce papal control on the Airing English church now with the Pope on his side Williams Invasion could justifiably be described as a crusade and soldiers flopped

to his banners meanwhile in England the new king realized the challenges to his crown were inevitable and so set about forging new alliances which he hoped would be useful to him by marrying all this the sister of Edwin ruler of Mercia he believed he could secure the support of the north which had hitherto wavered in its loyalty the south of the country presented fewer problems their loyalty to Harold had never been in doubt however when trouble came it arrived not in the shape of William Duke of Normandy but from Harold's own brother tostig an evil

and cruel man tostig had been sent into Exile by Harold in 1065 and now encouraged by Duke William he returned ribbon with the thirst for Revenge but although his attacks were bloody and brutal he was eventually driven off as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recalls when King Harold learned that his brother was in Sandwich he assembled the greatest sea and land forces the country had seen for he believed that Duke William was about to invade when tostic learned that King Harold was on his way he sailed North to the mouth of the Humber killing many good men

there when Earl Edwin and Earl morka saw this they marched there and drove him out of the land then tostic fed to Scotland to gain the protection of the Scottish King and he stayed there all summer King Harold went to sandwich to wait for his household troops which took time to gather the levees were stationed all along the coast ultimately to no purpose when the men's Provisions ran out they would not stay and so were given permission to go home although King Harold's brother had been defeated his Enterprise had been more than useful to William

for the men of the Southern Fiats had now fulfilled their allotted period of Royal Service in the king's Army and Harold had been forced to pay them off and let them go William knew that Harold had neither the money nor the power to maintain a standing army large enough to guard the South Duke Williams temporary Ally had certainly served his purpose well eager for Revenge tostic now formed a new alliance with one of the most fearsome Warriors of the age Harold sigurdson king of Norway known as hardrada meaning tyrant tostik's ambition revived hardrada's interest in

conquering England and he threw his energies into raising an army by August he was ready and poised to strike from the orkneys with over ten thousand men Harold hardrada was a Viking or Danish freebuta luta in the grand order he was only involved in this story really for the main chance aware that there were problems in England likely to be getting worse and worse over the Mormon claim to the throne he was determined to get his ore in and if possible get some loot out of it he's a very tall man he was six foot

of course he would only be offered six foot of English ground when he attempted to negotiate before the Battle of Stamford Bridge earlier in 1066 but he was personification again of the kind of ruler king Lucha King of the previous centuries who had come over with several hundred long ships crammed with Warriors from Norway or what we're now called Denmark really looking for loot rather than for ground meanwhile to the South Duke William meticulously managed the Assembly of his own Invasion Force over 700 broad open decked ships were constructed along the French coast and up

to 12 000 men were assembled in Normandy ready to embark of these approximately a third were armored Cavalry a part of the army which was to be vital to Norman fortunes it was with these men that Duke William hoped to defeat Harold's famous house calls [Music] Saxon and Viking soldiers traveled on Horseback but fought on foot the Normans however had made their mounted Knights an Elite Force like most wealthy European soldiers at the time these men wore a conical helmet with a nose guard with chainmail or scaled halberks to protect their body from neck to

knee some carried a large conical Shield the richest among them may also have worn male leggings mounted upon their war horses their principal weapon was the spear which would be thrown or plunged into the enemy the Knight could also batter foot soldiers with his sword or mace causing fearful damage if the Norman Cavalry were a daunting Prospect so too with a fearsome Anglo-Saxon house calls these terrifying foot soldiers all Professionals in the king's pay were highly trained and disciplined in battle they often carried their Shields strapped to their backs which freed both hands to wield

their deadly two-handed axes with this brutal weapon it was possible to strike off a horse's head while a man clean in half it was these men who would provide the backbone of King Harold's Army most soldiers in the Saxon Army wore quilted War shirts with some ring or plate reinforcements instead of halberks swords and clubs replaced great axes and smaller circular shields were used instead of expensive conical ones the degree of experience among these ordinary men varied enormously and as the largest part of the army their discipline in the coming battle would be critical however

Duke Williams Invasion plans were about to suffer an unlucky setback as William of Poitier recalled the whole Fleet carefully equipped waited for a long while in the mouth of the river Deeds from a south wind suddenly it was caught in a West Wind and blown towards Saint Valerie the prince remained undaunted by the setback the contrary winds the loss of ships and the flight of many who deserted his cause in his adversity he prudently hid the loss of his suppliers and had those killed in the storms buried secretly by various exhortations he put courage and

confidence into his dispirited men also he made Pious supplications to Our Redeemer for a favorable wind this storm disrupted Williams plans for two weeks that he was able to keep together his demoralized men and reorganize his Fleet clearly shows his leadership skills and indomitable spirit account of William of partier that the poor weather had cost Duke William time men and money however the very same winds which were pinning William's Fleet in France were filling other sails four after successful Rendezvous the combined fleets of Harold hardrada and tostic Were Striking South it's down the northumbrian coast

their bloodthirsty raiding part is spread death and destruction [Music] some local people resisted stubbornly but were eventually swept aside as hardrada and tostig continued to move South their target was the Fortified city of York second only in size to London [Music] the Battle of fulford gate on the 20th of September 1066 marked the high point of Viking fortunes they had utterly crushed morka and Edwin and had gained the city of York a conference and exchange of hostages was hastily arranged for the 25th of September at which time Harold hardrada and tostig looked forward eagerly to

dictating their terms for peace to the men of northumbria the place chosen for the conference was close to the Viking base at rickle and significantly over a third of the Viking Army had remained there to guard their Fleet the Victorious Vikings reached Stamford Bridge and took their ease either side of the river but as the allotted time for the meeting Drew closer a dust cloud was seen coming from the direction of York as the astonished Vikings watched in horror a Saxon Army marched into view King Harold godwinson had taken his over-confident enemy completely by surprise

King Harold's rapid March North was a prodigious military feat when his Messengers had brought news of the Viking attacks in the north he found himself in an impossible situation of course he expected the arrival any day of Duke Williams Norman Army and he knew that if he went North to fight the South would be left defenseless alternatively if he waited for William he would certainly lose half his kingdom to hadrada and tostig and so King Harold took his greatest Gamble he decided to March North and to head for York in just four exhausting days his

army marched over 200 miles Harold's showing as a soldier earns a great Boost from the way he handled the beginning of the campaign of 1066. he was well aware of course of the preparations going on in Normandy in my way of the ships being built and the rest of it for the invasion by Duke William but then he suddenly finds himself faced by this secondary attack not only the raiding of his uh disillusioned brother toasty but now the arrival of Harold hardrada and an army of possibly ten thousand uh Norwegians or Mossman we should call

them probably in the north of England now he couldn't be in two places at once and of course he really only had one Army but he's very carefully calculated the chances I think and very very nearly got it right from the whole campaign he'd been waiting along the south coast and indeed it had to disband part of his army because of the problem of feeding them waiting for William to come but now he's hearing his new threat in the north decided he must Rush up what was the absolutely I learned at the predecessor of the

great North Road and this famous four-day March he went all the way from London to tadcaster just south of York to get himself of an army of perhaps seven thousand men made up as a course of his own household troops the uh haskells and the thanes together with the local thirds and faces this Army of the Norseman who had sailed at the hamburger then at the Ooze uh come out at a place called Rick ALB drawn their ships ashore and began to Harry the countryside against the Earls of northumbria and had managed to win a

small battle at fulford before in fact Herald appears on the scene for the first time Harold hardrada and tostig had been out thought and outmaneuvered the English army fell upon the unsuspecting Viking Force smashing into their Shield wall and hacking at the desperate Defenders in the thick of the Ferocious fight hardrada himself was struck down and killed but the Vikings fought on determined to avenge their dead King soon Earl tostig had also fall under the Saxon Spears and before long the Viking Army crumbled and gave way even the Viking reinforcements belatedly arriving to help their

beleaguered comrades were cut down mercilessly by the rampant Saxons Stamford Bridge became a scene of the most terrible Slaughter by evening the battle was won and The Battered Viking survivors sued for peace it was to be the last time a viking Army would ever threaten England and when they were allowed to leave for home the beaten Vikings could fill only 24 of the 300 ships in which they had arrived King Harold had won a great victory but for his gamble to be completely successful he needed William to remain pinned in Normandy this would give King

Harold vital time to March South again and to re-establish his position but it was not to be by October the 1st King Harold knew the worst on September the 27th just two days after his great victory at Stamford Bridge the wind in the channel had changed within 24 hours Duke Williams Army was disembarking on English soil once again King Harold and his men faced a crippling forced March followed by a battle against a fresh confident foe what was more the Army he took South to face William would be very different to the one he had

brought North 4. if the Battle of Stamford Bridge had destroyed the Viking Army it had also seriously weakened King Harold's although many of his casualties were untrained fearedmen an alarming proportion had been the famous house Carls amongst the torn bodies that littered the field but some of Harold's most experienced men and these well-trained dedicated Warriors could not easily be replaced against an army is well organized and as well trained as the Normans the lack of house cars would be keenly felt as his footsaw army turned South King Harold must surely have been keenly aware of

these gaps in his ranks but what of Duke William and his Norman Army newly landed far to the South at last the long Four Winds began to blow all raised hands and voices to heaven in thanks shouting encouragement to each other they swiftly boarded and prepared for their dangerous Voyage eager not to be left behind the Duke urged haste and caution he gave orders that once the fleet reached Open Sea they should wait for a signal to continue a trumpet then gave the signal to sale after pausing the night they weighed anchor with a favorable

wind they reached pevency and landed unopposed rejoicing greatly the Norman seized and fortified pevency and Hastings to serve as strongholds then William with only 25 Knights rode out to gain information the Bao tapestry depict an uneventful Crossing and Landing and once ashore the Normans worked quickly the local Countryside was patrolled provisions and fresh supplies were Acquired and a wooden fort in prefabricated sections was quickly assembled but instead of the expected fight on the beaches the tapestry shows us a feast being cooked as his men roystered William planned his next move with his two half-brothers Odo

and Robert it was then that a messenger arrived with news and a warning from Harold Ed his brother reputedly The Greatest Warrior on Earth he has destroyed them both and their armies in one battle now he hastens towards you with many many well-equipped troops eager to do battle you are thought to be a man prudent in peace and War therefore take care stay within your ramparts do not offer battle to this the Duke replied I thank your master for his advice but tell him I do not wish to save myself behind a stronghold I wish

to give battle to Harold as soon as possible with God's help my Brave man and I will oppose him Harold and his bodyguard March for London followed by his Army Recruiting as they went now more unpalatable decisions faced Harold how best to face and defeat the Norman invader once again Harold was faced with a necessity for a rapid redeployment of his available Force there's no question of taking the third with him they had to be left they were basically foot soldiers anyway but Gathering Together his sayings and his hostiles and the other no woman who

we must remember had lost quite a lot of key people during the Battle of Stamford Bridge he rushed themselves in another forced March which again is a great credit to the man's ability and he was able to work out this kind of military movement and feed it and so forth and so he arrives in due course opposite the camp of William Duke of Normandy near the town of Hastings precise Hill so he chose a position on a low Ridge cutting the road from Hastings to London it was sort of a blasted sort of Heath kind

of position not many trees a few but mostly Open Country and decided to take up a defensive position his army was organized in three parts in the center under the famous oriflam the great Banner of Wessex the Golden Dragon he had the Haskell Shield wall and the thanes of the household his Elite troops many of them though not only tired but wounded from their earlier exertions only a few days before up in Yorkshire on each flank he Master local upwards these were not the thirds that were fought so successfully up in Yorkshire these were of

course the thirds of Kent and of Sussex and of Surrey as you would say nowadays anyway who had much less practical experience of fighting than the further north brethren in two large bodies then they drew up on each side of the shield wall and then Howell in effect said to William come and get me you want the Kingdom Here I Am come and get me that's saying that of course he was in effect handing the initiative over to Duke William the form the battle would actually take and its successive stages then would be dictated by

the Normans rather than by the Anglo-Saxons and indeed several of the Chronicles at the time speak of the way the shield wall stood as if rooted into the ground this was going to be a fine stalwart fight to her death the chances of winning the Battle of Hastings were fairly limited because William could choose the tune and make the Anglo-Saxons a dance to it the speed of Harold's deployment certainly surprised Duke William for many of his men were still out foraging when they arrived but William quickly assessed the situation and made his decision he planned

quite simply to engage Harold's Army before it could consolidate and destroy it without delay Duke William mustered his forces in three divisions at the right hand led by Roger de Montgomery consisted of French and Flemish Mercenaries on the left stood the men of Brittany Maine and Andrew under the count of Brittany the center division consisting mostly of Norman's was led by Duke William himself the divisions were deployed in a meadow beneath the unnamed Ridge upon which the Saxons had taken position each Norman division was drawn up with archers to the front followed by the Infantry

and Cavalry to the rear Duke Williams battle plan was simple The Archers would attack first firing their deadly arrows into the Saxon Shield wall then the heavy infantry would Advance under the Arch's protection they would assort the Saxon Defenders and drive into them finally the Cavalry would charge exploiting the advantage gained by the archers in the Infantry however the land over which the Normans would make their Advance was hardly ideal being uncultivated rough and pitted and flanked by streams and Marshy ground the ridge upon which the Saxons were positioned was also small just half a

mile wide Harold was determined to give the normanders little space to fight as possible furthermore the dangerous Norman Cavalry would find it difficult to launch concentrated attacks on such poor ground positioned in the center of this hastily prepared line King Harold waited with his personal Banner the Fighting Man flying proudly overhead as he did so he must have contemplated the inescapable fact that his army was only a third of its full strength and many of his men were wearing no armor suddenly the Norman archers began to cross the muddy Valley and the air crackled with

a hiss of arrows the Battle of Hastings had begun [Music] surprisingly the advancing archers achieved little as they emptied their Quivers into the well-organized Saxon Shield War Duke William ordered forward his infantry urging on his eager men as in their Mass ranks they Advanced up the slope towards the Saxons but nothing could have prepared them for the sheer tenacity and ferocity of the English defense the English fought back bravely according to their strength hurting Spears stones and axes the deadly weight of projectiles would you may think have overwhelmed them but the knights follow their leaders

eager to use their swords the cries of Norman and Barbarian were drowned in The Clash of arms and the shouts of the wounded and dying the Battle of Rage furiously for a long time the English had the advantages of ground and staying together in an unassailable body but most of all from the way in which their weapons struck home thus they validly held off and repulsed their attacks in hand-to-hand and inflicted casualties on them without doubt the Saxons enjoyed the best of these early minutes of the battle and a Norman infantry blooded and battered withdrew

towards their own ranks now it was the turn of the Norman Cavalry to thunder up the slope only to founder against the determined Saxon Shield wall halted on the slopes the impetus of the Norman attack was lost as the terrible Carnage continued Williams Left Flank wavered and broke the bretons in the ranks fell back in a fear-stricken route crying that Duke William was killed the entire Norman lion faltered as the news spread and the Saxons on the right of Harold's Shield wall seeing their enemies flee broke ranks charging down the hill after them they butchered

all in their wake the battle had now reached a critical moment the initial Norman attack had failed to smash the shield wall on the Ridge and now a third of William's Army was stumbling backwards chased by screaming Saxons it was now that Duke William displayed His Brilliant leadership qualities from his command position he ran to where his men were falling back and removing his helmet stood before them yelling that he was alive this prompt and brave action inspired the Duke's wavering troops and they halted their retreat the Saxons who had fallen on the retreating Normans

in the belief that the battle was won were now caught in the open ground and the Norman Cavalry was able to turn ruinously upon them without the protection of their densely packed Shield wall the Saxons were mercilessly cut down although a small number made a short-lived and futile Stan on a hillock very few of their number returned to the Saxon lines on the ridge King Harold could only watch in despair as his men died helplessly on Norman swords and Spears by about midday uh the Battle of Hastings have reached a rather powerless situation perhaps on

both sides Harold lost the whole right-wing third which had charged down and uh been butchered by the Normans who turned around having or deliberately lured them into a premature attack in that way but as far as the Normans were concerned although that was obviously a plus yet the battle was yet far from one and it was absolutely necessary it was a decision that should be reached within that Day Before Sunset they had nowhere to fall back upon their morale would plummet if they didn't win the battle on this first day and they would probably face

therefore total disaster therefore the battle is not yet won but every incentive is now for William to fling all his remaining resources into this battle the Anglo-Saxon line was mattered it had no right flank now but still there was this formidable line of The Shield wall with their battle axes waving fatteningly over the top of it and so everything was yet to be gained or lost with the sun high in the sky there now came an eerie Lull in the battle as both commanders assessed the situation allowing time for the exhausted men of both sides

to draw breath for William and his Norman Army it was now or never and so the Norman Army returned to the offensive waves of archers foot soldiers and Cavalry once more threw themselves and coordinated onslaughts against the Shield wall the Saxons fought on with Incredible determination of the hours passed desperately trying to Halt the Ferocious normal attacks but soon holes were beginning to appear in the Saxon line in the series of bloody melees King Harold's two younger brothers Gaia and Lee offwin fighting hard against the Norman incursion were cut down and slain Duke William at

last knew that the tide of battle was turning inexorably in his favor but progress was frustratingly slow it was now that the Duke delivered two tactical Master Strokes which would finally break Saxon resistance and win the Norman Army the day remembering the Saxon reaction when faced with the Breton Retreat earlier in the day William ordered a series of famed or fake Retreats by his cavalry again faced with seemingly retreating Normans the Saxons believed that they had put the enemy to flight and broke ranks to chase them down the hill the Norman Cavalry simply wheeled around

isolated their Earth wild pursuers and killed them William's second significant change of strategy came with the order to his archers to concentrate that fire on the unarmored mend of the Saxon rear the deadly shafts began to take a fearful toll including amongst their victims several men in King Harold's Entourage together the feigned Retreats and the storm of arrows weakened the Saxon line enough for the Normans to break through decisively it was now that a final crushing blow was dealt to Saxon morale King Harold himself was struck down and killed [Music] the Bayo tapestry records the

dramatic scene in great detail a figure is seen in profile being killed by an arrow in the eye with a second figure being felled by charging Knight written large above are the Fateful words hick Harold Rex interfectus EST here King Harold has been killed it is now thought by Scholars that both figures are intended to represent Harold for the Chronicles tell us that no sooner had Harold been struck by the arrow then he was also hacked down and mutilated by the rampaging Norman Knights the death of King Harold spelled the end for the brave Saxon

fight soon the Carnage was complete and the great battle was over [Music] Harold was dead Duke William clearly triumphant and de facto King of England there's a great deal of difficulty in finding the body of Harold from the piles of the slaughtered Shield wall which had died around them on top of him and had it not been for the presence near the battlefield of his light of Love of earlier times Edith swan neck who was able to identify him by certain marks on the body maybe he would never have been identified so hot and how

terrible had been that last great battle on the top of the ridge but in due course his body was duly identified and taken away to Walter Abbey where of course it was buried and to this day there was a large a plaque marking the spot for the rest of the Normans it was a question of you hello and uh chasing Anglo-Saxons into the sunset but it'd be wrong to think that this was the completion of the conquests of England ahead still lay beyond the coronation the whole business of the ravaging of the north one of

the most terrible episodes in the history of that part of our country they were even there on there as the Normans tried to establish their rule the the resistance movement led by Herod the Wake amongst the fans of Ile will become a national folk hero very much in the sort of line of Robin Hood of later years by the way he stood again up against the Norman conquerors and gave them a very long run for their money in the areas of the fence trial by battle as religious men regarded it at the time had now

decided once and for all the question of the succession to enter the Confessor the whole future indeed of these islands was going to be Iran immediately affected by the outcome of this battle which must be certainly one of the most significant moments in the history of these islands the following day on Sunday the 15th of October the Norman soldiers buried their dead although many Englishmen were never afforded the same simple dignity there was much looting and stripping of mail from the dead as the Bayo tapestry clearly shows there that having won their Victory the Norman

soldiers had no intention of being cheated of their Spoils of War the Normans christened the slopes over which they had fought senlak Hill or Blood Lake Hill the gruesome name had certainly been well earned after five days rest when his depleted Force had recovered their strength Duke William marched northwards burning all that lay in their path as a dire warning to the Saxon people against resistance the terrified people of several towns quickly surrendered before him the towns of Dover Canterbury and Winchester for example all capitulated as soon as the Norman Army appeared in truth the

Saxons could do little else and soon the Norman troops were closing in on London in the end there could be only one outcome as William of patriared he who was to become their leader Advanced fearlessly and established himself not far from London there the Metropolitan Bishop stigand came to him and surrendered and swore fealty the Duke then continued until he was inside of London and the main citizens came to him they surrendered their city and people into his hand and gave him such hostages as he required furthermore the Bishops and lay people begged him to

become their lord and King William was crowned William the first of England at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066 and was to rule with a ruthless efficiency until the year 1087. during this time Norman feudalism was imposed on England and the country was dragged into the Continental System of rule by the establishment of church courts and Norman ecclesiastics William the first was the last foreign ruler to win the crown of England through a successful military invasion and it was during his Reign that the foundations at the nation-state we recognize today were laid that he was

able to achieve this depended entirely on the outcome of the most significant battle in British history at Hastings in 1066 [Music] as a pale sun rose over Agincourt Woods a French army made their preparations for their forthcoming trial of strength in battle although it was a cold damp Misty Autumn morning they were supremely confident that they were about to avenge the past defeats of cressie and Puente the French host numbered over 30 000. among them 12 princes of Royal Blood and thousands of peers the cream of French chivalry against them were six thousand starving sick

and exhausted Englishmen within a few short hours many of the same French Nobles would be dead killed by Common men using a weapon viewed with disdain by the finely caparis Knights once again the awesome part of the Longbow was triumphant [Music] all right [Music] thank you the origins of the conflict of which Agincourt was apart and the weapon that won the battle are bound together from the very beginning as every Schoolboy knows in 1066 the Battle of Hastings William Duke of Normandy won a victory over the English that was to gain him the Throne of

England his opponent King Harold was cut down by Norman Knights after he had been wounded by an arrow the Norman archers an armored on the most part and fighting on foot were included in the tapestry made to commemorate King William's successful campaign the Saxon Bowman were not as foot soldiers they had been left behind by King Harold and his mounted house curls on their rapid march to Hastings and so played little part in the battle when William known as the Conqueror was Crown King of England he retained substantial territory in France where he was technically

a vassal of the French King this meant that William had to swear an oath of loyalty to the French King in return for his tenure of Normandy a King Henry II a great grandson of the Conqueror was crowned in 1154 as well as Normandy he inherited anju and Maine from his father and part two and gascony anguini from his wife Elena of aquitain the recently divorced queen of France in effect this meant that the king of England owned more territory in France than the French King and King Henry II extended his possessions further by launching

a successful invasion of Ireland and the leader of the expedition was the Earl of Pembroke known as Strongbow after his prowess with the bow a prowess brutally matched by the south Welsh Bowman in his army men you 'll crude Elm longbows to great effect being able as contemporary commentators observed to pierce armor and pin a knight to his saddle the skin of the South Welsh with a longbow was thought to have been developed in the long years of violent raiding and warring in their hilly country the Longbow was an ideal weapon of Ambush and can

be used anywhere the lesson that common Bowman could be as effective as a mounted Knight was one with implications that made it easy to ignore Edward II chose to put all his faith in Cavalry at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. his archers were driven into disarray by Scott's Horsemen attacking their exposed flank whilst his Cavalry was butchered on Scottish pikes it was for his son to retrieve the reputation of English arms in Scotland and to set in motion through two stunning victories the chain of events that would lead to Triumph on the field of

Agincourt Eber III developed his own method of battle fighting the Scots at Haledon Hill in 1333 King Edward divided his army into three units or battles of dismounted men at Arms each with two wings of archers drawn up to form a protruding wedge this wedge was able to fire first into an attacking enemy's front ranks and then as it closed for the melee into its flanks when they attacked the Scots were shot to Pieces Longbow was undoubtedly the most devastating weapon developed in the whole of the Middle Ages until perhaps the coming of the more

important forms of firearm it was a six-foot weapon of course it needed up to 150 pound pool to bring the cloth yard shaft all the way back to the ear and it was provided as we know a whole range of different kinds of arrowheads for different purposes the most unusual one was of course the narrow steel point which is used for the armor-piercing row as you might say but it was also a very broad flanged area which was used basically against Cavalry horses which were naturally the most vulnerable part of a nice charging on horse

horseback as for range well something like 400 yards is probably the max maximum but 200 yards was very effective battle range and now at 60 yards it was absolutely lethal a good Archer could get off something like 10 shots in a minute so at any one time there might well be three arrows in the air from his particular bow multiply that by 5 000 archers and you've got something like 15 000 cloth yard charts falling like a pattering hail upon the enemus Cavalry it was a daunting weapon indeed it took a long time to make

a proper Archer of course a little boys they had to learn to hold out their left arms and shoulders always carrying a heavier and heavier weight so they got that absolutely straight alignment of shoulder and arm to get that really solid because that was the secret of a Bowman he had to have that right as a result they became very expensive eventually six months three farthings was at one time to pay of an Archer which at this time was a very considerable amount of money in the end perhaps they overpriced themselves out of the market

and that is when the firearm really came to take over but until that time there was no weapon like it for killing power in any of the armies of Europe while King Edward's eyes are on the successful conclusion of his campaign in Scotland events in France were proving The Fragile nature of the relationship between the two monikers in 1337 a convinced that the English were plotting with his enemies to overthrow him King Philip VI of France formerly confiscated equitain from Edward III Edward responded by renewing his claim to the French throne and withdrawing his Allegiance

war was now inevitable from the very onset of the English Invasion archers were to be of crucial importance the French army was not without its own divisions at Bowman but they were a much smaller contingent and they were armed not with a longbow but the more modern crossbow the crossbow was the other major weapon of tying an actual projectile of the middle age period before the invention of gunpowder for any large scale nice fired what was called a quarrel which was about one foot to 18 inch short Arrow rather more sturdy one in fact it

had wooden flights usually rather than ones with goose Quail feathers like Longbow yard arm shaft and it had a short range a more devastating penetrating power possibly than the longbow it had certain grave disadvantages however It could only fire at a maximum three rounds minutes so that was only one third less than a third of the rate of a long moment and secondly the fact that the bow string was always attached to it when it was actually in the field that meant that it was very liable to get damp and one of the bowstring got

damp this was a grave setback whereas the Long Boat quickly unhitch his string and put it into his helmet usually having wound it up and keep it dry there the crossbowman had no such advantage so the other two weapons there is no doubt that the Longbow was the most devastating it's interesting to realize of course as late as the second world war this weapon was in use Colonel Mad Jack Churchill of the Commandos was it known to be an absolute dab hand at silencing absolutely silently German centuries were shot in the back for one of

these weapons no explosion sudden death you know through the Enemy Lines and the Longbow demonstrated its versatility as a weapon at Sea as well as on land at the Battle of Solis King Edward's Invasion Fleet met a French Fleet and engaged in battle by closing and grappling in Fierce hand-to-hand fighting the English archers clearing the decks of friendships with their lethal vowels [Applause] a Frenchman who was employed by King Edward's wife Philippe wrote a colorful account of the engagement Fierce fighting broke out on every side archers and crossbowmen shooting arrows and bolts at each other

pelmel a minute arms struggling and fighting in hand-to-hand combat in order to come to closer quarters they are great iron grappling hooks fixed to chains and these they hurled into each other's ships to draw them together and to hold them fast while a man engaged many deadly blows were stuck and gallon Deeds performed ships and men were battered captured and recaptured the great ship Christopher was recovered by the English at the beginning of the battle and all those on board were killed prisoner this capture took place in the midst of tremendous clamor and shouting at

which more English came to the scene and immediately agreement her with a force made up entirely of archers it was indeed a bloody and murderous battle the French appeared to learn little from the setbacks they had suffered a piece did not last for long and in the winter of 1345 King Edward once more prepared for battle he built up a royal Army of 15 000 men of whom perhaps half were armed with a longbow on July the 11th 1346 his army landed in France style of warfare of the English army was to become sadly familiar

to many Frenchmen the English Qatar destructive sway through Normandy robbing pillaging and plundering as they went the French had in the meantime a masked an army of around 40 000 men eager to be Avenged on the Invaders by crushing them in battle as soon as they were mustered they set off in Pursuit after a brief Chase King Edward Drew up his forces on a ridge near the little town of Cressi they numbered about twelve thousand half of them archers arranged into three battles with dismounted many times flanked by archers the English were in a good

defensive position on the 26th of August a massive French army arrived before the silent English lines instead of waiting to be formed into commanded battles the impetuous French nobility wish to attack immediately it was now that the lack of a clear command structure within the Cosmopolitan French army became apparent it was this factor which led to confusion and frustration the French sent Ford a contingent of genoese crossbowmen to Harry the English ranks in the jewel of archery that followed the superior rate of fire of the Longbow Falls the genoese to retire was told of what

followed by an eyewitness the English archers fear their arrows of the genoese so thickly and well spread that they were like snow when they felt the arrows penetrating their arms head and faces the Genovese who had never met such arches before were thrown into confusion some threw down the crossbows and others cut their bowstrings they began to retreat between them and the Frenchman God was a body of splendidly mounted and armed Knights who had watched their defeat announced to between them and retreat the king of France seeing how poorly they have performed called out killed

that Rubble they are only in our way the mounted men struck them down on all sides and many fell the English continued to fly into the crowd making every arrow count they impaled or wounded horses and Riders knocking them to the ground and yet the French went forward preferring to die than to flee dishonorably with their ranks thinning considerably the French rolled forward to assault the English man at Arms only to find the arrow storms now ball into their flanks bloody chaos took place The Ridge in front of the English became a seething mass of

dead and wounded horses and Men the French ranks were compressed so men had no room to fight the arrows kept coming and all semblance of order vanished those Frenchmen still willing to fight reformed and attacked but it was too late and the sun rose the next day ten thousand French laid dead on the field the Victoria Cressy demonstrated the destructive part of the Longbow even against the latest male and plate armor friend chivalry was decimated French government Paralyzed by despondency hit within 20 years it would happen again [Music] in 1356 there was another English Chevrolet

or armed raid at this time into what two it was led by King Edward's eldest son the black prince once again the English found themselves trapped by a French army of over 30 000 men the English Force totaled a thousand which included 4 000 archers they took up positions along a wooded Ridge near poetier the first French attack was a suicidal frontal assault by 300 hand-picked Knights which was easily shot to pieces the next assault was made by 2 000 men at Arms on foot which struggled for two miles to reach the English lines but

the archers moving swiftly continued to pour arrows into the French flanks and rear and when they run out of arrows they fell on with sword ax and mallet the French broke and fled back into the next division which had been slow in moving to reinforce its comrades this division broke too and fled Jean fuasa recorded this moment The Archers began to shoot murderously from both sides their long bowled arrows knocking down horses and piercing all before them injured and terrified horses refused to go on they shied away orano fell to the ground trapping the Riders

rarely have so many soldiers suffered so much in such a short time as they became jammed together and so could not advance seeing this Carnage before them and unable to advance themselves those at the rear turned back in truth the English Bowman gave a huge advantage to the English and terrorized the French the accurate heavy shooting of arrows left of French with nowhere to hide and so the English slowly but surely gained ground once again the people of France were stunned once again they had suffered a catastrophic defeat against an English army they had greatly

outnumbered over the next 20 years with many of its leaders dead or awaiting Ransom in England in the aftermath of Poitier France was ravaged by further military Expeditions peasants revolts and roving contingents of unemployed Soldiers the so-called free companies these men picked the land clean until a war in Castile drew them away with a prospect of pay and booty The Battered war-torn French could not know it but their fortunes were to change for the better and by the 1370s under the rule of King Charles the wise France was regaining its territory and a generation of

English War leaders worn out by constant campaigning were dying out the black prince died in 1376 his father the year after as the years went by Cressi and Poitier became memories of past glories a territory one in battle had been lost an Englishman looked for a new leader cast in the mold of the black prince in 1413 a 25 year old man whose father had usurped the throne was crowned King of England his name was Henry the fifth King to bear that name he was already an experienced Soldier having fought successfully to put down rebellions

against his father although he inherited his throne peacefully King Henry V knew that the great Nobles that surrounded him were only as loyal as it suited them he needed to divert their attention into a cause that would unite all Englishmen behind their King Henry V resolved to pursue his claim to the French throne by force King Andrew V was a single-minded man and a ruthless politician he could have negotiated with the French for the territories that Eber III are being granted by treaty but sensing disunity in France he immediately demanded the French crown and managed

to Princess Catherine daughter of the Mad French King Charles VI these demands were dismissed by the French princes of the blood and an insulted King Henry prepared for war King Henry V had fought against Welsh Rebels when his father was King and had been wounded in the face by an arrow in battle against them when he began raising his army knowing the power of the Longbow King Henry made the provision of archers a vital part of his plans development of armor over this period of some 56 years that we're looking at saw the transition from

the shirt of male dominated suit of armor with various steel pieces attached to it getting very rapidly towards the state on the full plate armor from head to foot and as he is on of course it became more and more beautifully designed and more and more fluted more and more so we say wavings in the armor this was intended to catch arrows in particular and deflect them in all directions to try and get around this death dealing propensity of both the Longbow shaft and the crossbow quarrels we've already described those are the main changes in

the actual armor as for the tactics of changes of the period there had not really been a great deal the famous groups of archers placed on the flanks of the armored bodies of knights in the English defensive positions those remain much the same although they're all sorts of little niceties what they sometimes call the Harrow formation standing forth in the line of battle it's part of the archers therefore firing at a flank against the attacking enemies and so forth still the soldiers use stakes in front of them for protection and still the British standardly because

we usually had a small army of course we stood on the defensive in these battles and only attacked in the very last part of a battle when the enemy had been routed French tactics well Wellington would say years later they came on in the same old way and we saw them off in the same old way there was very little subtlety in tactics as yet what subtlety there was related to the use of the far um weapons of the day that is to say your moment that we in England had a far more devastatingly realistic

grip on what you could do with the Longbow and how best to deploy it so English tactics were one big secret in our success with the financial support of the church Parliament merchants and his people King Henry soon had sufficient funds to assemble an invasion Fleet and furnish an army with weapons and supplies the Army was mustered around the solent and would eventually number around 2 000 nights in men at arms and 8 000 longbowmen over 20 000 horses were assembled including pack and draft animals in France such extensive preparations were noted and debated and

although King Henry joined in the last minute diplomacy there can be little doubt that he was already set on War as the last French and voice departed to France King Henry journeyed to Southampton to join his invasion Fleet on the afternoon of Sunday 11th of August 1415 an armada of some 1500 vessels began their three-day Voyage to cross the channel The Crossing was uneventful and the fleet dropped anchor in the Bay of sen overlooked by the town of hafler but the landing of the English army was not opposed King Henry had issued strict instructions to

his men about their conduct on the forthcoming campaign this was not to be an old style Chevrolet with indiscriminate looting plunder and rapine King Henry saw the French as his rightful subjects and to win their love he must treat them as such all his soldiers were told to stitch across at Saint George to their curves he was then reminded of the offenses punishable by death murder rape looting assault and a member of the clergy desertion fare from a church the list went on for the matter sure the unloading of the fleet began horses cannons Siege

engines supplies and men were disgorged onto the mud flats before her Fleur meanwhile King Henry and his generals rode forward and summoned the town to surrender well provisioned and with the expectation of Swift reinforcements the town's people and Garrison opted to sweat it out in what they prayed would be a short Siege by the 18th of August however King Henry's Army had completely surrounded the town preventing further supplies reaching it The Siege train was manhandled into protected positions around hafler and towed onto ramps from where it would launch its projectiles to smash the walls or

destroy the turrets and battlements the seat of half flare in many ways saw the meeting of two periods of Siege Warfare first of all there were the traditional methods still being used which went back as far as the Romans and the ancient Greeks that's to say the use of various engines of War hurling rocks like trebuchets or manganels and so forth with a view to crushing the enemy's defenses or the Defenders themselves and thereby creating a breach of sorts also they were still being used and methods of digging mine tunnels underneath a wall putting a

lot of wood and pops and so forth underneath them and then setting fire to them with the help of oil I was thoughts type put on top of them to make them burn again causing a collapse of a whole section of War whereupon a fortress could be open to assault that was the ancient way of fighting sieges but now we have onto the battlefield onto the siege area too the first bombards there's early forms of artillery now they could be pretty large it is estimated that the largest at this time would fire a missile weighing

up to a quarter of a tonne which was a terrific amount of uh hitting power and though Edinburgh Castle of course was mons Meg which is one of these vast cannons in this kind of period there's another in fact in the Kremlin in Moscow too so they could be huge very difficult to move therefore you had to bring them by water usually but see as far as possible and up the rivers and along any very rudimentary forms of canals they might have by then but this was the beginning of the age therefore of artillery bombardment

of towns the laws of chivalry which dictated the rules of behavior in battle and Siege were meticulously adhered to having positioned his Siege engines King Henry again appealed to the French to surrender and spare the effusion of Christian blood again the French politely declined and so the English bombardment began despite what appeared to be overwhelming odds the French had every reason to be confident even with the most modern weapons of war the process of investing a strongly constructed defense took time The Garrison also knew that the area the procedures had occupied would create problems of

its own the coastal land that surrounded half Fleur was mostly marshy the sun continued to blaze down as August passed and a great host of flies fell on the besiegers camp combined with a total lack of Sanitation these ingredients produced the perfect conditions for the scourge of medieval armies disease dysentery soon began to thin the ranks of an army compelled by The Siege to remain in one place boredom also led to drunkenness amongst the soldiers although the discipline King Henry had done so much to instill remained by the middle of September the Great Guns of

King Henry's train had done much to tip the balance of the siege in the English Army's favor the walls of half lure were cracked and in places clear breaches were being made on the 22nd of September the leading citizens of hafler knelt before King Henry and the Garrison surrendered its weapons the English army moved within its shattered walls and began to rebuild them the capture of a stronghold to safeguard their beachheads across the English 2 000 men ominously too the weather was turning the sun giving way to torrential rain which turned the parched land into

a quagmire further news came in to dampen English Spirits the French had raised three massive contingents that were now converging to form an army King Henry was left in the quandary with a number of options none of which matched his original plan of a quick Siege and Rapid Chevrolet to Bordeaux he could remain in her floor or return to England but this would have been seen as a defeat butofa with the advantage of large numbers of fit fresh troops over King Henry was not likely to agree to his request for single combat asking Edward III

had done on the Cressy campaign 69 years earlier King Henry now decided to take what was left of his army on a forced March North to Calais accordingly on October the 6th 1415 King Henry left her Fleur with a thousand men at Arms five thousand archers and a few cards before them their March of 150 miles through hostile territory with three French armies waiting to pounce on them the first part of the March was to follow the coast North to the river Somme in pouring rain the Army set off marching in three battles despite the

continuing Reign and the sudden attacks of sickness which weakened many men the tiny Army continued on its way marching between 15 and 20 miles a day King Henry and sent word to Sir William bardov captain of Cali to immediately dispatch a force of 300 mounted men at Arms to secure the Ford at Blanche tack to allow the king's Army to cross the Somme River if the English could get over the Somme they stood a fair chance of completing the 60 miles or so to Cali and safety the news from King Henry's Scouts was however the

worst imaginable the Ford had not been secured by Sir William France who were the force equal to King Henry's had staked the crossing and awaited the English on the far side King Henry knew that an attempt to take the forward by storm would be disastrous Henry had no choice you would have to lead his army along the South Bank of the Somme in the hope of finding an unguarded Crossing the English army turned from Branch attack and began marching Inland away from Cali and deeper into the heartland of France it appears that there were some

indiscipline in the French Village of Beauvais English soldiers broke into wine barrels and got drunk at such a time a collapse in the English Army's will to fight would have spelled disaster King Henry acted quickly to ensure that this would not happen he had one of his soldiers hung for stealing from the church in Beauvais his ruthless nature aside King Henry was perceived as a compassionate man by his men in a small army an energetic leader could do much to maintain morale by being seen to be sharing the hardships of the March as most of

his army was now on foot they probably did not appreciate the extra burden although it was to prove a fortunate one King Henry now had some luck at fui the psalm suddenly swings in a sweeping bow to the Northeast the French had destroyed all the possible Crossing points and King Henry by leaving the river's course and cutting swiftly Southeast was able to beat the French to the Fords at bethancouver and Boyer on Saturday the 19th of October under his personal supervision King Henry's troops repaired the Fords and crossed to the north side of the song

on Sunday the king allowed his men a day of rest while the English slept and dried their clothes less than seven miles away was a large French army the French sent forward their Heralds and the laws of chivalry were once more carefully observed in formal terms the Heralds offered battle to the English and asking Henry what his intentions were the king replied we March straight to Cali and if our enemies disturb us on the March it will be at their peril we do not seek a battle but neither shall we be moved by fear to

March more quickly than we wish to do do not interrupt our journey for the consequence will be a great shedding of Christian blood the French adults were then each given the purse of gold crowns and they returned to their army by now it was obvious battle was inevitable King Henry's Soldiers made ready armor was donned bowstrings tested the defensive formation of men at Arms flung by archers was assumed but the expected French Onslaught did not happen and after a while the English army moved on as they passed over land that will be remembered 500 years

later as the psalm the English could see disturbing signs of what faced them somewhere ahead the roads were pitted by the passing of thousands of Horsemen many of the English soldiers must have known from this what lay before them the Battle of Agincourt indicates that the French army and its nobility behind it had learned nothing from the experiences of earlier parts of the Hundred Years War here they were a much larger Army than those under Henry V on the English side masses of Cavalry though again being used a mounted Knight concept they'd gone back to

in large numbers the same scorn for their own ordinary foot soldiers whom they tended to trample into the mud when they wanted to go through them the French was proving themselves very slow to adjust the circumstances and so in this battle you'll find Henry V with his very exhausted sick Army it's hell of outnumbered by a much fresher Force to his four trying to break his way through to Calais and all the odds would seem to be totally stacked against him now the French of course was so confident in their ability to crush this king

take him prisoner or even possibly kill him that they delayed in opening the battle on that famous French had mustered some thirty thousand men and hundreds more were hurrying to be in the forthcoming battle there were however some worrying Echoes of the past which the French chose to ignore the French High command was once more divided in its aims Marshall bushy cool and Constable delbre advised caution with their Superior numbers and position the French could starve the English out and force them to surrender this was completely unacceptable to the impetuous Dukes of oil bubon and

Berry who wanted an immediate attack in the end it was their aggressive counsel that was accepted while the French nobility diced and talked into the night a ragged English soldiers tried to catch some sleep under the hedges around mezonseng the English Knights found lodgings in the village houses while the English lines were silent there was constant noise from the French army less than a mile away at some point during the night King Henry sent a deputation to the French to negotiate terms to allow his army draw sensing Victory the jubilant French refused any compromise and

the English deputation withdrew there could now be no doubt that there would be a battle in the morning as the sun rose on the 25th of October 1415 the English and French finalized their battle plans and armored the French were being marshaled into three massive battles the first battle was dismounted and contained some 8 000 French Lords this battle was flanked by crossbowmen and heavy cavalry the crossbowmen will begin the battle by bombarding the English archers and allowing the heavy Cavalry to charge and disperse them the French Vanguard would then Advance engage and defeat the

English men at Arms the 14 000 strong Second French battle was in support the even larger French rear division was mounted and would remain in reserve until the English were routed then it would sweep down on the survivors the English are deployed into their usual formation three battles of man at Arms side by side interspersed with wedges of archers the whole line curved slightly so that the flanking wedges were slightly in advance of the center in front of the army the stakes are being driven into the ground King Henry was in command at the center

the Duke of York the right wing and Thomas Lord kamois the left the two forces were flanked on either side by woods and now were separated by about three quarters of a mile King Henry addressed his army reminding them of the justice of his quarrel exhorting them to remember their families and Country and telling them of the French promise to cut off the Archer's fingers if they won in order to stand any chance at all King Henry had to goad the French formations into attacking his line accordingly the king gave the order in the name

of God Almighty in the name of Jesus and Mary in the name of the Trinity Advance Manner and send George this day been thine help pausing only to kneel and cross themselves and kiss the ground the English army Advanced towards the French at a distance of some 200 yards from the French lines the English halted and The Archers drove their Stakes into the muddy ground once more French had expected to attack on their terms and were enraged when The Archers then Drew back their bows and loosed the first destructive flight into their packed ranks at

the same time the French Vanguard lured its weapons and began to advance the flanking Cavalry dug in its Spurs and charged at The Archers as the first English arrows struck the French things were already going wrong for them the formations of Cavalry on the French flanks had forced across Bowman into the woods or behind them where they could take no active part in the battle the muddy ground made it difficult for the French to advance the enthusiasm of the French nobility to fight in the Vanguard meant that its over wide front was entangled with its

own Cavalry into this advancing Mass The Archers some able to fire 10 arrows a minute were pouring volley after volley hence Cavalry on the flanks had to attack head-on because of the woods unable to get through the stakes with horses maddened by Arrow wounds and then falling and drowning in the mud the flank attacks were routed as the flanking Cavalry fell back in disarray they collided with the already confused Vanguard men struggling to advance on foot through sucking mud and vicious Arrow storms were not flying by ridulous horses panicking through them as the arrows did

their deadly work the line broke up into columns as the French closed up and increased their speed as they hit the English line there was a fearful crash driven back the English men at Arms began to fight for their lives the French Vanguard was now being fired upon from the flanks as it closed on its Center men no longer had room to wield their weapons treacherous ground meant numbers of nights lost their footing and were trampled into the mud by those behind them still the lethal arrows hissed through the air in English were able to

recover and counter-attack large numbers of French dead and wounded lay in muddy bloody piles in front of the English the slaughter of the French Knights by The unencumbered Archers was horrific the second French division the main guard of 14 000 men marched forward into the islands again they're densely packed ranks were an easy target those on the flanks and rear began to fall back despite the orders of their Commanders the French rear guard 2 began to melt away as the result of the battle became clear and many of the French nobility shocked and appalled of

the Carnage chose to ride or March forward to their deaths rather than desert so many of their appearance as the fighting flattened the English moved amongst the struggling Mass looking for men of wealth to take prisoner if Victorious the English could make a fortune by ransoming these men to their relatives but victory was still not assured despite losses the French still had unbroken forces in the field outnumbering the exhausted that aesthetic English army just as victory seemed certain King Henry received the word that his baggage train was under attack from a French force that arrived

too late to take part in the main battle and the King was also aware of the fact that he had a substantial number of captured Frenchmen to his rear these men were still capable of carrying arms if rescued King then made a terrible decision he ordered the extinction of all but the most valuable French prisoners the English however at first refused the king's orders not wishing to lose valuable ransoms before it was realized that the English was safe a substantial number of French prisoners were dead [Applause] the battle had lasted a little over three hours

that time ten thousand Frenchmen had died and 1500 had been taken prisoner English casualties were less than 300. the bloodbaths of cressey and Poitier had once again been inflicted on the French nobility the victory of agincour passed into myth as cresse and Poitier had before the conflict that became known as the Hundred Years War once again turned against the English and Henry V son would lose his crown the Longbow 2 would fall from favor its replacement the musket requiring a few hours training as opposed to a lifetime of practice in the age of gunpowder William

Shakespeare would make King Henry V into the embodiment of the chivalric warrior Spirit of the English in 1914 British newspapers would report that during the retreat from mons British soldiers had seen ghostly medieval archers firing at the oncoming Germans such is the power of myth the truth of that day in 1415 was different and those who survived it would never forget the victory of the Longbow was achieved at a terrible price [Music]