Recent heavy rain made the battle field very muddy, proving very tiring to walk through in full plate armour. "[102], Estimates of the number of prisoners vary between 700 and 2,200, amongst them the dukes of Orléans and Bourbon, the counts of Eu, Vendôme, Richemont (brother of the Duke of Brittany and stepbrother of Henry V) and Harcourt, and marshal Jean Le Maingre.[12]. When one of his officers points out that they’ll hit their own soldiers, King Edward (Patrick McGoohan) turns to him and says “Yes, but we’ll hit theirs, as well. Apparently Henry believed his fleeing army would perform better on the defensive, but had to halt the retreat and somehow engage the French [116] One particular cause of confusion may have been the number of servants on both sides, or whether they should at all be counted as combatants. One’s answer, perhaps not surprisingly, generally depends on what one thinks of Hannibal’s brilliance as a military strategist. They came to a heap on both sides. Also, some of this is a bit graphic. The English and Welsh archers on the flanks drove pointed wooden stakes, or palings, into the ground at an angle to force cavalry to veer off. This is odd, to say the least, since the Middle Ages roughly date from 500 to 1500 CE, whereas the Battle of Cannae occurred on 2 August 216 BCE—seven centuries before we get to the medieval period. The terror and the tumult that I saw in BoB captured the trauma of this experience better than anything I have seen. Osprey Publishing. Participating as judges were Justices Samuel Alito and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It is unclear whether the delay occurred because the French were hoping the English would launch a frontal assault (and were surprised when the English instead started shooting from their new defensive position), or whether the French mounted knights instead did not react quickly enough to the English advance. The longbow. [60][61], Accounts of the battle describe the French engaging the English men-at-arms before being rushed from the sides by the longbowmen as the mêlée developed. The cavalry force, which could have devastated the English line if it had attacked while they moved their stakes, charged only after the initial volley of arrows from the English. The horses leapt all asunder. The correspondence between BoB and Cannae revolves around the primary battle plan: to envelop the opposing force and crush it. As Kelly DeVries points out, it’s simply unheard of. They might also have deployed some archers in the centre of the line. [97] According to the heralds, 3,069 knights and squires were killed,[e] while at least 2,600 more corpses were found without coats of arms to identify them. According to contemporary English accounts, Henry fought hand to hand. [90] In his study of the battle John Keegan argued that the main aim was not to actually kill the French knights but rather to terrorise them into submission and quell any possibility they might resume the fight, which would probably have caused the uncommitted French reserve forces to join the fray, as well. [70]), The tightness of the terrain also seems to have restricted the planned deployment of the French forces. The Battle of the Bastards, mimicking the Battle of Cannae. We didn’t need the reminder. Gingerbread Bricks, Cherry-Stealing Cats, and Other Culinary Disasters, Foolishness and Wickedness Mixed Up: Shirley Jackson’s, 6 Perfect Episodes of MST3K to Help You Really Just Relax, The Horse and Her Girl: C.S. [109] Juliet Barker, Jonathan Sumption and Clifford J. Rogers criticized Curry's reliance on administrative records, arguing that they are incomplete and that several of the available primary sources already offer a credible assessment of the numbers involved. The army was divided into three groups, with the right wing led by Edward, Duke of York, the centre led by the king himself, and the left wing under the old and experienced Baron Thomas Camoys. 15 Fascinating Facts About The "Battle Of The Bastards" There was a lot less CGI than you'd think! [52] The dukes of Alençon and Bar led the main battle. [86], The only French success was an attack on the lightly protected English baggage train, with Ysembart d'Azincourt (leading a small number of men-at-arms and varlets plus about 600 peasants) seizing some of Henry's personal treasures, including a crown. Sutherland, T.L. But I did watch the Battle of the Bastards, try and work out, just with regard to visual effects, how to put the thing together. They shadowed Henry's army while calling a semonce des nobles,[30] calling on local nobles to join the army. It was a disastrous attempt. The average ten-year-old knows you shouldn’t ride a bike without a helmet, but apparently no one of any importance on either side—not Jon, not Ramsay, not Ser Davos, Tormund, Wun-Wun, or anyone else I can think of—has heard about this potentially life-saving invention. Contemporary chroniclers did not criticise him for it. So keep it up, HBO. And when Hannibal ordered his flanks to press forward, the Romans were further packed in until they were encircled and slaughtered. [96] Of the great royal office holders, France lost its constable (Albret), an admiral (the lord of Dampierre), the Master of Crossbowmen (David de Rambures, dead along with three sons), Master of the Royal Household (Guichard Dauphin) and prévôt of the marshals. The French could not cope with the thousands of lightly armoured longbowmen assailants (who were much less hindered by the mud and weight of their armour) combined with the English men-at-arms. [44] There was a special, elite cavalry force whose purpose was to break the formation of the English archers and thus clear the way for the infantry to advance. But as needs changed, as did budgets, it became more like the battle of Cannae … Soon after the victory at Agincourt, a number of popular folk songs were created about the battle, the most famous being the "Agincourt Carol", produced in the first half of the 15th century. Although the victory had been militarily decisive, its impact was complex. The French knights were unable to outflank the longbowmen (because of the encroaching woodland) and unable to charge through the array of sharpened stakes that protected the archers. He considered a knight in the best-quality steel armour invulnerable to an arrow on the breastplate or top of the helmet, but vulnerable to shots hitting the limbs, particularly at close range. For example, an English priest present at the Battle of Agincourt (1415) describes how [31] This entailed abandoning his chosen position and pulling out, advancing, and then re-installing the long sharpened wooden stakes pointed outwards toward the enemy, which helped protect the longbowmen from cavalry charges. And the results would have been catastrophic for the Boltons. There is a modern museum in Azincourt village dedicated to the battle. ", The Agincourt Battlefield Archaeology Project website, This page was last edited on 26 November 2020, at 12:31. You’ve been warned. And it went even further, as Jon finds himself trampled by the living and nearly buried by the dead, an awful truth of medieval conflicts. 138). The Duke of Brabant (about 2,000 men),[65] the Duke of Anjou (about 600 men),[65] and the Duke of Brittany (6,000 men, according to Monstrelet),[66] were all marching to join the army. But, seriously, for the sake of humanity, let Jon borrow a damn helmet next time, okay? The archers were commanded by Sir Thomas Erpingham, another elderly veteran. This use of stakes could have been inspired by the Battle of Nicopolis of 1396, where forces of the Ottoman Empire used the tactic against French cavalry. Michael Livingston is a Professor of Medieval Literature at The Citadel who has written extensively both on medieval history and on modern medievalism. Bloomsbury Publishing. [125] Shakespeare illustrates these tensions by depicting Henry's decision to kill some of the French prisoners, whilst attempting to justify it and distance himself from the event. The French were commanded by Constable Charles d'Albret and various prominent French noblemen of the Armagnac party. [108] While not necessarily agreeing with the exact numbers Curry uses, Bertrand Schnerb, a professor of medieval history at the University of Lille, states the French probably had 12,000–15,000 troops.