In the year of 1415, the French lived the turmoil of a civil war by the government involving the nobles divided between the Burgundians and Aramanaks. Realizing the fragility of that moment and interested in conquering France, the English king, Henry V, sent troops to the port of Harfleur, in Normandy. The imminent foreign threat ended up, momentarily, cooling the internal rivalries for the French military forces to fight against England.
The French resistance forced the displacement of English troops to the eastern portion of the invaded territory, heading towards the port of Calais. However, the presence of French troops once again changed their plans. Finally, the English soldiers crossed the territory until they crossed the Somme River and consolidated their troops in the village of Maisoncelle. Nearby, French forces set up in the Ruisseauville region.
Given this disposition of the armies, the forest of Agincourt, which gives its name to the conflict, and the forest of Tramecourt ended up defining the confrontation between this new episode of the Hundred Years' War. On the French side, we had a troop of approximately 9,000 men, gathered by important names of the nobility of that country and garrisoned by a large number of cavalry. The English, however, with only five thousand men, pinned their hopes on the efficiency of their modern weapons.
The numerical superiority and the war horses strongly suggested to the French nobles that victory against England was already assured. However, the narrow dimensions of the battlefield ended up making useless of the cavalry's military power, which had almost no space to make full use of its attacking capabilities. When the French armies were directed against England, a shower of British arrows surprised the defenders of France.
Even though it was not an attack of great impact, the agitation ended up exposing the difficulty of locomotion for French horses in the muddy lands of Agincourt. In this way, the trump card of the French army was easily achieved by the aim of the English archers. The agitation of the horses ended up disorganizing the French forces and allowing the entry of English soldiers, who were decimating their enemies and taking French arms.
In four hours of battle, the English seized weapons, armor and took the Dukes of Orleans and Brittany as prisoners of war. At the end of the confrontation, it is estimated that little more than five hundred Englishmen had been killed. Across the battlefield, the embarrassment of the French defeat ended up with between four and seven thousand dead. Historically, that confrontation exposed the value that military strategies had for making the defense of lands and ideals possible.
By Rainer Sousa
Master in History
Brazil School Team
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/guerras/a-batalha-azincourt.htm