Battle of Agincourt

On 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day), near Azincourt in Artois, Henry V's army, weakened by disease and the Siege of Harfleur, inflicted a crushing defeat on numerically superior French forces. Charles VI, suffering from mental illness, did not command: the French host was led by Charles d'Albret, John of Bourbon, and Charles of Orléans. On muddy ground between two woods, French knightly charges disintegrated under volleys from English archers protected by stakes.

Henry V landed in Normandy on 13 August 1415 and took Harfleur after a month-long siege (18 August – 22 September). Rather than marching on Paris, he headed for Calais as Edward III had in 1346. The English army, reduced by sickness, was intercepted on 24 October by the French royal host. Impatient, poorly coordinated French nobles gave battle without waiting for full reinforcements or imposing common discipline.

Henry V deployed defensively between two wooded areas, with stakes planted before archers arranged on the wings. Longbow volleys harassed French knights advancing on waterlogged ground, crowding together and losing cohesion. English men-at-arms then struck the disordered wings. The melee became a slaughter: French chivalry bogged down and crushed its own ranks.

The defeat cost about 6,000 French dead, including Charles d'Albret, and more than 1,000 high-ranking prisoners including Charles of Orléans. Henry V consolidated military and political dominance: the victory strengthened his claim to the French throne and opened the way to the Treaty of Troyes (1420). Agincourt became a noble trauma comparable to Crécy and Poitiers, marking fourteen years of English superiority until the lifting of the Siege of Orléans in 1429.