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Views - Wat Tyler

THOMAS WALSINGHAM

Henry V invaded and captured Harfleur. His force being insufficient to undertake the task of conquest, he chose to march through Normandy from Harfleur to Calais. Like Edward III at Cressy, he was intercepted by an immensely larger French force, at Agincourt where he won a victory even more astonishing than that of Cressy.

AGINCOURT

The king of England having arranged matters at Harfleur as befitted a king and a victor, resolved to take his way by land to Calais with a small force; not more as it is said than eight thousand archers and men-at-arms, many of whom were suffering from illness caught at Harfleur. Astonishing it is that with this little band he dared to enter the thick forest of the French but even more astonishing that he pierced through it and the obstacles by which it was guarded. The whole of the time that Harfleur was being besieged, the French had been collecting together from their own lands and from the lands round about all the stoutest and bravest soldiers, and gathered allies from every side, so that their numbers swelled as it is reported to a hundred and forty thousand fighting men. They then had appointed the day, the season, and the hour when they might attack the king and his feeble folk, worn as they were with hunger, flux, and fever. And when the king had ridden twice through the kingdom of France and the enemy had removed all supplies, before he pitched his camp there was want of bread in the army; in so much that many had nuts to eat for bread and the drink of the poorer sort in the army was water for the space almost of eighteen days. These were the luxuries, the viands on which the warriors of the king of England were nourished, who were about to meet with so many thousand men of might. Moreover worn as they were with marching, weary with watching, weakened with the cold by night, the wonder is that they were alive. But He that hath willed the destruction of the strong by the weak gave courage to the weary and vigour to the exhausted. When the king not without difficulty had made his way across the impeding streams, since the French had destroyed the bridges which might have shortened the march, they hastened in a body to stop the way by which it was necessary to pass to Calais. On tine twenty fourth day of the month of October they halted at a certain town. Yet the king undaunted, persisted on the march which he had undertaken and advanced so far that the two armies encamped for the night within a mile of each other.

Very different was the outward show of the two armies ; the French refreshed and full of meat, the English weary, weak and worn with lack of food and wanting even water. Yet on the following day must the English fight and meet the whole nobility of France hand to hand. Wherefore they passed that night, with scanty sleep, taking less heed to comforting their bodies than to strengthening of their souls by prayer and confession. The Frenchmen had indeed boasted that they would spare none except the lords and the king himself; the rest they would slaughter without pity, or would mutilate past curing. Wherefore our people the more zealously roused up their courage and heartened each other against whatever night befall, Wherefore

Scarce had the dawn's rays touched the mountain's brow,
When through the camp the trumpets bray rang out,

and our men hastened to their leaders' presence, doubly ready to challenge battle by the stoutness of their courage and the purity of their conscience. The king seeing how zealously his men assembled led his forces into a field recently sown with wheat, where it was hard enough to stand or to advance from the slipperiness and the softness of the ground. Nor when it was full day were the French slow to advance their first line into the same field stout soldiers decked in glittering armour, horsemen on right and left advancing on horses nobly bred,

With golden trappings hanging to their breasts,
Decked all in gold and champing bits of gold.

Nevertheless the French had no mind to advance far into that field by reason of its slipperiness, but desired to see what was the intention of the English whose fewness they held in utter contempt. Between the two columns lay open ground to the space of about a mile.But the two armies did not advance with a like movement, since the French at first held their ground without moving, whereas if the English would join battle with the enemy they must cross the space between on foot in their armour. Meantime the king perceiving the stratagem of the French, in that they remained motionless in one spot lest they should wear themselves out by marching across a muddy field,

High on his warhorse rose rode the ranks before,
Urged on the chiefs and heartened them to war.

"My loyal comrades," quoth he, "the field to which we come shews us a deed of high emprise, the crown of our labours. This is the day for which your valour has often cried, therefore shew forth all your might. Prove you what spear and axe, sword and arrow, may do in the hands of the valiant. He that desires wealth and honour and rewards, there shall he find it . " Therewith he bade give the signal for battle. "The injurious foe," quoth he, "seeks to stay our march let its fall upon them in the name of the Trinity and in the happiest hour of the whole year." Then with standards raised he bade his men advance in order, the archers going before on the right and left. But they looking upon those who the day before had vowed them to death or mutilation, fired with indignation and wrong forgot all weariness, all trouble and weakness; black bile swelled within them, and rage lent to them strength and courage. He who but lately had not strength to bend a weak bow now without difficulty could draw the strongest. The French seeing our men with extreme toil making passage of the field, thinking that now the moment was come to fall upon an exhausted foe whom they thought it a small matter to make captive, charged furiously upon the field, led by the knights who with their mail-clad chargers should overwhelm our archers and trample them beneath their horses' hoofs. But by the will of God it fell not as they hoped for the archers on either side advancing to meet the horsemen let fly such a cloud of arrows that their hail scattered the horsemen at the first. For God so guided it that no man's hand failed, no dart flew but dealt it wound, never right hand paused in its shooting, but every dart went home and every stroke dealt death. When therefore first the chargers were pierced with the steel, the riders turned their bridles and fled headlong back to their own ranks, and all the horsemen who escaped hastened from the field. And so when the ranks came together the loud shouting of our men rang to the stars and all the wide heaven was filled with the clamour. Again on all sides flew the cloud of darts, and the steel clashed, while arrows ceaselessly flying smote upon helmets and breastplates and corselets. Of the Frenchmen the more part fell pierced through with arrows by fifties and sixties. The king himself, playing the part of a knight rather than a king, was first to charge upon the foe, to deal and to receive cruel blows, giving a stout example of valour in his own person to his followers, scattering the opposing ranks with his axe. Likewise the knights in rivalry of the king's own deeds strove together with all their strength to break down with hard steel the opposing wood of Frenchmen, until at length the way was cloven through and the French not yielded but fell slain. And in truth the French when they saw laid low in fight those whom they averred to be invincible, were altogether astonied, and through all their limbs ran chill quaking so that they stood motionless and senseless while our men wrenched the axes from their hands and hewed them down therewith like cattle. There was no measure to the slaying; what followed was not a battle but a slaughter; the English had not strength to cut down such numbers as on the other side were ready for destruction. So perished almost the whole glory of France by the hands of those few whom so short a time before they had held in utter contempt. There were slain the dukes of Alencon, of Brabant, and of Bar, five earls, the constable of France and other lords of name to the number almost of a hundred: Of knights and gentlemen four thousand and sixty nine are said to have been slain. As for the common folk their numbers were not counted. On the king's side fell Edward duke of York, Michael earl of Suffolk, four knights and a gentleman named David Gam, and of the common people twenty-eight. While the king and his men were engaged in the battle in hand to hand fight with the great host of the French, a rabble of the French coming on the rear seized the unprotected baggage and carried it off. And when therein they found the kings crown they were filled with glee and began to dance and sing Te Deum. For they pretended that the king was taken. But after a little when they had learnt the truth of the matter from a messenger of disaster, their triumph was turned into mourning and their joy into sorrow. But the king ascribing all these happy events to God, rendered infinite thanks to Him who granted him unlooked for victory and subdued his fiercest foes. That night then he passed in the same spot and on the morrow being the Sabbath day he continued his journey towards Calais.