King Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt

Background • Henry V: King of England 1413 – 1422 • Leading armies since he was 16. • Became king at 26 and began planning to invade France. • The French were not worried at first.

France, late September 1415 • English army facing disaster. • King Henry had invaded France with 9 000 men. • He wanted people to remember him as a great soldier so he planned to capture a French town and defeat France in a great battle. • He hoped this would unite his lords who had been fighting within England.

France, late September 1415 • His plan went wrong. • It took a month to capture the French town and 2 000 English soldiers had died. • What would Henry do next? • Take his men home – he would be a failure. • March across France to show the French he wasn’t afraid – what if their army captured his soldiers?

English army

Early October 1415 • King Henry decided to march across France with 900 knights and 5 000 archers and food for 8 days. • When they reached the River Somme, they found out the bridges had been destroyed and a big French army was waiting on the other side. • How would Henry cross the river?

Early October 1415 • The English searched until they found a place where the river was shallow and crossed there. • They marched on, hungry and tired, with the French army waiting somewhere nearby.

24 October 1415 • The English set up camp. • They could see the French army – many more than them. • An English knight said to the king he wished they had more archers but Henry said God would help them win. • The English expected to lose the battle – all night they could hear the French soldiers.

French army

25 October 1415 • Time for battle! • King Henry put his archers in certain places and moved his men forward until they were close to the French army. • He ordered his archers to fire; the French charged towards the English. • The French struggled because of the muddy ground; the English kept on firing arrows – 60 000 arrows every minute!

25 October 1415 • Finally the two armies fought hand-to-hand. • The English were a smaller army, but because of a narrow battlefield and the amount of French soldiers killed by the archers, the French could not defeat them. • The English took hundreds of French soldiers prisoner and King Henry ordered them to be killed. • The English had win the war – King Henry and his archers were heroes.

Battle of Agincourt

Archers and longbows • Archer: person who shoots with bow and arrows. • Longbow: type of weapon. • During King Henry V’s time, the best archers using a longbow could fire 10 to 12 arrows a minute over a distance of 275 metres.

Battle of Agincourt • So why is the Battle of Agincourt so famous? • The English, who were the smaller army, defeated the French, in France, by the clever use of their extraordinary archers!

Questions 1) Why did King Henry invade France? 2) Should Henry have defeated France, what did he hope to achieve by this? 3) Explain the choice King Henry had to make when it took longer to defeat France than he thought it would. 4) Following 3) above, what was Henry’s decision in the end?

Questions 5) Describe what happened on 24 October 1415. 6) On 25 October 1415, the day of the battle, which part of his army did King Henry use first? 7) Name 2 reasons the English defeated France, even though they were the smaller army. 8) What is an archer?

Questions 9) What type of weapon did archers use during King Henry’s time? 10) Why is the Battle of Agincourt so famous?

Answers 1) He wanted people to remember him as a great soldier so he planned to capture a French town and defeat France in a great battle. 2) To unite his lords who had been fighting within England. 3) Take his men home or march across France to show the French he wasn’t afraid. 4) He decided to march across France.

Answers 5) The English could see and hear the big French army, they expected to lose the battle; a knight said to the king he wished they had more archers. 6) The archers. 7) Narrow battlefield and many French killed by the archers. 8) Person who shoots with bow and arrows.

Answers 9) Longbow 10) The English, even though they were the smaller army, defeated the French by the clever use of their archers.