October 25, 1415 · Northern France Theater
October 25, 1415
On St. Crispin's Day, 1415, Henry V's exhausted army — perhaps 6,000 men, many sick with dysentery after a long march — faced a French force of 12,000 to 36,000 on a rain-soaked field near Agincourt. Henry positioned his longbowmen on the flanks of a narrow front and baited the French to advance through churned mud that turned the field into a killing ground. The heavily armored French knights, unable to maneuver, were slaughtered by arrows and massacred when they fell. When rumors of a French counterattack threatened to divide his forces, Henry ordered the controversial execution of most French prisoners.
Commanders