Agincourt

09:35PM
AGINCOURT
Thursday, 17 January 2008
On 25th October 1415, Agincourt was England's greatest victory. Immortalised by Shakespeare and fair game for theorists ever since. But what was it like to be there? Using eyewitness accounts, the lives of soldiers and their journeys to the battlefield are pieced together.

Far from being the glorious victory of myth, this was a brutal battle. It marked the day chivalry died with Henry V forced to flout the conventions of the time by ordering the killing of thousands of French prisoners. The French subscribed to an outmoded chivalric code, which was eradicated at Agincourt. Ironically it was the high point of English success in a war that lasted 100 years. Uncovered is how Henry V's victory gave rise to the rebirth of French confidence and the triumph of Joan of Arc twenty years later.