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Analysis Of The Battle Of Agincourt

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The intent of this paper is to analyze the Battle of Agincourt, remembered as the astonishing defeat of French forces at the hands of a numerically inferior English army. The French gathered intelligence on the size, status, and location of the English army and concluded that victory was inevitable. They neglected to analyze the terrain and ignored lessons-learned. French forces lost the battle of Agincourt due to over-confidence based on intelligence that suggested an easy victory, and a breakdown in military discipline.
Overview of the Battle
The Battle of Agincourt occurred on 25 October 1415 between the French and English armies. King Henry V had just led the English to victory in taking the French port city of Harfleur as part of his campaign to renew the Hundred Years War. The town proved difficult to seize, took much longer than initially planned, and Henry lost nearly a third of his army to fighting and disease (Beck, 2005). This forced Henry to abandon the rest of his campaign and march, as a show of force, to the English-held city of Calais, some 120 miles away. French forces intercepted Henry’s army near Agincourt and challenged him to battle.
The Battle
The battlefield consisted of recently ploughed farmland bordered by two forests that narrowed in the direction of the English line. Recent rains turned the fields soft and muddy. Henry ordered his men, exhausted from the long march and some still ill from Harfleur, to be silent and rest the night before the battle. The French, however, were confident of victory and stayed up to drink and gamble. Some French knights had even constructed a special cart to parade around the soon-to-be captured English king (Beck, 2005).
The morning of the battle, the English, numbering around six thousand men, formed a single line of men-at-arms and knights, with longbowmen on either flank. The infantry split into three formations: Henry led the main body, the Duke of York commanded the right, and Lord Camoys the left. Likewise, the French, numbering between twelve and twenty thousand men, formed three lines of men-at-arms and knights: the vanguard, the main body, and the reserves. Cavalry flanked the infantry on both sides, with crossbowmen, archers, and more mounted

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