Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Sunday 25 October 2020

The Battle Of Agincourt. The 605th Anniversary. Saint Crispin’s Day. 25 October 1415.



The Morning of The Battle of Agincourt.
25 October 1415.
Artist: Sir John Gilbert (1817–1897).
Date: 1884.
Author: Sir John Gilbert (1817–1897).
(Wikimedia Commons)



“The Agincourt Carol”.
By: Maddy Prior and June Tabor.
Available on YouTube at


The Thanksgiving Service
on The Field of Agincourt.
Date: Pre-1909.
Source: Edmund Bleigh, Leighton (1909) "The Thanksgiving Service on the Field of Agincourt" in Cassell's History of England (Volume 1. The King's Edition ed.), London, New York, Toronto, Melbourne: Cassell and Company, p. 557 Retrieved on 19 June 2009.
Author: Edmund Leighton (1853–1922).
(Wikimedia Commons)




The Battle of Agincourt:
The Bloodiest Battle of The Mediæval Age.
Available on YouTube at



                          

The Coats-of-Arms
of The Commanders of The English Army
at The Battle of Agincourt, 1415.

On the Left:
King Henry V of England.

In the Middle:
Edward of Langley.
2nd Duke of York.
(Killed at Agincourt).

On the Right:
Humphrey of Lancaster.
1st Duke of Gloucester.

Illustration Credits:

King Henry V of England.
Date: 20 July 2010.
Source: Own work.
Author: Sodacan.
(Wikimedia Commons).

Edward of Langley.
Duke of York.
Date: 28 October 2007.
Source: Elements from 50px and
[Image: Blason Beaumont sur Sarthe 7].
Author: Ipankonin.
(Wikimedia Commons).

Humphrey of Lancaster.
Duke of Gloucester.
Date: 16 July 2013.
Source: Own work.
Author: Sodacan.
(Wikimedia Commons).


Henry V (16 September 1386 – 31 August 1422) was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of thirty-five in 1422. He was the second English Monarch who came from The House of Lancaster.

After military experience fighting the Welsh during the Revolt of Owain Glyn Dwr, and against the powerful aristocratic Percys of Northumberland at The Battle of Shrewsbury, Henry came into political conflict with his father, whose health was increasingly precarious from 1405 onward.

After his father's death in 1413, Henry assumed control of The Country and embarked on war with France in the ongoing Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) between the two Nations. His military successes culminated in his famous victory at The Battle of Agincourt (1415) and saw him come close to conquering France.

Edward of Langley, 2nd Duke of York, KG (1373 – 25 October 1415), was the eldest son of Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, by his first wife Isabella of Castile, and the grandson of Edward III. He held significant appointments during the reigns of three Monarchs, Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V, and was slain at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.

Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Pembroke, KG (3 October 1390 – 23 February 1447), was "son, brother and uncle of Kings", being the fourth and youngest son of King Henry IV of England by his first wife, Mary de Bohun, brother to King Henry V of England, and uncle to the latter's son, King Henry VI of England.

As a son of The Sovereign, Humphrey bore The Arms of The Kingdom, Differenced by a Bordure Argent. [A Bordure Argent is a Silver Border]



Facsimile of The Agincourt Carol (15th-Century).
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Manuscript Archives.
Source: English Carols of the Fifteenth Century.
(Wikimedia Commons)




The Battle of Agincourt.
Henry V.
1944.
Sir William Walton.
Available on YouTube at



"Cry God For Harry,
England, and Saint George".
Henry V.
Sir Laurence Olivier.
1944.
Available on YouTube at

Once more, unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead !

In Peace, there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage;

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let it pry through the portage of the head

Like the brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock

O’erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit

To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof !

Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from Morn’ till Even’ fought

And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest

That those whom you call’d fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war. And you, good Yeomen,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here

The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;

For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge

Cry “ God for Harry, England, and Saint George ! ”



Saint Crispin's Day Speech.
Henry V.
Sir Laurence Olivier.
1944.
Available on YouTube at



What’s he that wishes so ?
My cousin Westmoreland ? No, my fair cousin:

If we are mark’d to die, we are enough
To do our Country loss; and if to live

The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s Will !, I Pray thee, wish not one man more.

Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this Feast,

Let him depart; his passport shall be drawn
And Crowns for convoy put into his purse:

We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.

This day is called The Feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,

Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly, on The Vigil, feast his neighbours,

And say: “To-morrow is Saint Crispian”:
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,

And say: “These wounds I had on Crispin’s Day”.
Old men forget: Yet all shall be forgot,

But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: Then shall our names

Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry The King, Bedford and Exeter,

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,

From this day to the ending of the World,
But we in it shall be remember’d;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so base,

And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap while any speaks

That fought with us
upon Saint Crispin’s Day.



                         


The Coats-of-Arms
of The Commanders of The French Army
at The Battle of Agincourt, 1415.

On the Left:
Charles d'Albret.
Constable of France.
(Co-Commander of Army).
(Killed at Agincourt).

In the Middle:
Jean II Le Maingre (called Boucicaut).
Marshal of France.
(Captured at Agincourt).

On the Right:
Charles of Orléans.
Duke of Orléans.
(Captured at Agincourt).


Illustration Credits:

Charles d'Albret.
Constable of France.
Date: 21 January 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Odejea.
(Wikimedia Commons).

Jean II Le Maingre (called Boucicaut).
Marshal of France.
Date: 24 May 2007.
Source: Perso Inkscape.
Author: Patrice Panaget.
(Wikimedia Commons).

Charles of Orléans.
Duke of Orléans.
Date: 6 July 2007.
Source: Own work.
Author: Syryatsu.
(Wikimedia Commons).


Charles d'Albret (died 25 October 1415) was Constable of France from 1402 until 1411, and again from 1413 until 1415. He was also the Co-Commander of the French Army at the Battle of Agincourt, where he was killed by the English Army led by King Henry V.

Jean II Le Maingre (in Old French, Jehan le Meingre), called Boucicaut (1366 — 1421) was Marshal of France and a Knight renowned for his military skill. In the Battle of Agincourt, 1415, he Commanded the French Vanguard, but was captured by the English and died six years later in Yorkshire.

Charles of Orléans (1394 – 1465) was Duke of Orléans from 1407. Charles was one of the many French noblemen at the Battle of Agincourt. He was discovered un-wounded, but trapped under a pile of corpses, incapacitated by the weight of his own armour. He was taken prisoner by the English, and spent the next twenty-four years being moved from one Castle to another in England.


The Morning of The Battle of Agincourt.
25 October 1415.
Artist: Sir John Gilbert (1817–1897).
Date: 1884.
Author: Sir John Gilbert (1817–1897).
(Wikimedia Commons)



“The Agincourt Carol”.
By: Maddy Prior and June Tabor.
Available on YouTube at



The Thanksgiving Service
on The Field of Agincourt.
Date: Pre-1909.
Source: Edmund Bleigh, Leighton (1909) "The Thanksgiving Service on the Field of Agincourt" in Cassell's History of England (Volume 1. The King's Edition ed.), London, New York, Toronto, Melbourne: Cassell and Company, p. 557 Retrieved on 19 June 2009.
Author: Edmund Leighton (1853–1922).
(Wikimedia Commons)

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