145 The Agincourt Campaign Part II

HarfleurHenry probably now intended to be King of France or Duke of Normandy as a minimum. So what he planned was a war of conquest, not just the traditional chevaucee. It's likely that he planned to start with Harfleur, take it quickly and then advance to the capital of Normandy – Rouen – before winter. But Jean d'Estouteville, captain of Harfleur, had other ideas. 

 

145 The Agincourt Campaign Part II


 

The Agincourt Campaign, 1415

You can let this animation run at it's own speed, or click pause and then move the show on as you wish with the 'next' and 'prev' buttons. Enormous thanks to Andy Flaster and Jonathan Crowther for all the technology stuff.

9 thoughts on “145 The Agincourt Campaign Part II

  1. In some systems 145 is named “The Agincourt Campaign Part III” Clearly not as intended. Sorry to bother you.
    Paul

  2. Andy, I know, I know (hangs head in shame)….it’s just that I’m not a designery person so I think it looks GREAT!!
    Paul, thanks for this. I think I have found the problem…hopefully it’ll solve itself in a while…

  3. I apologize in advance for nitpickery. And for being Spanish, though we get ours in about a century and a half. As for famed French knight Jean Le Maingre “Boucicaut”, since the first C is followed by an I, it (I believe) makes the C soft. So I wonder if it isn’t supposed to be pronounced boo-SEE-co. In Spanish, the defaultly-stressed syllable is the penultimate, but I’m not sure how French works (neither are the French, most likely, but that’s a separate issue).

    1. Hi as a French-dwelling Brit I agree with Michael – the c before the i generally is soft like citizen and a c before a is hard like cat (an early History of English podcast spells out why the c has duel usages). To distinguish between hard and soft before an o the ç is used to soften it, as in Alençon. To be called a con, hard c, is one of the worst insults, but it depends on the vigour and circumstances, like most good swear words!

      PS all these accents, and Many More, are found by pressing down on a mac keyboard for a couple of secs then moving to your choice and lifting the finger off… its infuriating to break the flow, but has saved much misunderstanding…

      Cheers and thanks for all your hard work David! Haydon

  4. What’s the deal with quoting the customs of Bronze Age desert dwellers?
    While the “rules” of sieges in the late medieval werent set in stone, they certainly weren’t following the even more barbaric custom set out thousands of years before in Deuteronomy (city open to sack if it loses, yes, but no binding universal sex slavery for the women, for example).
    It’s just a glaring non sequitur in an otherwise great episode.

  5. Two jolly interesting comments! I am gutted to be pronouncing Bouccicaut wrongly. Gutted. especially since he’s about to be banged up for the rest of his life, so I am pretty much too late!!
    Joe, the point about Deuteronomy is that this is what medieval societies accepted as the common authority for the rules around sieges – I make no comment about whether it was sensible or not for them to be following Bronze age rules, since that would be anachronistic. I also agree that they were far from slavish about their implementation.

  6. Hi David (again after nitpicking hard soft c post)…

    I’ve just finished your triptych on Agincourt and I was struck by how relatively pointless the whole expedition was. Also there are key points that undermine Henry’s reputation of military skill. Now I wanted to wallow in the glory and lets face it capturing and knocking off many French nobles would’ve been seen as a no-holds-barred victory in itself. But the whole thing seems to have been erm botched by mistakes and miscalculations at the start ie at Harfleur. If the campaign relied on capturing that quickly and using it as a base for ingress into France, to take Rouen and maybe that or the next year take Paris it obviously failed dismally. It took ages, and left a pile of rubble to defend. Instead Henry is forced to run for it towards Calais à la Edward III and he also “teetered constantly on the edge of disaster” as you said of E3 – getting lucky with his crossings and the like. Yes he made it out, show great prowess and courage etc, and won a great victory but compared to the original goals its a dud, non..?

    It that way it compares badly with say Poitiers, Auberoche et al – which has the goal of, and to some extent achieved, the security , expansion even, of the English holdings in Aquitaine – and were also great triumphs on the battlefield.

    Hence well my sense of anticlimax over Agincourt. Oh ho-hum.

    A couple of other points if I may – Ive always been a bit confused about the interchangeability of Gascony and Aquitaine, and I have a vested interest. We live on the side of a Pyrenean mountain near a town called Biert in the Ariège. Ive found out that the humble valley between us and the hillside directly opposite us (commune Aleu) used to mark the boundary between speakers of a dialect of Gascon and those of a Languedocien dialect. So the shepherds that used to call to each other from mountainside to mountainside may’ve got a ‘Huh? Whats he on about?’ from our neighbours. I was wondering if you know to what extent ‘Gascony’ an administrative unit or a language-defined entity? Please feel free to a. say no and b. advise me to seek out a History of France podcast or other!!

    Lastly, as someone catching up about 1-2 podcasts a day (ah when the kids are in bed, the mind can roam) as you are currently on 1568, dare I ask if you have calculated how many more podcasts to need to reach oh 2000? Taking into account the increasing number of sources, proliferating historians with a view or two etc… As a student of modern history (ie French Rev on, not that Chris Colombus on – yes Uni, you sold me a pup!) I just want to say a million thanks for opening up my eyes to the wonders of early, mid, late med history – and broadening my ability to regale (read bore stupid) others from 200 to nearly a 1000 years! Those lucky people.

    All best and apols for the length – Ive stored it all up.
    Haydon

    1. Hi Haydon, lovely to hear from you! Well yes, I largely agree; Henry was lucky the French attacked him. Made the best of it, and was pretty unasailable thence to his death, but yes I am with you on that. Interesting about Gascony, and I am deeply ignorant so sadly can’t answer. I always assumed Gascony was the SW Coast and hinterland, and Aquitaine the much wider province. and I also assumed that it was a real identity with it’s own dialect. But I am not 100% sure.

      I did do a chart once – I’d reduced to about 35 historical years in 1 actual year. So that’s about 13 years. Though I am still not sure I’ll go beyond 1901 or 1913.

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