Agincourt: Myth and Reality 1415-2015

The overwhelming victory of Henry V’s English army at Agincourt in October 1415 has passed into myth – as one of the defining events of the Hundred Years War against France, as a feat of arms outshining the previous famous English victories at Crécy and Poitiers, and as a milestone in English medieval history. This epic story of how an exhausted, outnumbered army, commanded by an inspirational leader, crushed a huge French force on French soil has given rise to legends and misconceptions that make it difficult for us to reach a clear understanding of what really happened on the battlefield 600 years ago. But that is what Stephen Cooper attempts in this thoroughgoing, perceptive and fascinating reconstruction and reassessment of the battle and its history. In graphic detail he describes the battle itself and the military expedition that led to it. He examines the causes of the conflict and the controversies associated with it, and traces how the story of the battle has been told over the centuries, by eyewitnesses and chroniclers and by the historians of the present day.