History Of Britain - The Battle Of Agincourt 1415

The Battle of Agincourt 1415 - The Hundred Years War

The 25th of October

After the negotiations of 1414 and the earlier part of 1415 had failed to give Henry V what he wanted - a significant return of previous English holdings in France, and the payment of a long outstanding ransom debt by the French - the English nobility backed their king in his projected war. Thus in August 1415 a force of some 12,000 professional fighters landed and immediately besieged Harfleur. 

Harfleur, however, held out until late in September, and the exhausted English fighters needed another fortnight to recover, and to settle the spoils. With much of the campaigning season past, it was decided to head for home, with Calais the intended route. By this time the French had managed to assemble a large army to oppose Henry's now depleted force. The French manoeuvred to keep the English from crossing the Somme. Harassment by peasants and armed bands further weakened the English and Welsh, as did the onset of disease and hunger.

When Henry managed to ford the Somme and continue his march to Calais, the French, still gathering reinforcements, finally had to face their foe in a pitched battle. 

Though there is much debate about exact numbers it is agreed the English were outnumbered by the French. A reasonable estimate of the forces would be the English at fewer than 7,000, of whom all bar about 1,000 were longbowmen, and the French at 20,000 or more, with large numbers of heavily armed and armoured men-at-arms, and more than 1,000 mounted knights. 

The ground for the battle favoured the English. It was a narrow strip of land with dense woods either side protecting the English flanks from mounted attack. What is more the ground had been recently ploughed, and heavy rain had reduced it to a quagmire in places. During the night of October 24 the French had walked their horses in the area, churning it further. 

The Constable of France, Charles d'Albret, leading his nation's finest was unable to restrain the nobility eager for vengeance after so many years of war and so many significant defeats, as at Crecy and Poitiers. The large numbers of crossbowmen d'Albret commanded were sent to the rear, where their firepower was of no value. The lighter troops - peasants from the region in large numbers, and less well armoured men of lower rank, were also kept from the front line, the honour of being in the vanguard being held by the noblest and thus heaviest armoured of all d'Albret's force.

After several hours of waiting, the English, who wanted to fight a defensive battle given their numbers, were forced forward, aware that as every hour passed d'Albret's strength grew. At this moment the French had the chance to seize the advantage, the palings (sharpened stakes facing the enemy) used to protect the archers on the English flanks from cavalry attack being uprooted and moved forward with them. But d'Albret did not manage to react. When just within bow range the longbowmen let loose a hail of arrows, finally goading the French forward. As the heavy troops struggled the 300 yards or so through the mud to get at the English centre the arrows rained down on them. The knights had to close their visors, reducing their air intake and their view. The press from the rear knocked some at the front over, to drown in the mud or be crushed beneath the following feet. 

When finally the French van arrived at the English line of fewer than 1,000 men-at-arms they did push their opponents back. But this was by weight of numbers, not force of arms, as the crush was so great that swordplay was largely impossible.

With the armies closing the longbowmen, unable to fire once the two forces were enmeshed, grabbed whatever weapons they could and ran to the fray. The exhausted French, weighed down with armour, sinking in the mud, were slaughtered by the light troops who danced around their defence to find a weak point and strike. 

At one point in the battle Henry V, perhaps believing he was being attacked in the rear, perhaps seeing the reforming French forces still facing him, ordered the slaughter of all except the greatest of the prisoners taken. The sight of such execution robbed the remaining French of their morale, and the men killed were their leading nobles. The rest of the French force broke and ran. Henry lost perhaps 500 dead, the French several thousand, with as many as 1,500 major nobles captured into the bargain. It would take the French a generation to recover.

The victory on St Crispin's Day was later immortalised by Shakespeare , and has become part of the English psyche - even down to (it is supposed by some) our favourite gesture of defiance, the V-sign, said to have been the response by the English bowmen to the French threat to cut off the bowstring fingers of any archers they captured. An everlasting memory of the skill of the longbowmen, was recorded by a French knight present at the battle. He stated that his friend rode out to sling curses at the English, holding his fist up at them, as he did so...... a group of archers seeing him do this, let loose with their bows from a distance of 350 clothyards (more than the yard used in Britain until recently), and that of the 9 bowmen who fired, 8 arrows hounf their target in the forearm of his friend ! Bear in mind that there is not 1 archer alive today who can fire a bow 350 yards, let alone hit a target.

The Ancient Fortress Of Deganwy In North Wales

The Ancient Fortress Of Deganwy In North Wales

The two rocks of Degannwy, overlooking Edward 1's great castle of Conwy, have been the focus of settlement and warfare for more than a thousand years but, because they have been fought over so viciously, little survives for the modern visitor to see. However, although the castle walls have been reduced to little more than rubble, the hilltop is still an evocative place, particularly at dusk, as the sun lowers over the sea.

At the end of the Roman period the hill became a place of major political importance, to the court of Maelgwyn Gwynedd, the foremost historical figure of the 6th century in north Wales, patron of St Cybi and St Seiriol, but reviled as a drunken tyrant by the chronicler Gildas. Excavations on the western summit in 1961-66 have confirmed occupation in the 5th and 6th centuries.

Documents show that the Norman Knight, Robert of Rhuddlan built a castle here in 1080, but nothing remains of it. It was later regained by the Welsh, and in 1191 Giraldus Cambrensis described it in the Itinerarium Cambriae as a "noble structure." However, it was soon to be destroyed as part of a scorched earth policy in the face of threats from King John.

When Llywelyn ap Iorwerth regained the castle in 1213 he rebuilt it. Only a little of this castle survives today. In 1228 it is recorded that he imprisoned one of his sons here. After Llywelyn's death in 1240 his sons were not strong enough to resist the English advance and demolished the castle in anticipation of its loss. When the English arrived in 1245 they were forced to shiver in tents, so effective had been the Welsh destruction.

The campaign of Henry III saw the construction of walls and towers, the ruins of which survive today. The castle, with towers on each hilltop and a bailey on the saddle between, had an associated borough which received a charter in 1252. It was under construction from 1245-54 but was never completely finished.

As Henry became more embroiled with his own troubles, the power of the Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was growing. In 1263, after a long siege, he captured this outpost of English power and systematically demolished it. When Henry's son, Edward 1, advanced across this territory in 1283 he camped at the ruins of Degannwy, but recognizing the greater strategic value of a riverside site and also the political impact of a castle across the river Conwy, which up until then had been the frontier of the essential Gwynedd, he founded his new castle at Conwy. Degannwy was abandoned and its cut stone removed and incorporated into Conwy castles walls.

The visible ruins, today belong mainly to Henry III's castle. The defences of the bailey - earth banks and ditches on the north side, the base of two D-shaped gatehouse towers, and the curtain wall hastily built by Edward I on the south - can still be recognized. The mass of fallen masonry near the base of the gatehouse is a relic of the demolition of 1263.

 As an addendum, When the ruins were excavated by archaeologist Leslie Alcock in the 1960s a dozen sherds of Dark Age pottery which had been imported from the Mediterranean were discovered indicating the far-reaching contacts of Gwynedd's royal dynasty, and the strategic importance of the site

History Of Britain - The Cornish Rebellion 1497

History Of Britain - The Cornish Rebellion 1497

The history of Britain has always been complicated by ethnic rifts. This sounds like something that could have been said yesterday, about splits in the Arab world, or cultural divides in Asia. However it has been a recurrent problem with the British Isles, as well

In 1497 things boiled over in Cornwall !

The Cornish Rebellion was a violent revolt by the people of Cornwall. Its primary cause was the response of people to the raising of war taxes by King Henry VII on the relatively poor county of Cornwall, to raise money for a campaign against Scotland motivated by brief border skirmishes that were inspired by Perkin Warbeck's pretence to the English throne. A particularly important industry was tin mining and the Cornish tin miners were angered as the scale of the taxes overturned previous rights granted by Edward I of England.

In reaction to King Henry's taxation, Michael Joseph, a blacksmith from St. Keverne and Thomas Flamank a lawyer of Bodmin, incited many of the people of Cornwall into armed revolt against the King.

An army some 15,000 strong marched into Devon, attracting support in terms of provisions and recruits as they went. As contemporary writers said, apart from one isolated incident at Taunton, where a tax commissioner was killed, their march was 'without any slaughter, violence or spoil of the country'.

From Taunton, they moved on to Wells, where they were joined by their most eminent recruit, James Touchet, the seventh Baron Audley, a member of the old nobility and an accomplished soldier. Despite this welcome and prestigious acquisition of support, An Gof, the blacksmith, remained in command of the army. Audley joined Thomas Flamank as joint 'political' leader of the expedition.

After issuing a declaration of grievances, the army (having damaged the cathedral by using its West front for target practice), left Wells and marched to Winchester via Bristol and Salisbury, remarkably unopposed as they progressed across the south of England. At this point, having come so far, there seems to have been some questioning of what exactly should be done. The King had shown no sign of willingness to concede the issue and, far from home, there must have come to the leadership the belated cold realisation that only force of arms would resolve the matter one way or the other. Flamank conceived the idea of trying to broaden the rising; to force the monarch into concessions by mobilising wider support for the Cornishmen. He proposed that they should head for Kent, 'the classic soil of protests', the home of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 and Jack Cade's rebellion, to rally the volatile men of Kent to their banner. It was a subtle and ambitious strategy—but sadly misinformed. Although the Scottish War was as remote a project to the Kentishmen as to the Cornish, they not only refused to offer their support but went so far as to offer resistance under their Earl. Sadly disillusioned, the Cornish army retreated and some of the men quietly returned to their homes. The remainder, let go the pretence of acting against the King's ministers alone - they were prepared to give battle against the King himself.

Moving into Surrey, the Cornishmen fought a small engagement with approx 500 mounted spearmen, of the Kings army..... he was testing their resolve !

Down to 10,000 men, the Cornish revolt was eventually taken on by the Kings whole army. He had pulled back troops, that were heading for Scotland, which meant that he could now field an army of 25,000, greatly outnumbering, the poorly armed rebels.

On Saturday 17th June, The Royal forces were divided into three 'battles', two under Lords Oxford, Essex and Suffolk, to wheel round the right flank and rear of enemy whilst the third waited in reserve. When the Cornish were duly surrounded, Lord Daubeney and the third 'battle' were ordered into frontal attack.

Being ill-armed and ill-led, and without horse or artillery, the Cornishmen were, with no great difficulty, cut in pieces and put to flight. Estimates of the Cornish dead range from 200 to 2000 and a general slaughter of the broken army was well under way when An Gof gave the order for surrender. He fled but only got as far as Greenwich before being captured. The less enterprising Baron Audley and Thomas Flamank were taken on the field of battle.

It was all over.

In due course, severe monetary penalties, extracted by Crown agents, affected sections of Cornwall for years to come, perhaps even having repercussions in the present day. Prisoners were sold into slavery and estates were seized and handed to more loyal subjects. The remaining rebels that escaped went home ending the rebellion. An Gof and Flamank were both sentenced to the traitor's death of being hanged, drawn and quartered. However they "enjoyed" the king's mercy and were allowed to hang until dead before being decapitated. They were executed at Tyburn on 27 June 1497. An Gof is recorded to have said before his execution that he should have "a name perpetual and a fame permanent and immortal". Thomas Flamank was quoted as saying "Speak the truth and only then can you be free of your chains".

Audley, as a peer of the realm, was beheaded on the 28th June at Tower Hill. Their heads were then displayed on pike-staffs ("gibbeted") on London Bridge.

The History Of Britain - Britain, England, UK, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

The History Of Britain

The History Of Britain is a complicated one. To start this blog off, I'm including a brief timeline of important events in our islands history. This site will attempt to flesh out some of the mysteries and facts that make the British .... British.!

Neolithic, Bronze & Iron Ages:  8300 BC – 42 AD 
‘Britain’ itself did not exist until around 6500 BC, when the English Channel formed separating Britain from the rest of Europe. The first settlers here were hunter-gatherers, who spent much of their lives travelling in search of food. Around 750 BC iron was introduced into Britain, which led the way for the production of sophisticated and durable tools and weapons.

Romano Britain: 43 – 1065 AD 
In 43 AD the Roman army crossed the Channel and quickly defeated any resistance from local tribes. The Romans founded Londinium (London) and built military roads throughout the country. Within ten years, Roman rule had reached far into the territories of England and Wales. The Roman way of life continued in Britain until the 5th century, after which Britons were left more or less to fend for themselves.

Anglo-Normans & Middle Ages: 1066 –1347 
In 1066 Duke William of Normandy invaded Britain and famously defeated King Harold of England, who legend has it was shot with an arrow through the eye during the Battle of Hastings. William of Normandy went on to rule England and Scotland, radically changing the class system and changing the official language to French. In 1216, Henry III was crowned king, but was unpopular throughout his rule.

Late Medieval: 1348 – 1484 
The bubonic plague – or Black Death – reached England in 1348 and quickly spread to Wales and Scotland, killing up to a third of the population by the end of 1350. The plague persistently re-emerged in Britain until the 17th century, severely affecting the country's economic balance. In order to combat the devastating effects of the plague, the ruling classes attempted to restore economic stability through parliamentary legislation.

Tudors Stuarts: 1485 – 1713  In 1485, Henry Tudor invaded England and defeated Richard III to assume sovereignty. He went on to marry Elizabeth of York – daughter of Edward IV. In 1603 Elizabeth I – the Virgin Queen – died. With Elizabeth leaving no successor, James VI, King of Scots (son of Mary, Queen of Scots), succeeded as James I, King of England, effectively making him the first King of Great Britain.

Georgians: 1714 - 1836 
After the death of Queen Anne, George I became king, whose reign saw the development of the function of prime minister. Although the term ‘prime minister’ was not used at the time, Sir Robert Walpole assumed the role typical of a prime minister thanks to his successes in developing economic growth for the country. 

Victorians: 1837 - 1900 
Victoria – the longest reigning British monarch – became Queen in 1837, aged just eighteen. During her reign, she introduced a number of constitutional changes and the spirit of these changes led to the publishing of the people's charter, which laid out six demands including universal manhood suffrage and annual parliamentary elections. The charter was continually rejected in parliament, but today five out of the six original demands are firm parts of the British constitution. 

Early 20th Century: 1901 - 1944
The early twentieth century saw advances in science  and technology that were unimaginable in previous eras. Among the ground-breaking achievements of this period were: the invention of the television by the EMI-Marconi Corporation; and subsequent founding of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC); the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming; and insights into the structure of the atom, which led to the development of nuclear weapons and energy.

Post World War II: 1945 - 2010 
In 1945 the Labour Party won their first general election, going on to form the National Health Service, which many regard as Labour’s greatest achievement. Post-war rationing continued, but the era was marked by public enthusiasm and hope for the future. Since then, Britain has faced a number of economic crises, but survives today as one of the world’s leading trade and financial centres, with advanced public services and a thriving economy.