Battle of Agincourt: 10 reasons why the French lost to Henry V's army

On October 24, 1415, during the Battle of Agincourt, Henry V's forces defeated a much larger French army. From the article:

"Battle of Agincourt: 10 reasons why the French lost to Henry V's army
The Battle of Agincourt is often heralded as one of the greatest English military victories. Here are ten reasons why King Henry V's army was able to defeat a French force four times its size.

The Battle of Agincourt was a major victory for England in the Hundred Years' War, and took place Friday, 25 October 1415.

The battle was heralded in Shakespeare's Henry V in which the king urges his "band of brothers" to stand together.

Despite significantly outnumbering the English army, the French were easily defeated by King Henry V’s forces at the battle in northern France.

How did the English win? Here are ten reasons why...

Weight of French soldiers' armour
The armour of the French army was so heavy that it may have had a considerable role in hampering their victory.

Weighing up to 50kg, it made it particularly difficult to march across the battlefield, and gave the French soldiers a considerable disadvantage in the hand-to hand combat against the less heavily armoured English troops.

A recent study in which volunteers had to dress in 15th century armour and run on a treadmill found that wearing a full suit of armour doubled the amount of energy used in battle.

Muddiness of the battlefield
It had been raining continuously for two weeks and the recently ploughed land, on which the battle took place, was a sea of thick mud.

The French knights had to march through it in full plate armour, leaving them already overcome with fatigue before they had even advanced against the English.

Use of longbow arrows
In the longbow, the English had perfected an extraordinary weapon that gave them a considerable advantage over the French crossbow. A trained archer could shoot between 10 and twelve aimed arrows a minute which could wound at 400 yards, kill at 200 and penetrate armour at 100 yards.

The continuous volleys of English arrow fire also maddened the French horses, which trampled through the close-packed ranks of French foot soldiers.

Crowding of French troops
Disorganisation of the French troops meant as soon as battle commenced, the soldiers became so closely packed that their crossbows and cannons could not be fired effectively and men were unable to swing their swords in attack.

This was worsened by the continuing forward rush of their comrades behind them. The combination of the mud and the crowding made them almost helpless. The English simply knocked them down, to drown or suffocate under fallen bodies.

Lack of authority
The disorganisation of the troops is often attributed to the fact that France's King Charles VI was weak and mentally ill at the time. He handed authority over to Charles d'Albert, Constable of France, and Boucicault, both experienced soldiers.

But their rank was not considered high enough to deserve respect from the French nobles in the army and their commands were largely ignored. In comparison Henry V was widely regarded as a charismatic commander, and was respected by his troops.

Narrowness of battlefield
The narrowness of the field forced the French troops into a suffocating formation, churning up even more mud in the waterlogged field and making them easier targets for the English longbowmen.

Expertise of English army
Henry V’s army was not typical of the times and was specially recruited; his men were well paid, well trained and disciplined. The majority of his army was comprised of expert longbowmen.

Henry preferred a small, professional army, compared the large untrained force of most European armies, which were made up of local knights and peasants. This gave the English a considerable organisational advantage.

To fund his venture Henry borrowed huge sums from the City of London, the Lord Mayor and several wealthy merchants and families. The City alone contributed the sum of 10,000 marks – worth some three million pounds in today’s money.

In return he gave his funders the Crown Jewels as a guarantee to be redeemed for cash at a later date, much like a mortgage.

English army initiated the battle
At first the English planned to wait for the French to attack, but with no evidence of movement in the opposing army Henry became impatient and gave the command for the battle to commence.

This gave his soldiers an early advantage over the French, leaving them free to establish a new defensive position and to fire a hail of arrows on the unprepared and compact mass of French knights and men-at-arms.

French army expected more troops
Despite far outnumbering the English, it is thought that the reason the French were attempting to delay the beginning of battle was that they were waiting on further contingents to arrive.

They were attacked before their expected reinforcements reached the battlefield.

Complacency of the French army
The French were convinced they would win the battle, a complacency that may have been to their cost. Whilst the English camp was sombre the night before battle, the French are said to have spent the night celebrating and taunting the English across the lines.

So confident of victory were the French that they had already prepared a specially painted cart in which to parade the captured English king.