Village of Artois.
Famous battle lost by the French before the English, October 25, 1415. Henry V of England, who had just taken Harfleur, but fled to Calais before the threat of French forces superior in number, spent the night at Maisoncelle in Artois. The French army seeks to cut off its retreat by posting itself near Agincourt, between two woods touching one at Agincourt, the other at Tramecourt. The ground is thick and soaked with rain, the place is narrow for an army which is estimated at forty thousand men, many of whom are on horseback. Because the elite of French chivalry is there, with the greatest feudatories of the kingdom and several princes of the blood. Command was assumed by the Constable d'Albret, assisted by Boucicaut and Antoine, Duke of Brabant. Unfortunately, from the start, the French thought only of acting as they pleased or of following their particular lords. Everyone is jostling for the first row. When the English attack them with their archers, they are unable to use their arms. In addition, they get bogged down in the mud with their too heavy armaments. The last ranks are not able to come to the aid of the first. Having discharged their bows and killed many people, the English use their swords and their axes. A cavalry charge completes the job. Without command, the French rearguard, after pretending to resist, fled. The English give up pursuing the fugitives:they already have so many prisoners since the beginning of the battle, that they say they massacred most of them to watch the rest.
Among the dead, about 6,000 or 7,000 on the French side, we find the Constable, the Duke of Alençon, the Duke of Brabant, the Duke of Bar, the Count of Nevers; among the captives, the Duke of Bourbon and especially Charles, Duke of Orleans, first prince of the blood. The consequences of Agincourt are considerable invasion of a France already weakened by the quarrel of the Armagnacs and the Burgundians; disappearance of a very large part of its nobility and many of its soldiers; end of the excessive and clumsy use of heavy armaments by a certain presumptuous and undisciplined chivalry.