Editing Battle of Agincourt (section)

==Background==
{{Main|Hundred Years' War}}

[[Henry V of England|Henry V]] invaded France following the failure of negotiations with the French. He claimed the title of King of France through his great-grandfather [[Edward III of England]], although in practice the English kings were generally prepared to renounce this claim if the French would acknowledge the English claim on [[Aquitaine]] and other French lands (the terms of the [[Treaty of Brétigny]]).{{sfn|Barker|2015|p=14}} He initially called a [[Magnum Concilium|Great Council]] in the spring of 1414 to discuss going to war with France, but the lords insisted that he should negotiate further and moderate his claims. In the ensuing negotiations Henry said that he would give up his claim to the French throne if the French would pay the 1.6&nbsp;million [[Crown_(currency)|crowns]] outstanding from the ransom of [[John II of France|John II]] (who had been captured at the [[Battle of Poitiers (1356)|Battle of Poitiers]] in 1356), and concede English ownership of the lands of [[Duchy of Anjou|Anjou]], [[Duchy of Brittany|Brittany]], [[County of Flanders|Flanders]], [[Normandy]], and [[Touraine]], as well as [[Duchy of Aquitaine|Aquitaine]]. Henry would marry [[Catherine of Valois|Catherine]], [[Charles VI of France|Charles VI]]'s young daughter, and receive a dowry of 2&nbsp;million crowns.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

The French responded with what they considered the generous terms of marriage with Catherine, a dowry of 600,000 crowns, and an enlarged Aquitaine. In December 1414, the English [[Parliament of England|parliament]] was persuaded to grant Henry a "double subsidy", a tax at twice the traditional rate, to recover his inheritance from the French. By 1415, negotiations had ground to a halt, with the English claiming that the French had mocked their claims and ridiculed Henry himself.{{sfn|Barker|2015|pp=67–69}}  On 19 April 1415, Henry again asked the Great Council to sanction war with France, and this time they agreed.{{sfn|Barker|2015|pp=107, 114}}

[[File:History of the Battle of Agincourt, and of the expedition of Henry the Fifth into France in 1415; to which is added the Roll of the men at arms in the English army (1833) (14586237139).jpg|thumb|1833 reconstruction of the banners flown by the armies at Agincourt]]
Henry's army landed in northern France on 13 August 1415, carried by a vast fleet. It was often reported to comprise 1,500 ships, but was probably far smaller. [[Theodore Beck]] also suggests that among Henry's army was "the king's physician and a little band of surgeons".<ref name="Beck1974">{{Cite book |last=Beck |first=Theodore |title=Cutting Edge: Early History of the Surgeons of London |publisher=Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd |year=1974 |isbn=978-0853313663 |pages=58}}</ref> [[Thomas Morstede]], Henry V's royal surgeon,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Prioreschi |first=Plinio |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wb_UMcH5C7EC |title=A History of Medicine: Medieval medicine |date=1996 |publisher=Horatius Press |isbn=9781888456059 |language=en}}</ref> had previously been contracted by the king to supply a team of surgeons and makers of surgical instruments to take part in the Agincourt campaign.<ref name="Beck1974"/> The army of about 12,000 men and up to 20,000 horses besieged the port of [[Harfleur]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=27 July 2015 |title=Guardian newspaper:French correction: Henry V's Agincourt fleet was half as big, historian claims, 28 July 2015 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/27/henry-v-agincourt-fleet-invasion-france |website=[[TheGuardian.com]]}}</ref> The [[siege of Harfleur|siege]] took longer than expected. The town surrendered on 22 September, and the English army did not leave until 8 October. The campaign season was coming to an end, and the English army had suffered many casualties through disease. Rather than retire directly to England for the winter, with his costly expedition resulting in the capture of only one town, Henry decided to march most of his army (roughly 9,000) through [[Normandy]] to the port of [[Calais]], the English stronghold in northern France, to demonstrate by his presence in the territory at the head of an army that his right to rule in the duchy was more than a mere abstract legal and historical claim.{{sfn|Hibbert|1971|p=67}} He also intended the manoeuvre as a deliberate provocation to battle aimed at [[Louis, Dauphin of France, Duke of Guyenne|the dauphin]], who had failed to respond to Henry's personal challenge to combat at Harfleur.{{sfn|Barker|2015|p=221}}

During the siege, the French had raised an army which assembled around [[Rouen]]. This was not strictly a [[feudalism|feudal]] army, but an army paid through a system similar to that of the English. The French hoped to raise 9,000 troops, but the army was not ready in time to relieve Harfleur.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

After Henry V marched to the north, the French moved to block them along the [[Somme river|River Somme]]. They were successful for a time, forcing Henry to move south, away from Calais, to find a [[Ford (crossing)|ford]]. The English finally crossed the Somme south of [[Péronne, Somme|Péronne]], at [[Béthencourt-sur-Somme|Béthencourt]] and [[Voyennes]]{{sfn|Wylie|Waugh|1914|p=118}}{{sfn|Seward|1999|p=162}} and resumed marching north.

Without a river obstacle to defend, the French were hesitant to force a battle. They shadowed Henry's army while calling a ''semonce des nobles'',<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 May 2013 |title=Living Dictionary of the French Language |url=http://dvlf.uchicago.edu/mot/semonce |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214091454/http://dvlf.uchicago.edu/mot/semonce |archive-date=14 December 2013}} {{verify source|date=August 2013}}</ref> calling on local nobles to join the army. By 24 October, both armies faced each other for battle, but the French declined, hoping for the arrival of more troops. The two armies spent the night of 24 October on open ground. The next day the French initiated negotiations as a delaying tactic, but Henry ordered his army to advance and to start a battle that, given the state of his army, he would have preferred to avoid, or to fight defensively: that was how [[Battle of Crécy|Crécy]] and the other famous longbow victories had been won. The English had very little food, had marched {{convert|260|mi}} in two and a half weeks, were suffering from sickness such as [[dysentery]], and were greatly outnumbered by well-equipped French men-at-arms. The French army blocked Henry's way to the safety of Calais, and delaying battle would only further weaken his tired army and allow more French troops to arrive.{{sfn|Mortimer|2009|pp=436–437}}