Travel Stories - France

"azincourt"

introduction

From Hesdin we get a lift from a former English teacher to the hamlet of Azincourt. His driving qualities are better than his English although he can improve himself. We see a sign to the town from the mainroad but the man insist to bring us all the way to the entrance of het museum from the “famous” battle of the hamlet.

A night on the battlefield

It seems like the museum is closed, it is dark, but we are wrong – we open the door and enter the museum. We are the only visitors in the building; only the staff is running and walking by all the time. By means of interactive films, attributes that you can try and of course lots of information one has tried to bring the past back. Ofcourse it’s very hard to activate a battle from the 15th century. Before we go out of the museum, we get water from the tap in the toilet and ask a copy of a map from the area. The whole area from the battle covers about 4 km2 and we like to see some other markers from the battle outside. But the problem is that the museum is going to close soon so we can’t leave our big bag there. And because we don’t want to walk the whole area with this big bag we decide to go sightseeing tomorrow and take it easy today and find a place to sleep tonight.

We walk past an old church with the first real monument in honor of the battle that took place between the French and English during the 100 years of war. We pass the very fancy (and expsensive) "Charles VI" restaurant. Behind two farms we see some trees and walk that way in the hope of finding something there. We climb an earthen wall and luckily find a good spot behind the potato field and a closed hedge. When we climb through the hole we find a place to sleep a few meters away. Because the chances are very big that it will rain again soon, we decide to stay here and put up our tents. We hear a big dog barking who apparently smelled us while we set up our tents. While eating our noodles and drinking our wine, we realize that we are actually going to sleep on the old battlefield tonight which was indeed our intended plan.

Battle of “Azincourt”:

During the 100-year war between England and France the army of the English king Henry V landed with 8,000 archers and 2,000 cavalry at Harfleur on August 13, 1415. The siege of this city took Hendrik one third of his army away. Then he went on 7 October to the city of Calais, which he wanted to reach via the coast as quickly as possible. His quest to find a safe crossing over the Somme, the Kwinte and the Ternaas brought him to the high plateau of Azincourt. Between the forests of Azincourt and Tramecourt, he stumbled upon the French army (of King Charles VI) on 24 October, barring the road, more than 20,000 strong. Moreover, the English army was hungry, tired and was plagued by dysentery.

Reason for the battle

The battle was fought in an open passage between the two mentioned forests. On the night of the 24th, both armies rested, but the British enjoyed only little shelter from the heavy rain. Early on the morning of the 25th, Henry set up his army (about 1,000 mounted cavalry, 6,000 archers, and a few thousand other foot soldiers). The English left flank stood on the leadership of Camoys, the right flank under the Duke of York, and the center under Henry himself. Here each group formed its own small army, with the (discarded) cavalry in the middle, archers on the flanks and advanced groups of archers. The French lined up in three rows, with considerable space. Although they were three to four times as numerous as the English, the site prevented them from making full use of it. Because of the heavy rainfall, the soil was extremely muddy, so that they could not put their artillery in position. Their crossbowmen were behind the knights and other cavalry.

Start of the fight

During the first three hours after sunrise it remained quiet. When Hendrik noticed that the French did not intend to attack, he ordered his army to advance in the passage between the woods. The English archers dug out the stakes (defense against knight-charges) and opened the strike with salvo’s of arrows. The French knights, undisciplined and carefree in spite of the lessons of Crécy and Poitiers, were promptly stimulated in this way, and their cavalry rose on horseback for a charge, only to be driven back in confusion. The French marshal led the front line, dismounted, with their heavy armor through the mud to the English line. Despite the mud and the English arrows they reached the English line, where they got into a fight with the English cavalry. The thin English defense line was pushed back, and King Hendrik himself was pushed against the ground. The English archers chose this moment to penetrate holes in the now formless French line. The heavily armored French were bothered in their freedom of movement by their large number and the narrow battlefield. They were pushed forward by their fellow fighters from the second line who wanted to take part as quickly as possible. They had no answer to the light armored and agile English soldiers and were killed or imprisoned.

The end

The final scene was formed by a half-hearted attack by a group of French people who had fled before. King Hendrik, afraid that his large group of prisoners might escape, ordered them to be killed. Some of the French prisoners were burned alive in a hut where they had sought refuge. The slaughter stopped when the attackers left. The British would have lost 12 cavalrymen (including the Duke of York Eduard of Norwich, grandson of Eduard III of England) and about 100 infantry man. As usual at that time, the body of the fallen duke was cooked so that his bones could be taken to England. The French lost 5000 nobles, including the French marshal, 3 dukes (among them Anton of Burgundy, Duke of Brabant and Limburg) and 90 barons (including Jan van Alençon); 1000 others were imprisoned, including Duke Charles of Orleans.

Battle of the longbows

In the morning the birds wake me up; it is something about seven o'clock. It is cloudy when we have our yoghurt-cruesli breakfast on the large tree trunk that lies here. We have not picked up our tent yet or we feel the first raindrops again. It comes down with the buckets when we quickly pick up our tents and take off for our battlefield-plan and start the circuit-walk. It was here that the French lined up their soldiers. First a grove with an old dilapidated caravan and then an open field. The actual battle must have taken place there as we look further on the field. On the map we see the positions of the French soldiers who were responsible for a fire of arrows, there for the cavalry and finally the foot soldiers - the infantry. On the sides of this almost hollow road, cardboard has been attached with images of the soldiers of that time. We can also distinguish horses and of course the deadly longbow with which the English have forced death and destruction. The road is perhaps 500 meters long and we already see the next intersection marking the end of the actual battlefield. Because we walk with our heavy bags and the weather looks against us, we decide to only look at the French side. There will not be much to see after all this time. We walk to a small grove where there is a big cross; this small but very picturesque cemetery contains almost 6000 French soldiers who have died in the battlefield. We look once more at the large open field and fantasize about the fact that this side must have been completely red with English uniforms. There was absolutely no question of camouflage.

We take a break in a deserted bus stop and then walk back to the main road, where we came from yesterday. We try to hitchhike and after about fifteen minutes a car stops; the man wants to bring us to Hesdin. On the way we find out that the man has to go to Dunkirk and he explains us that it is for him no problem at al lto take us tot he city of Abbeville. He drops at the edge of town and an hour later, from the moment we are picked up, we walk towards Abbeville center.

tips & advice (2016)

Name: "Center Historique Medieval"

Address: 24 Rue Charles VI

Price: 7.50 euros

Time: 09:30 / 10:00 - 17:00 / 18:00

Website: www.azincourt1415.fr

Content (evt):

The museum is located approximately 500 meters southeast of the actual battlefield in a modern new building. By means of video’s (among other things about the content of the 100-year war, daily life of that time) and three video chambers (including the war strategy and the view of war at that time) history is made lively. There is a gigantic scale model with the battle on it so that you get a picture of what it should have looked like. Finally, you can see and read countless information panels, clothing, attributes of that time and see for yourself whether you can lift the heavy sword or see yourself in knightwear. Of course a visit is not complete if you have not visited the actual battlefield. There is a map of the whole area and you can walk (or drive) a 4km circuit around the battlefield.