9.7

Agincourt

Modern French Azincourt, village, Pas-de-Calais dept., N France. There, on Oct. 25, 1415, Henry V of England defeated a much larger French army in the Hundred Years War (1337-1453). His success, which was due mainly to the superiority of the masses of English longbow men over the heavily armored French knights, demonstrated the obsolescence of the methods of warfare of the age of chivalry. The victory enabled the English to conquer much of France. The battle is the central scene of Shakespeare's drama Henry V.

The Columbia Encyclopedia, © Columbia University Press 2004
Laplante, Charles, d. 1903 -- Engraver