V. The Lancastrian Phase


         1413-28: Henry V, another English king of Edward III's abilities comes to the throne, smashes French armies and reconquers more of France than Edward III ever did. At Agincourt, the English army had about 5,000 "foot" mostly bowmen but including some others, and about 900 "horse," who were serving as heavy infantry, figures which are pretty well established, as the muster rolls of the English army were preserved more or less intact. The French probably had only about 20,000 men at the battle, mostly dismounted men-at-arms, plus a thousand crossbowmen, two thousand shortbowmen, and a couple of bombards. The English stand on the defensive and allow the French to charge themselves to death: several thousand French die as against only about 100 English (including one killed by a bombard). Figures for the French reaching up to 60,000 are cited by some authors, but these invariably include all French forces in the theater. There were several French armies roaming around and the English had been having a tough time trying to elude them all. Older works sometimes give the French as many as 100,000 men.

         1422: Henry marries the French king's daughter, gets the old man to repudiate, his heir, and has a son (Henry VI). Having effectively won the war he then dies almost immediately, followed shortly afterwards by the French king, leaving English fortunes in the hands of his able brothers, who are not very lucky.


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