← THIS IS HISTORY — A DYNASTY TO DIE FOR
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Hello listeners, it's Dan here. Before we kick off this episode featuring arguably the most famous English victory over the French in all of history, I want to remind you that there's a special VIP zone for all you medieval stans over on our Patreon. There you'll find a buzzing community of royal favourites who hang out before, during and after each show to swap medieval tales, tips and tittle tattle from from reading recommendations to travel itineraries and much more. You can drop in on Patreon anytime to chat with other listeners, touch base with my producers and me, and now, very excitingly, watch bonus episodes on video in full. We also have regular ask me anything sessions and chances to win signed copies of my books like my latest novel, Lionhearts, or the book for this season, Henry V. And every week the royal favourites get stuck into a special discussion topic, which this week is all about your most iconic moments in Plantagenet history so far. To get involved, head over to patreon.com thisishistory now, on with the show. I'm going to let you in on a secret. My life began toiling away in a field, battling for scraps with fellow peasants. Then I convinced my feudal overlords to teach me how to read and write. Then I wrote some books and then this podcast. But to impress my new overlords, there's a lot of work that needs doing. I wish I'd had Shopify when I first started out back in the middle ages. This commerce platform has been a game changer for millions of guilds, leagues and businesses around the world like Mattel and Heinz. To brands just getting started. You can pick from thousands of ready made templates to start an online store, get help writing product descriptions and to launch marketing campaigns within minutes. It's like having the Hanseatic League at the touch of a button. So turn your big business idea into With Shopify on your side, sign up for your one pound per month trial and start selling today at shopify.co.uk thisishistory. Go to shopify.co.uk thisISHistory shopify.co.uk thisIShistory It's.
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Jonathan Van Ness from Getting Better. With Jonathan Van Ness, it's easy to feel hopeless. But we don't have to stay there. I'm all about finding places where we can turn that energy into hope and into action. One of those places is Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Americans United or AU is this quiet but mighty force working every day to preserve freedom without favor and equality without exception. I am so obsessed with that tagline. And let me tell you something, honey, that wall between church and state, paper thin. It's got a leak, honey. It's one of the last safeguards protecting so many of our rights. So, so right now, from bodily autonomy to LGBTQ rights to the future of public schools. To me, this is about creating a world where everyone gets to live as themselves. As long as you're not harming anyone else. Now is not the time to curl up and hide. It's the time to link arms and stand together for a better future. Join Americans United for Separation of Church and State and their growing movement. Because church, state separation protects us all. Learn more and join the fight@au.org clash better. Let's go. Americans United.
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The tired, hungry English archers fan out from the road and head towards the woods. Some of them have axes slung over their shoulders. They all have knives in their belts. As soon as they reach the woodline, they get to work. Some scramble into the trees and hack off branches. Others take their axes directly to the trunks. Soon, timber is falling and the archers are dragging boughs back to the road. They strip off the damp autumn foliage with their knives to make poles about six feet long. Then they use their knives to whittle away at the poles until they have wickedly sharp points at both ends. Quiet, intense and thoughtful, their king and commander watches them work. Henry V, Lancastrian King of England, gave the order to pause his army's march and use valuable time to fashion these spike stakes. This is taking hours they can barely afford to waste. But Henry has given this order because he knows it could save their lives. It's October 1415, and for the last nine days, Henry has been leading his English troops on a march through northern France. This was supposed to be an eight day dash along the coast of from Harfleur to Calais. But the road has been blocked at every turn. They're still 100 miles away and heading in the wrong direction. To make things worse, his enemies, the French, are on his tail. Henry's army, mostly made up of peasant archers, is tired, weak, half starved and ill. The chasing French army is fresh, strong and packed with heavily armoured aristocratic horsemen. They're hell bent on punishing the English for what they did to Harfleur. It'll be days, no more before the French catch them. So now all the English can do is arm themselves with sharp sticks and pray for deliverance. Henry has been in some scrapes before, but this time, if God doesn't protect him, he and his troops are dead men. I'm Dan Jones and from Sony Music Entertainment. This Is History, Season eight of A Dynasty To Die For, Episode seven, the Battle of Agincourt. Over the last eight seasons of this podcast, I think it's fair to say we've been through some iconic moments in English history together. Remember back in season one, when Beckett got his brains spread all over Canterbury Cathedral's pavement like ripe avocado on a slice of hipster's rye toast? Or how about season three, when King John was given the choice between agreeing to Magna Carta and being booted out of his own kingdom with a label on his forehead saying do not return to cinder? I guess we could throw in Simon de Montfort smoking his cold, dead dong like a Cuban cigar. Edward III setting up the Order of the Garter as consolation for half his realm dying with giant black pustules all over their groins. The list goes on. And I mean that literally, because this week I want our royal favourites on Patreon to offer up their own top five iconic moments in this is history history. Head to patreon.com thisishistory to add your choice to the list. But for now, of all the wild things that have happened to our Plantagenets. So since Henry II became king, arguably, nothing is as famous as the Battle. Henry V and his exhausted band of brothers fight against a juggernaut French army on October 25, 1415. It's the battle Shakespeare immortalised in his play about Henry. It's become an allegory for the essential difference between the English and the French during the Middle Ages and beyond. And more than anything else, it's genuinely one of the greatest war stories that's ever been written. It's the Battle of Agincourt. But there's one essential thing that we have to get our heads around before we can even start to think about Agincourt, which is this. It was an insane and reckless battle which should probably never have been fought. I'll say that again. Agincourt was an insane and reckless battle which should probably never have been fought. And all sides had everything to lose. You can dip into the French experience of Agincourt in episode four of our last miniseries, the Glass King. So, with that in mind, let's catch up with Henry where we left him last episode. In September 1415, Harfleur has surrendered after being blasted with his guns, which is, on the face of it, great. It means Henry's first foreign campaign has been a success. All his advisors think this is the time to go home, recharge the batteries and come again another year. Everyone except for Henry. For him, Harfleur isn't enough. He wants to show the French that he can swagger through their kingdom with total impunity. He wants to show the English taxpayers and the fat cats in the City of London who've underwritten his campaign that when they pay him to fight, he gives proper bang for the buck. And he wants to prove to himself that the doubters and the haters were wrong. Those like his dead ex pal, Lord Scroop, who questioned the campaign badly underestimated him. That's why on October 8, he gathers about 5,000 men, tells them to collect eight days of rations, then strikes out from Harfleur on the coast road heading north in the direction of the English held for of Calais. They're going to get there as fast as they can, just to show that they can. Then they'll go home. For the first five days, everything seems pretty good. The English cover nearly 20 miles a day and they obey Henry's orders not to waste time looting and burning when rations run low. They manage to negotiate with market traders in local towns to sell them food and drink. And by negotiate I mean Henry tells the townsfolk that if they don't make a deal, he'll suspend his orders not to loot and burn and let his dogs of war off the leash. But five days into the march, on October 13th, Henry and his men hit a roadblock, or rather a river block. To get to Calais, they have to cross the wide river somme. Back in 1346, when Henry's great grandfather Edward III was on his own campaign to capture the French crown, he did exactly that via a ford called the Blanch Tack. Henry is kind of cosplaying Edward and he thinks he can do the same thing. He's wrong. His men find the Blanch Tack impassable, booby trapped with thick, sharp stakes and much worse. On the opposite bank of the River Somme, there's a forward detachment of French troops grinning and twirling their mustaches. They're led by none other than Boucicault, the grizzled veteran who jousted against Henry's dad, Bolingbroke, and is still reputed to be the greatest knight alive. And they've got a message for Henry. He can't cross the Blanchet. They've broken every other bridge across the Somme. Oh, and guess what? A few days ride away in the city of Rouen, a full French army is assembling. When Henry was besieging Harfleur it seemed the French would never settle their bickering and get an army in the field. But at long last, they have, and in a matter of days, it'll be leaving Rouen to pursue Henry. Henry's chaplain records the reaction of the English army when they realize what's happening. We looked up in bitterness to heaven, he writes, calling upon the blessed Virgin and Glorious St. George to intercede and deliver us from the swords of the French. From this point on, the game has changed. Henry and his men all know that more likely than not, they're going to have to face the French. They keep marching upriver, looking for a crossing point, and on October 19th, they find one, a shallow ford which they're able to splash through, allowing them at last to double back on their march and start heading towards Calais instead of away from it. But by now, they've been in the field for 11 days, and things are looking very bleak. They're still 100 miles away from their destination, at least five and more like seven days hard march. And the reports are that the French army has set out from Rouen and is heading their way at full speed and with extreme prejudice. Shortly after the English get across, cross the River Somme, Henry decides he's going to take a grip on events and face the reality that is roaring up towards them. All the French are coming, and like it or not, they're after a showdown. Henry decides he's going to make it a showdown on his terms. He sends word to the French army, which is jointly commanded by Boucicault and a group of nobles, including the young Duke of Orleans, a nephew of the mad king Charles vi. If they want to fight, says Henry, all they have to do is come and find him. He tells them what is no secret, that he's heading for Calais. He even gives them the route he intends to take. It runs past a couple of little villages called Maisoncel and Azincourt. He reckons he'll be there by the evening of the Thursday, 24 October. If the French really want to do this, they can meet him there, armed, willing and ready to die. Then they can fight, and God can decide whose cause is the most deserving. And Doug, here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug. Uh, Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us? Cut the camera. They see us. Only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Savings Ferry unwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates, excludes Massachusetts.
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Style, every home It's a filthy night on Thursday 24 October, and the English army is camped near the village of Azincourt in silence. Camped nearby, so close that they're within earshot, is the French army. They're not silent at all. Henry has ordered his men to sleep in their armor, disguising their position by making no sound on pain of having an ear cut off. But the French are jubilant. In fact, they're celebrating, singing, joking and already planning how they're going to divvy up English prisoners. Tomorrow, the long anticipated showdown between the mighty French army and Henry's bedraggled march weary soldiers will commence, and the French are absolutely certain they'll win. In fact, if you're a betting man or woman, you'd be certain too. There are roughly twice as many French as English, and their high command has predicted more or less exactly how Henry intends to fight. They know that, like Edward III at Crecy back in the day, he'll try and funnel their knights into a killing zone of longbow arrows. If you want a refresh on how Crecy went down, by the way, head to our this Is History archive and look up season six, episode five, as well as the bonus episode which goes alongside it. All the advantages are on the side of the French. Except one Only the English have Henry V. He's the man who got them into this mess, and he's utterly convinced that that he's going to get them out of it too. In fact, earlier in the day, on October 24, when the English spot the huge French army from a distance, one of Henry's earls says to him that he wishes they had 10,000 more archers than they do. That's a foolish way to talk, henry snaps. I would not have one single man more than I do, for these I have here with me are God's people. He calls his army his humble few, and something inside him, call it genius or madness, tells him that this is their time when dawn breaks on Friday, October 25, the feast day of Crispin and Crispinian, patron saints of cobblers for those who celebrate. Henry has his men up and in formation. They're all cold and wet from the downpour overnight and their boots sink into the sludgy, sodden ground. But they have a plan. The battleground near Azincourt has woods on either side. Henry puts his men at arms, the knightly types in little, little battalions between the woods and has his archers on the wings. They all drive those long, sharp wooden stakes into the ground in front of them so that any attack by cavalry will result in horse tartar. Henry puts extra archers in the woods so they can shoot the French from the flanks when they advance. He hears three masses before he has breakfast. Then he goes out to give a pre battle speech to his men. There are various different reports of what Henry says that morning, all of them now hopelessly colored by our memory of Shakespeare's soliloquy. It's probable he gives more than one speech. One account reports that he says, look, here is that very day that your valor has so often asked for. See what lance, axe, sword and arrow can achieve in the hands of the powerful. Another report has him. Now is a time for all England to pray for us and therefore be of good cheer and let us go on to our journey. But my favourite, which is preserved in a London Cross chronicle, says Henry makes his speech short, sweet and to the point. His men are cold, tired, wet, hungry and ill. The French are massed just across the battlefield. There really is no point in mincing words. Everyone knows what they need to do. So in this version of the story, Henry only has three words for his men. Fellas, let's go.
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There are many accounts of the Battle of Agincourt, all of them different. All true, all hopelessly partial. Some chroniclers opt for epic. But blood and thunder stuff. The air thunders with dreadful crashes. Clouds, rain, missiles, earth absorbs blood. Breath flies from bodies. Half dead bodies roll in their own blood. The surface of the earth is covered with the corpses of the dead, writes one. The loud war cries of our men Struck the stars on high goes another. The French fell in great numbers. The as the arrows pierced them here 50, here 60. Henry's chaplain remembers seeing the French cavalry charging towards the English archers, trying to break up their positions so they can butcher the men at arms in the battalions. But the archers are too well dug in behind their sharpened stakes. As this happens, the French cavalry start to crush one another as some advance while others retreat and some slip into the sticky mud of the wet battlefield. The archers shoot so many arrows that many run out of ammunition, says the chaplain, who sees them seizing axes, stakes and swords and spearheads, with which they struck down, hacked and stabbed. The enemy bodies start to pile up five or six deep. When the Battle of Crecy took place in 1346, Edward III kept a safe distance from the crush of the fighting. And you might think that Henry, having copped an arrow in the face at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, would do the same. In fact, he fights in the melee with the rest of his men as arrows fly back and forth and men slash and swipe and stab with swords, clubs and axes. There's a hit squad of 18 French knights who band together and try to force their way close to Henry to kill him. They get so close that one of them swings an axe and hits his helmet, knocking off one of the fluorons on his crown that he's had built into it. That's as close as they can get to Henry. But others are not so lucky. His youngest brother, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, is badly hurt. His cousin, the Duke of York, is killed. The Earl of Suffolk, whose dad died of dysentery at our fleur, is cut to ribbons. Yet, for all this bloodshed, the longer the battle goes on, the better. The English door. Even though the French know it's a terrible idea to charge English positions flanked by longbowmen, they do it anyway. Then they keep doing it, so that they trample each other, sowing chaos in their own lines. And when that happens, their abject lack of leadership has shown up. Is Boucicault in charge? The inexperienced Duke of Orleans? No one seems to know know. And no one gets a grip when things start going wrong. In contrast, there is Henry, who's been unwavering in his belief that he would win if it came to battle, who convinced his men to follow him on this insane mission, and who, it seems, has been proven right. Hour by hour, the French losses pile up and the English victory seems assured. Soon those Frenchmen who are not dead or wounded or captured are fleeing from the battlefield behind them, English archers are gleefully going around laying claim to knights and noblemen whom they're going to sell for huge ransoms. These are living paydays that will make each of these Englishmen comfortable for the rest of their lives. It has been the most astonishing victory, a total vindication of Henry's decision to march from Harfleur and to stand and fight rather than trying to avoid the confrontation. A celebratory mood sweeps around the army. But then a shout goes up on the horizon. Someone has seen banners waving. French reinforcements, possibly backed by survivors from the battle who have regrouped, are coming in the direction of the battlefield. They're coming fast and are coming now. The English have fought themselves to a standstill. Many of them are holding on to enemies whom they've claimed as prisoners. But now it looks like they're going to have to do it all again, only with hundreds of indignant Frenchmen right there in their midst. Two minutes ago, victory was in Henry's hands. Now every Englishman is staring at a terrible last gasp defeat. What are they going to do? It's time for Henry's decisive moment, a split second decision that will ultimately decide the fate of this battle and possibly his whole reign. Dreadful as it is, there's only one option open to find out what that is. Come back next time on this Is History. If you can't bear to wait to find out what happens next, don't forget, subscribers and royal favourites can get next week's episode right now, just head to patreon.com thisishistory to access it now ad free, along with a bonus episode which where I break down Henry's precarious triumph and his darkest hour with producer Al, which I'm very pleased to say is now available in video in full. And if you're a royal favourite, we want to hear from you. This week's discussion topic is this. Besides the Battle of Agincourt, what have been your top moments of Plantagenet lore from all eight seasons of this Is History so far? Hit us up. We can't wait to hear what you've loved and where you think Henry V's achievements rank on the leaderboard. That's patreon.com thisishistory to become a royal favourite today.