Origin Point of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415

On the 24th of October in the year 1415, a 28 year old English King named Henry had been presented with his greatest challenge in life thus far. His army, outnumbered 3 to 1 by a young, ready for battle counter-army of French troops, was diseased, tired and surrounded by the enemy. The young English king had attempted to stall and delay the battle for as long as possible, desperately searching for some miracle, even though he knew the next day this engagement between his staggered army and the enemy was inescapable. Despite this, the English king Henry and his armies managed to win a decisive victory over the much larger French army, much to everyone’s surprise. This battle was fought on the field close to the village of Agincourt, and thus so was the battle named.

For King Henry, this battle was necessary for the liberation of the Duchy of Normandy from the French, which had fallen some two centuries prior in a battle between armies led by King John, the vassal of the French at the time, and the French king. In 1066, William the Bastard, the Duke of Normandy, managed to defeat the English defenders and take over all of England to rule under his crown. Despite the Duke of Normandy’s victory over the English, French royalty had always seen the Dukes of Normandy as vassals that were
to serve the French crown. Therefore, despite William the Bastard’s triumphs in England, the French crown still did not see him as an equal. Subsequent to this the Norman kings were replaced by the counts of Anjou as rulers of these lands, which happened to own a large amount of property in the west and southwest of France, but despite having inherited a more powerful empire than their French overlords, King Henry the 2nd’s realm in England was defeated, while under rule by his son John, militarily and legally, by that of
his overlord from the old country, Philip the 2nd.

Normandy had been captured in 1204 by French forces, and the English had only managed to hold onto territory south of the River Loire. Henry the Third, who lived from 1215-1270, had minority rule over certain territorial possessions and because of this minority, suffered bouts of political instability that eventually led to his empire’s demise with the Treaty of Paris in 1259, when Henry forfeited territorial ownership over
Normandy, Anjou as well as other lands, and had accepted to engage in homage to the king of France at the time in order to retain his southern territories of Aquitaine and Gascony. Edward the 1st, the son of Henry, whom lived from the years 1270 to 1307, was a superior ruler and aspired to reverse the effects of territorial forfeiture suffered by his father in the Treaty of Paris. He wanted to change the deal so that it would better benefit England.