Does this mean the French won?
I thought not.
What did historians believe were the the odds between 1451 and 1955?
The French still got their butts kicked, a common thread in their history.
As I recall, this battle pitted French knights against stout Englishmen armed with longbows. The French knights continued to charge against them all day and were basically picked off by the archers. At nightfall the French quit. Here is my question: Were the French knights paid recruits? This doesn't fit in with what a knight was.
Westmoreland: "Anon, my lord, thou hasn't as few men as once thought. No longer canst thou proclaim we few--instead, thous't must proclaim we numerate but still not as many as the frogs."
Crowd: Anon, anon anon-on-anon!
It still is an astounding victory, because the English were 4/5 footsoldiers, and most of their knights were dismounted. They relied heavily on archers. The French were overwhelmingly knights and were slaughtered in the mud. No matter how many French died, it marked the end of knight-based cavalry in Europe.
How about the casualties on both sides.? Is it still true that the number of English/Welsh deaths can be numbered in the dozens and the French lost thousands?
So what.
The British still beat a larger force of Frenchmen, and I'm sure the number of heavily armed on the French side exceeded the number of heavily armed kbights on the British side, putting a humble peasant armed with a missle weapon on the same footing as a wealthy arisotcrat loaded down with expesnice armour and constant training.
It will be interesting to read this book and see if this just another piece of revisionist history.
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"Hey, baby, my guys were outnumbered 4 to 1 at the Battle of Agincourt!"
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When it comes to accuracy I would side with British myth over French bookeeping any day of the week!