On the 25th October 1415, Lord Richard Scrope, with a contingent of men-at-arms and archers from Bolton Castle stood in a wet, muddy field with the rest of the English army, numbering about 8,000 men, looking up a slope towards a
numerically superior French army camped near to Azincourt in northern France. The English were contemplating defeat, and for the majority of the soldiers, the archers, that would almost certainly mean death.
The unexpected victory for the English later that day led to a boost in English prestige and dominance in the series of campaigns and battles against the French, now known as the Hundred Years war.
Fought on the feast day of Saint Crispin and made famous by Shakespeare in his play about the English king, Henry V, the Battle of Agincourt as it became known in English still resonates today as one of the greatest ever victories by an
English army. Ultimately, though, it was the French who would prove successful, defeating an English force at the Battle of Castillon on the 17th July 1453. Any realistic chance for the kings of England to also hold the title King of France had
gone.
Come and join our living historians; find out more about the battle, try on some armour of the period and see if you would have made the grade as an English archer.
Included in usual admission charges.
