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Hello our King went forth to Normandy with grace and might of shivalry the God for him wrought marvellously

We're of England to make call and cry

Deogratius deogratius ready for a victoria

It's not Shakespeare though. He was soon to go into the breach the great victory was Agencour as described there in the Agencour

Carol when the happy few of Henry V's English army

Vanquished the numerically superior French forces on St. Christmas Day in

1415 it's a battle that has resounded through the centuries and been used by so many to mean so much

Not least what it is to be English

But how important was the battle in the strategic struggles of the time what were the pressures at home the drove Henry's march through France

And what is the legacy of Agencour when we did discuss the battle of Agencour is Anne Curry professor of medieval history at Southampton University

John Watts fellow and Tutor in modern history at Corpus Christi College Oxford and the medieval historian and writer Michael Jones

Anne Curry can we look at the deep background first we're talking about 1415

We're talking about a battle in France and but without being serious about it

It does go back to 1066 when William of Normandy came over and the many great aristocratic families had holdings in

England and France including the King himself of course and so there were pretext from then on for going backwards and forwards

Yeah, I think that's a very important point to bear in mind doing William was Duke of Normandy

So when he came became King of England he united the Duchy of Normandy and the Kingdom of England

From that point onwards English kings continued to hold lands in France

They actually got more because when Henry the second became King of England in 1154

He was also Count of Anjou and Maine and through his wife and Revacotain

...