Once More Unto The Breach At Agincourt

It is one of the most studied and storied battles of history, Henry V's "band of brothers" and their victory over the numerically and otherwise superior forces of France. Mobility, massing firepower, unity versus division of command, the importance of terrain, the end of chivalry and chivalric values, the common man versus nobility, initiative in battle, nation-building, and so on. Azincourt, as the French call it--the village--was on our way back to the coast, and we had to see it, the battlefield (which is well-known and little changed for its 600 years), and the museum. Besides, we hoped the museum might let us spend the night in its parking lot. Not surprisingly, this is not one of France's most popular tourism sites. Indeed, and appropriately, the museum seems intended largely for English-speaking visitors. We were the only people there on a Monday afternoon in July. Michelin, FWIW, gives it one sentence and no stars. Sore losers.

Life-sized plywood knights, squires, archers, varlets, et al., are
all over the little town and on the drive around the battlefield

Entrance to the museum, which is actually not little: many
different rooms and halls, displays, multi-media type stuff;
typically French, however; but in English too

Large model of the battlefield showing various stages of the
battle...here, the French cavalry 

Part of which is charging part of the English archers and getting
impaled on the palings and then filled with arrows

Henry V in command (Google Earth view); later, by all
accounts, he would join in the hand-to-hand melee

Pretty much the story of the battle, according to the museum

Henry talks to us, en Francaise, explaining his
claim to the French throne

Charles saying  "now go away or I shall taunt you
a second time"

There is appropriate attention to literary and cinematic
depictions of the battle; and its putative importance in the
building of the English nation and character

If you take away nothing else from this post,
take away this: a competent long-bow archer
could fire ten arrows a minute, maximum range
400 yards, effective range, 200 yards, lethal
under 60 yards; at close range an iron-tipped
arrow could penetrate Medieval plate armor;
at any instant, a given archer could have three
arrows in flight; multiply this by 5,000 archers,
protected from cavalry by terrain and palings...

French cavalry view of the battle; after getting shot up by the
archers, the survivors retreated back into their own advancing
ranks...and the melee was on, the French so thickly packed
they could barely swing their swords

Hard to trudge 300 yards through mud in one
of one these outfits, especially under fire; once
knocked down or tripped over a fallen comrade,
you were helpless; many of the French nobles
simply suffocated or drowned in their own armor;
the rest, once down, were easy pickings for the
archers, who, after spending their arrows, joined
the melee

Vicki in dress-up

More display

And now we are out driving around the battlefield; the museum
gives you a helpful map 

Seemingly every house in Azincourt sports one
of these

English sniper

Et cetera

Battlefield

Ditto

Pretty much where the battle was joined

"Take that, English-type varlet personne!"

Pretty much the story of the battle...