Free Agincourt by Juliet Barker Page B

to draw the wagons into a circle behind the lines, forming an enclosure with a single entrance that could be more easily protected from enemy attack. The horses of all of the dismounted men and the non-combatants sheltered within this laager. See Strickland and Hardy, p. 225. (back to text)
    41Le Févre, i, p. 245 and n. 1. Certain manuscripts of this chronicle also add the banner of the Virgin Mary; this is also implied in
GHQ
, pp. 66-7, which refers to the army being under the protection of “the Glorious Virgin and the Blessed George.” See also above, pp. 235, 240. (back to text)
    42Le Févre, i, p. 253. Sir John Holland was allowed to use his standard as earl of Huntingdon, even though he was not yet fully restored to the earldom. See below, p. 344. (back to text)
    43Pizan,
BDAC
, pp. 152-3. (back to text)
    44Le Févre, i, pp. 245-6, 251. Curry, p. 158, wrongly translates this as “victory over
your
enemies” instead of “
our
enemies,” a subtle but important difference of emphasis. Medieval archers, unlike modern ones, used only two fingers to draw their bows. Sir James Douglas (d. 1330), Robert the Bruce’s lieutenant, was reputed to cut off the right hand or put out the right eye of any captured enemy archer, but it had been standard practice for centuries simply to execute them. See Strickland and Hardy, pp. 181, 79. After the English victory at Agincourt, the archers are said to have taunted the defeated French by sticking their two bowstring fingers up at them, a gesture which is still used vulgarly in England today to express contempt. (back to text)
    45Bouvier, pp. 67-8; Elmham, “Liber Metricus,” p. 118; Capgrave, p. 132; Baye,
Journal
, pp. 224-5; W&W, i, pp. 135-6, 136 n. 1; ii, p. 125 n. 6. An investigation into the escape was ordered on 26 October 1415:
CPR
, p. 410. De Heilly had previously been captured fighting for the Scots at Homildon Hill (1402) but had been ransomed and released: Wylie,
History of England under Henry IV
, i, p. 293; ii, p. 61. (back to text)
    46
First English Life
, pp. 57-8. (back to text)
    47Le Févre, i, p. 251;
St-Denys
, v, p. 554; Basin,
Histoire de Charles VII
, i, p. 41. W&W, ii, pp. 132-3 place this parley the night before the battle and take the French accounts at face value. (back to text)
    48Le Févre, i, p. 251. (back to text)
    CHAPTER FIFTEEN: “FELAS, LETS GO!”
    1Bennett, “The Development of Battle Tactics in the Hundred Years War,” p. 11. See also Jean de Bueil,
Le Jouvencel
, ed. by Léon Lecestre (Société de l’Histoire de France, Paris, 1889), ii, p. 63, where de Bueil applies this dictum to Agincourt. (back to text)
    2Le Févre, i, pp. 252-3; Bacquet, p. 93. (back to text)
    3
GHQ
, p. 82;
St-Denys
, v, p. 558. (back to text)
    4
GHQ
, pp. 85-7. (back to text)
    5Curry, p. 72;
Brut
, ii, p. 555. (back to text)
    6For Erpingham’s career, see Curry, “Sir Thomas Erpingham: A Life in Arms,” in Curry,
Agincourt 1415
, pp. 53-77. (back to text)
    7Brut, ii, pp. 378, 555, 596; le Févre, i, p. 253;
An English Chronicle of the Reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI. Written Before the Year 1471
, ed. by Rev. John Silvester Davies, Camden Society, 64 (1856), p. 41; Allmand,
Henry V
, p. 91 n. 17. (back to text)
    8Guillaume Gruel,
Chronique d’Arthur de Richemont, Connétable de France, Duc de Bretagne (1393-1458)
, ed. by Achille le Vavasseur (Société de l’Histoire de France, Paris, 1890), p. 17;
St-Denys
, v, p. 560; Bouvier, pp. 70-1. (back to text)
    9Waurin, i, p. 213;
GHQ
, pp. 86-7. (back to text)
    10Waurin, i, pp. 206, 213; Monstrelet, iii, p. 255. (back to text)
    11The word is variously given as “nesciecque,” “nestrotque” and “nestroque” in French sources; it has been translated as “I do not know what” (that is, that Monstrelet, the reporter, did not know what Erpingham said), “Knee! Stretch!,” the option favoured by W&W, ii, p. 156, and taken to be a command to the archers to shoot because they bent their