Free The Secret Diary of Eleanor Cobham by Tony Riches Page B

be small but well defended, taking advantage of the land and protected by a high stone wall with tall towers overlooking each of the gates. Humphrey’s men established a chain across the mouth of the harbour and stockades at the gates to prevent anyone from entering or leaving. The giant siege canons they had brought were unloaded and hauled into position using teams of horses. He described how these fearsome cannons kept up their noisy barrage day and night, deafening the men who worked them, blasting huge stone balls at the walls and towers. The siege should have been over quickly, but the garrison was commanded by two experienced knights, who defended it bravely.
    Humphrey confessed to me that all was not well for the English army. As the weeks of siege fighting drew on, their supplies of food and water ran worryingly low. His men started to desert in the night and many fell ill from drinking bad water. All were tormented by a host of black flies and weak from their poor diet. They began pillaging the farms and villages around Harfleur, against the strict orders of the king, who commanded that looters were to be hanged on the spot. King Henry Valso ordered that any harlots and camp followers who came to corrupt his men were to have their left arms broken as a punishment. This did little for morale and several men were severely punished for fighting their own side.
    Despite their greatly inferior numbers, the Harfleur garrison continued to make successful night-time raids against the English, using their local knowledge to ambush the English guards and picking off those who came within range of their deadly crossbows. It began to look as if this small force of barely three hundred men were going to see off the might of the English army, if they could hold out until reinforcements arrived.
    A breakthrough came when the Duke of Clarence captured a French convoy carrying supplies and ammunition for the beleaguered port. The small garrison of Harfleur tried a desperate last attack but many were killed, badly wounded or taken prisoner. There was no sign of the French army and after a month of fighting the garrison surrendered, raising a white flag of surrender and throwing open the gates. It was a costly victory, as Henry had lost a third of his army, but like Calais, Harfleur became an English port.
    King Henry V sent more than half his army back to England by way of Calais, with many French prisoners and carrying cases of gold and other booty taken from the people of Harfleur. Humphrey assisted with overseeing the repairs to the walls and ditches of the town, so it could be defended by the new garrison. He stayed in Harfleur for two weeks then left with his brother Henry, with nearly two thousand men-at-arms and thirteen thousand archers. Sir Thomas Beaufort, Earl of Dorset and Humphrey’s uncle was left in command of some three hundred English men-at-arms and a thousand archers who had been chosen to remain in Harfleur.
    They were in no condition to march on Paris and instead followed the rest of the English force north to the safety of Calais, to wait out the winter and recover their strength. As they marched, more men died from what they called the bloody flux and lack of proper food. Even worse, a good many men deserted in the night, rather than face the risk of catching the flux or the prospect of facing the French army that was rumoured to be waiting for them.
    As Humphrey feared, the French were camped in great numbers on the opposite bank when they reached the wide River Somme. This meant a long detour to cross the river at Bethencourt. It was mid-October and the sick and wounded soldiers had marched two hundred miles in twelve days, with barely enough provisions for one week. It rained heavily and supplies were running low, so it was an exhausted army that found their way completely blocked by the French at Agincourt.
    Humphrey remembered that the French encampment stretched far into the distance. From their many