[War & Business] Lessons from Agincourt

Depiction of the Battle of Agincourt
[Image source: French Army Museum of Les Invalides website/www.musee-armee.fr]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] The Battle of Agincourt in 1415, a major conflict in the Hundred Years' War between medieval England and France, is often depicted as the beginning of the decline of heavily armored knights. In this battle, 30,000 French knights clad in full plate armor, even outfitting their horses with armor, were defeated by 10,000 lightly armored English longbowmen. Following this, heavily armored knight units began to be disbanded in various countries, deemed not cost-effective (performance relative to price).

However, looking at the actual circumstances, it is clear that the French knights did not lose simply because their combat style was inefficient compared to the English longbowmen. At the time, the English army was suffering from an epidemic within its ranks, making it difficult to fight properly, and was in a hurried retreat. As the French forces continued to pursue, the English were forced to fight on a low hill scattered with fields and paddies at Agincourt, unable to establish a proper defensive formation.

The French army was composed of mercenaries recruited from various regions. In addition to 30,000 cavalry, more than 10,000 Italian crossbowmen, who were superior to the English longbowmen, were also hired. When heavy rain fell before the battle, the French commanders wanted to avoid fighting in the muddy fields of Agincourt and planned to slowly pressure the English numerically to force a surrender. Had this plan proceeded, the French would have won without fighting.

However, some French knights, seeing the weak state of the English army, believed they would win if they went out to fight and disregarded the commanders' orders, launching an unauthorized advance. Because the army was mostly composed of different mercenary groups, cohesion was weak, and they thought that achieving many victories in an easy battle would increase their value. The French forces advanced recklessly, eager to fight first. The heavily armored knights all got stuck in the muddy fields that had turned into quagmires.

If only the vanguard had gotten stuck in the mud, the situation might have been salvageable, but the rear units kept advancing, intending to trample over the vanguard. As a result, most of the cavalry got stuck in the mud, and many soldiers were trampled to death by their own troops. As the French camp collapsed on its own, the previously defensive English forces quickly launched an offensive and achieved a great victory. This left the lesson that no matter how overwhelmingly powerful an army is, disorderly advances without strategy lead to crushing defeat.