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00:00history has always been
00:29shaped by war, and through the ages some battles have decided the fate of nations and still
00:36affect the way we live today.
00:40These are the Great Battles.
00:59700 years ago, Scotland was locked in a bloody struggle for independence from England.
01:07The war was to climax here on the banks of the Bannockburn, near the city of Stirling.
01:14Over the course of two days in June 1314, 7,000 Scots outmanoeuvred and outfought an English
01:22army 18,000 strong.
01:27After this great battle, England was forced to recognise Scotland as an independent and
01:34sovereign nation.
01:36The building being constructed behind me here in Edinburgh is the new home of Scotland's
01:49Parliament.
01:50Today, Scotland is still part of the United Kingdom, but in July 1997, the Scottish people
01:57voted for devolution.
02:01Scotland's first Parliament in almost 300 years was convened in the capital city in 1999.
02:11The creation of today's modern Scottish Parliament is the result of a peaceful and democratic process.
02:18But over the centuries, Scotland and England have had a very troubled and often violent relationship.
02:28In 1296, England invaded Scotland.
02:33After two years of vicious fighting, the Scots were eventually defeated and the country was
02:39occupied by its more powerful neighbour.
02:46At the beginning of the 14th century, one man began a campaign to liberate his country
02:52and build an independent Scotland.
02:57Robert Bruce was born into a powerful Scottish noble family in 1273.
03:04From an early age, he was trained as a soldier.
03:08At his prime, Bruce was rated one of the best knights in Christendom.
03:13But he was no saint.
03:17Robert Bruce was born in an age when betrayal, double-dealing and assassination were part of
03:22everyday life.
03:24Bruce may have been a natural statesman and a superb soldier, but he was also a product of
03:29his age.
03:30And as a result, he could be utterly ruthless.
03:34Bruce had a distant birthright to the Scottish crown and desperately wanted to be king.
03:41At first, he thought the best way of achieving this was to side with the English, but quickly
03:47changed his mind.
03:49Instead, he decided to back independence and take the crown by force.
03:55In 1306, Bruce met with one of his main rivals for the Scottish throne, Sir John Comyn.
04:07But the two men soon began to argue, and in a violent rage, Bruce stabbed Comyn and left
04:13him bleeding for his henchmen to finish him off.
04:16The murder had dire consequences for Bruce.
04:23The fact that Comyn had been killed inside a church, on sacred ground, led to him being
04:29excommunicated by the Pope.
04:33In the 14th century, this was just about the worst thing that could happen to a noble,
04:38people, let alone a man who wanted to be king.
04:41Shortly after the murder, Bruce made a full confession, and the Church of Scotland, which
04:47backed Scottish independence, forgave him.
04:51Absolved of his sins, Bruce was crowned King of the Scots on 25 March 1306.
05:04But Comyn's murder had made Bruce deeply unpopular with many Scots.
05:09To make matters worse, the English ordered his arrest.
05:15Bruce was forced to go on the run.
05:18He spent the next three years as an outlaw in his own kingdom.
05:25By 1309, Bruce had either beaten most of his Scottish opponents in battle, or had persuaded
05:31them to join him in his quest for an independent Scotland.
05:35Bruce and his supporters controlled much of the countryside, but the English still held
05:40all the major towns and castles.
05:43Bruce continued his guerilla war against the English.
05:47Relying on night attacks, ambushes, and lightning raids, Bruce's army gradually liberated Scotland.
05:54After five years of fighting, there remained only one obstacle to overcome.
06:03Stirling Castle dominates central Scotland.
06:06It had been besieged by Bruce's brother Edward for almost a year.
06:11In accordance with the rules of medieval warfare, the garrison's English commander had agreed
06:16to surrender to the Scots if the castle wasn't relieved by the 25th of June, 1314.
06:25Bruce was furious with his brother.
06:28He knew that it was only a matter of time before the English arrived in force to relieve the castle.
06:33If they succeeded, everything he had gained so far would be lost.
06:38Bruce's dream of an independent Scotland now rested on his guerilla army beating the English in open battle.
06:45Edward II of England assembled a total of 18,000 men.
06:53He was supremely confident that Bruce's small guerilla force would be no match for his massive army.
07:00This arrogance was to cost him dearly.
07:03The English crossed into Scotland on the 17th of June, 1314, and pushed north towards Stirling.
07:20Edward's intention was to relieve the garrison besieged inside the castle and crush the Scots back into submission.
07:30On paper, Edward had a formidable array of troops at his disposal.
07:35The infantry made up the bulk of his army.
07:38However, the specialists were the archers and the cavalry,
07:41who were the medieval equivalent of machine guns and tanks.
07:45When these groups fought together, the results could be devastating.
07:54But the English army was not a cohesive unit.
07:57Edward's knights were the professional soldiers of their day.
08:04They represented the military and social elite of England.
08:08But in battle, these aristocrats often charged off on their own and fought completely independently from the peasants that made up the infantry.
08:21This drastically reduced their chances of victory.
08:25Bruce's Scottish army was significantly smaller than its English counterpart.
08:31However, it had three distinct advantages.
08:35First, most of his men were very experienced soldiers who had complete faith in their commanding officer.
08:42Second, they were fighting to defend their homes and liberate Scotland.
08:48Most importantly, prior to the Battle of Bannockburn, Bruce trained his men in revolutionary new tactics.
08:59The Scottish army was composed almost entirely of infantry, and the spear was their principal weapon.
09:07The Scots relied heavily on densely packed infantry formations called shiltrums.
09:13These spear walls were an excellent defence against cavalry.
09:18But history had taught Bruce that a lack of mobility made the shiltrums extremely vulnerable to attack from archers.
09:26Bruce's solution was to turn the military wisdom of the day on its head and use the shiltrum on the move.
09:36In the weeks before the battle, the Scottish king trained his infantry to advance in tight formation.
09:43Bruce knew this would make them a more difficult target for the English archers to hit.
09:49This tactical innovation also gave the shiltrum formations an offensive role.
09:56The wall of advancing spears could be used to literally push the enemy off the battlefield.
10:01As the English approached Stirling on the 23rd of June, 1314, Bruce was uncertain as to whether these new tactics would be enough to overcome the huge odds stacked against him.
10:15Just under 7,000 Scots stood in the way of 18,000 Englishmen.
10:21It was the most formidable English army ever to have ventured north of the border.
10:26On the 17th of June, 1314, Edward II of England crossed into Scotland, determined to relieve his men trapped inside Stirling Castle.
10:41The Scottish king, Robert Bruce, knew that if he failed to stop the English, his dream of independence would be lost.
10:50Believe it or not, 700 years ago, this was the location of one of the most decisive and bloody battles between Scotland and England.
11:08But this unlikely spot is exactly where Robert the Bruce chose to take on Edward II and his mighty English army.
11:18Although the modern-day city of Stirling now covers two-thirds of the battlefield,
11:23there are still places that let us understand how Bruce's knowledge of the area influenced his plan to defeat the English.
11:31In 1314, Stirling Castle was protected by the thick woodland of the New Park Forest.
11:38To the east, a small river called the Bannockburn bordered a large area of flat marshland known as the Cass of Balkideric.
11:50There were only two ways to reach the castle, along an old Roman road and a narrow track called The Way.
12:05Bruce was outnumbered and knew he'd have to use the terrain to its best advantage if he was to stand any chance of victory.
12:12He divided his army into three divisions and placed them along the old Roman road between Stirling and Edward's army,
12:20effectively blocking the most direct route to the castle.
12:23The Scottish King had less than 7,000 troops.
12:27Two and a half thousand men under the direct command of Bruce himself deployed along the southern edge of the New Park Forest.
12:35Another 2,000 infantry and 600 cavalry were hidden in the trees.
12:41The remaining 1,800 took up position next to St Ninian's church,
12:46overlooking the junction where the Roman road was joined by The Way.
12:50The English approached Stirling in complete disorder.
12:54Imagine 18,000 men, all their horses, carts and equipment,
12:59making their way along essentially what was little more than a track.
13:03Edward's army was stretched out for miles.
13:07With Edward and the main body of the English army slowly bringing up the rear,
13:11a vanguard of 1,500 knights set off to reconnoiter the route to Stirling Castle.
13:17They crossed the Bannockburn and moved up the Roman road towards the New Park Forest.
13:24The Scots moved out of the trees to confront the English.
13:29Within minutes, Edward's men found themselves facing a wall of spears.
13:36Robert Bruce was directly in front of his men inspecting the deployment of the Shiltrums
13:41when he was spotted by an English knight.
13:43Sir Henry de Bowen must have thought this was his chance for fame and fortune.
13:48If he could kill the Scottish king in single combat, the Scots would be forced to surrender.
13:54Convinced his moment of glory had come, the young English knight couched his lance and charged.
14:01Bruce had two options. He could run or fight.
14:04But there was no way the Scottish king could show any weakness in front of his men.
14:09Mounted on a pony and armed only with a small battle axe, Bruce rose to the challenge.
14:17The two men hurtled towards each other.
14:23At the last moment, the Scottish king swerved and struck the English knight with a terrific blow to the head.
14:30De Bowen was dead before he hit the ground.
14:36Incensed, the rest of Edward's vanguard charged the Scots, but the Shiltrums held firm.
14:44Many knights were killed.
14:46And when the Scottish cavalry charged out of the woods, the English turned and fled.
14:51During this battle, another 500 English knights had moved up the way towards St Ninians in an attempt to find an alternative route to Stirling Castle.
15:02But Bruce had anticipated this move, and his men deployed near the church blocked the English.
15:09Edward's cavalry charged the Shiltrum formations, but once again the Scottish infantry stood firm.
15:17Many horses and their riders were impaled on the spear wall.
15:21Some of Bruce's infantry rushed forward and pulled knights down off their horses.
15:26The wounded were finished off as they lay sprawling on the ground.
15:30The English charged repeatedly, but found it impossible to break through.
15:35The second English vanguard was forced to retreat back across the Bannockburn.
15:41The plan to move up the two most obvious routes to Stirling Castle had been thwarted.
15:47The knights had expected the Scots to crumble or retreat, but Bruce's men had done neither.
15:56English confidence was now low.
15:59Exhausted from the day's fighting and the long march to Stirling, Edward's army retired to lick its wounds.
16:06Believing there was no immediate danger of attack, Edward's knights, a total of 2,000 men, moved onto the castes of Balkideric.
16:17They were to spend a miserable night crammed into this tiny area of boggy ground.
16:24Having only just arrived in the area, the English infantry, almost 16,000 men, remained on the other side of the Bannockburn.
16:34The decision to split their forces was to have disastrous consequences.
16:42The Scots moved back into the New Park Forest to camp for the night.
16:47Having beaten the English not once, but twice, their confidence was high.
16:54Yet despite their success, Bruce was unsure his small guerrilla army would be strong enough to overcome the English in a pitched battle.
17:08Bruce had to decide whether to risk everything in battle the following day, or melt away into the hills.
17:15However, that night, a deserter arrived in the Scottish camp and told Bruce about the vulnerable position of the English troops.
17:24Receiving this news, Bruce knew that he would never have a better chance of victory.
17:30At dawn, the Scots moved out of the New Park and deployed into three divisions of 1,500 men.
17:37Bruce remained slightly to the rear at the head of a reserve division consisting of another 1,800 troops.
17:46He concealed his 600 cavalrymen in the forest.
17:53Bruce led his men in prayer.
17:55Watching from the other side of the castes, Edward declared to his entourage that the Scots were asking for mercy.
18:02But a knight warned the English king.
18:05They asked for mercy, but not from you.
18:09Those men will win all, or die.
18:13The Scots began to advance towards the English.
18:17Edward's knights were completely taken aback by the sheer audacity of the Scottish offensive.
18:22Infantry attacking heavy cavalry.
18:25It simply wasn't done.
18:27But sure enough, the Scottish Shiltrons were closing in on the English cavalry.
18:33Impulsively, Edward's knights rushed off the boggy ground of the cast to confront the Scots.
18:38They hurriedly moved up the slope and onto a narrow stretch of dry field.
18:44They were now jammed together, sandwiched between a wood on one side and a river on the other.
18:50Lacking any overall strategy, small groups of Edward's men began to charge the Scottish line.
18:59But there was little room for manoeuvre, and the knights failed to build up any speed.
19:20Just like the previous day, their attempts to break the tightly packed Shiltron formations came to nothing.
19:29The Scots pushed forward relentlessly, and forced the English back onto the marshy ground.
19:40As Edward's cavalry retreated, a detachment of English archers moved up one side of the battlefield.
19:48Arrows began to rain down on the Scots, and for a moment it looked like the Shiltrums might disintegrate.
19:55But Bruce had foreseen this eventuality.
19:57His small cavalry force poured out of the woods and scattered the English archers.
20:05Bruce ordered the Shiltrum under his direct command to reinforce the line.
20:09The entire Scottish army was now committed to the fight.
20:15The Scots formed a wall of spears that stretched right across the battlefield,
20:19and pushed the English back towards the Bannockburn River.
20:22Some of Edward's knights forced their way into the Scottish formations, but were quickly overwhelmed.
20:30Small groups of English infantry made their way across the river to help their beleaguered cavalry.
20:37But it wasn't enough to stop the Scots.
20:41Sensing victory, the Shiltrums surged forward and pushed the English down the steep slopes of this gorge.
20:47What was left of Edward's broken army was forced into the Bannockburn.
20:53The English were now fighting for their lives.
20:57A few brave individuals tried to make a last stand, but were hacked down.
21:01Others were cut to pieces as they desperately tried to cross the river.
21:07Most of Edward's 16,000 infantry were completely oblivious to the carnage.
21:13When they finally learned what was happening on the other side of the river, it was too late to help.
21:20With the battle now over, they were left with no choice but to retreat south.
21:24Edward fled the battlefield and made straight for Stirling Castle.
21:31However, with the Scots victorious, the English commander, trapped inside its walls,
21:36was duty-bound to honour his agreement to surrender.
21:40Edward had no intention of becoming prisoner, so was forced to move on.
21:49As Edward began his long trek back to England,
21:52over a thousand of his men lay dead on the battlefield.
21:56Thousands more were forced to surrender.
22:00Bruce had lost only 400 men.
22:04To complete the victory, the Scots captured the English war chest,
22:09containing gold worth over £50 million in today's money.
22:13Here at Bannockburn, the forward-moving Scottish Shiltrum humbled England's military elite.
22:27The offensive use of a spear wall went on to become standard military practice throughout Europe for the next 400 years.
22:35And this great battle confirmed Robert Bruce as king of an independent Scotland.
22:42History has always been shaped by war, and through the ages some battles have decided the fate of nations and still affect the way we live today.
23:00These are the great battles.
23:03The most decisive battle of the Hundred Years' War was fought here, on this open field in northern France.
23:06In October 1415, 5,000 exhausted and starving Englishmen lined up in front of 30,000 Frenchmen.
23:16Yet, despite being outnumbered six to one, Henry V's small English army achieved one of the most incredible reversals of fortune in military history.
23:30The Battle of Agincourt saw the English longbow destroy the cream of the French aristocracy.
23:55Ever since William the Bastard had crossed over the Channel from France and conquered England in 1066,
24:12the two countries had been locked in a bitter struggle for control of Normandy.
24:17Over the centuries, the English tried to settle the argument with force.
24:21In 1415, England was ruled by Henry V.
24:29Only 28 years old, Henry was a direct descendant of William the Conqueror.
24:35He fervently believed that he had the strongest claim to Normandy, and by extension, the French crown.
24:41Henry began his campaign to take Normandy on the 13th of August 1415, when he landed here, near the town of Harfleur, which is now part of the modern-day port of Le Havre.
24:55The English had arrived in force and were expecting to take Harfleur quickly before moving on to Paris.
25:06There were 8,000 archers and over 2,000 knights and men-at-arms.
25:10But right from the start, things didn't go according to plan.
25:22Harfleur had good natural defences.
25:25It was on a hill with marshes on one side and a massive ditch on the other.
25:31And the garrison inside its thick stone walls was determined to resist the English.
25:37Not surprisingly, Henry's army became involved in a long, drawn-out siege.
25:42Their supply of fresh food soon ran low.
25:49To make matters worse, there was no clean drinking water to be found in the surrounding area.
25:55Just about the only source of food was the local shellfish, which Henry's men consumed in huge quantities.
26:03It wasn't long before everyone in the English camp had dysentery.
26:06By the time Harfleur eventually capitulated five weeks later, 4,000 of Henry's men were either dead or on their way back to England.
26:25With autumn fast approaching, Henry was forced to abandon his campaign to take Normandy until the following year.
26:31But he'd made a huge song and dance about pursuing his ancestral rights and knew that if he returned to England now, his claim would be seen in France as a bit of a joke.
26:43What was required to save face was a show of force.
26:49Against the wishes of his council of war, Henry decided to march through Normandy and onto Calais, which at the time belonged to the English.
26:57Henry was sure that his choice of route home would show the French that he was still completely serious about his claim on Normandy.
27:08Leaving behind a quarter of his men to defend Harfleur, Henry set off on the 8th of October with only 4,000 archers and 900 knights.
27:18They had a week's rations which, in theory, was just enough to see them through the 160-kilometre trip to Calais.
27:32It was the start of an extraordinary expedition across northern France that would climax in a great battle between the English and French at a little village called Agincourt.
27:43The French had been slowly gathering in force since Henry's arrival in Normandy.
27:57But they had done nothing to relieve the siege of Harfleur.
28:01The delay was caused by the lack of any unified chain of command.
28:05The French king was prone to bouts of insanity and believing himself to be made of glass was clearly unfit to command his own troops.
28:18It was eventually decided that the French army would be led by a council of war consisting of the five most powerful nobles in the land.
28:25The most influential of these was Constable Dalbray.
28:32Dalbray was a very experienced soldier and knew just how formidable the English could be.
28:39He convinced the other nobles that the best course of action was to starve Henry's army into submission.
28:45In order to do this, they would have to cut off the most direct route to Calais.
28:52Henry's men were walking into a trap.
28:59When they reached the Somme on the 13th of October, they found that the only crossing was blocked by Dalbray and 6,000 Frenchmen.
29:11But the king was determined to press on to Calais.
29:17The two armies began a deadly game of cat and mouse.
29:21As the English pushed south along the Somme in the hope of finding an undefended crossing,
29:27they were closely shadowed by the French on the northern bank.
29:33Dalbray's plan was working.
29:35Ten days after leaving Havre Fleur, the English had finished off the last of their provisions and were living off nuts and berries.
29:46The situation was getting desperate.
29:49But Henry was still determined to reach Calais.
29:55Ordering a forced march, he moved his army inland to escape the French.
29:59Unbeknown to Henry, the French army on the other side of the river was just a vanguard.
30:10When this force lost track of the English, it moved north and was joined by another 25,000 men.
30:16When the English returned to the Somme, much further upriver, the French were nowhere to be seen.
30:24Henry's men were finally able to cross without being attacked and after a day's rest, the English resumed their march north.
30:33Late on the 24th of October, their luck ran out.
30:37The French were blocking the road to Calais, near the little village of Agincourt.
30:44The English were only a few days' march from safety, but outnumbered six to one, a fight now seemed unavoidable.
30:53Henry's army was in a wretched state, but they were all seasoned and experienced troops.
31:04And most of them were armed with the most formidable weapon of its time.
31:10The longbow was a uniquely English invention, and it dominated the medieval battlefield.
31:16The French had archers of their own, but their bows lacked the power of those used by Henry's army.
31:31The longbow is over two metres long.
31:35It's made of a solid piece of yew that's flat at the back with a rounded belly.
31:40And it's this design that gives it its incredible power.
31:43It takes an enormous amount of upper body strength to draw the bow.
31:48I'm really struggling.
31:50But under battle conditions, the English archers were strong enough to shoot six to eight arrows per minute.
32:04A variety of arrowheads were made, but the arrows used by Henry's archers in France
32:09were nearly all fitted with the bodkin point.
32:15The bodkin was specially designed to pierce the plate armour worn by knights.
32:25Each archer carried a sheath of up to 50 arrows.
32:28Taking care to pick their targets, the archers would wait until the enemy was only 50 metres away.
32:37At this range, the bodkin point was deadly.
32:40In massed ranks, the English archers were the 15th century equivalent of machine guns.
32:45One Englishman wrote at the time,
32:49The might of the realm standeth upon archers who are not rich men.
32:54But Henry knew his archers were extremely vulnerable to cavalry attack.
33:00He ordered his men to make two metre long wooden stakes.
33:10Sharpened at both ends and hammered into the ground at a 45 degree angle,
33:15the stakes were designed to form a crude but highly effective defensive barrier.
33:19At first light, on the 25th of October 1415, the English took up their positions in front of the French.
33:32They were cold, tired and starving.
33:35Many of them were still suffering from dysentery.
33:38Outnumbered six to one, escape, let alone victory, must have seemed totally out of the question.
33:45Only a few short hours later, they'd be fighting for their lives.
33:58At the start of October 1415, Henry V had to abandon his campaign to take Normandy.
34:05Instead of returning home, he had decided to make a show of force by marching 5,000 of his troops through northern France to Calais.
34:14But only a few days from safety, the English found themselves cornered and outnumbered six to one.
34:2230,000 Frenchmen now stood in their way.
34:28Early in the morning on the 25th of October, the two sides stood facing each other near the little village of Agincourt.
34:37Only a thousand metres of open fields separated the armies.
34:45It was the feast day of St Crispin, traditionally a time of great celebration.
34:51But Henry's men were in no mood for festivities.
34:55They were tired, hungry and many of them were still suffering from dysentery.
35:00In stark contrast, the French were in an exuberant mood.
35:07The odds were stacked in their favour.
35:09Many of them had even started celebrating the night before and were now laughing off their hangovers.
35:15There seemed to be no way out for the English.
35:17Henry deployed his army in a defensive formation.
35:23His knights formed the centre of the line and he placed the majority of his archers on the flanks.
35:30Just before the battle, the king rode along the lines and addressed his army.
35:37The king told his men that they'd come to France to fight for his lawful inheritance.
35:43If they won, they'd be heroes.
35:45But if they lost, the king reminded them that the French had promised to cut off the two fingers of every archer they captured,
35:52so that they could never again use a bow.
35:57The long march across northern France was now about to reach its bloody conclusion.
36:03Fired up by their king's powerful speech, Henry's men made their final preparations.
36:11The English soldiers went down on one knee and made the sign of the cross.
36:16In a symbolic gesture, they grabbed a handful of soil and put it in their mouths.
36:20It was a sign that they were prepared to die if necessary and be buried here, in France.
36:29The French deployed in three divisions.
36:33The first consisted of 8,000 knights with 5,500 archers on the flanks.
36:39Another 6,000 knights formed the second line and 10,000 on horseback made up the third.
36:46Even more cavalry were on the flanks.
36:50The French had time and numerical superiority on their side.
36:56They fully expected Henry to negotiate his way out of trouble.
37:00But the English king knew that this would be the end of his ambitions in France and had no intention of backing down.
37:07The stand-off between the two sides lasted four hours.
37:13In an attempt to seize the initiative, Henry decided to provoke a fight and get the French to attack his defensive formation.
37:25In an audacious move, the English king ordered his men to up sticks and move slowly up the field towards the enemy.
37:38Henry had made it clear.
37:45He intended to fight.
37:47The French men-at-arms frantically jostled for position.
37:51Everybody wanted the honour of being the first to have a go at the English.
37:55Arguments broke out amongst the nobles, who pulled rank and worked their way to the front, pushing the archers and crossbowmen to the rear.
38:02Henry's men kept advancing until they were only 250 metres from the French.
38:09Thick woods on both sides of the battlefield now protected his troops.
38:13In one bold move, he'd made it impossible for the French to encircle his army.
38:18Once again, the English hammered their stakes into the ground.
38:22From their new position, the archers fired a volley of arrows straight into the French ranks.
38:35Little damage was caused, but this provocative act had exactly the effect Henry desired.
38:44In response, the French cavalry on the flanks charged the English line.
38:49They'd taken the bait, and without anyone in overall command, there was no one to stop them.
38:55The cavalry hurtled down both sides of the field, followed on foot by the first division of knights.
39:03The thick woods prevented the cavalry from circling behind the English line.
39:08Instead, they were forced into a head-on collision with the English archers.
39:12The French cavalry were met by a storm of armour-piercing arrows.
39:21Horses and riders were sent crashing to the ground.
39:26Stunned by this awesome firepower, the French cavalry were forced into the centre of the battlefield,
39:42before retreating back towards their own lines.
39:44Chaos ensued as the cavalry ran straight into their own men, forcing them into densely packed formations.
40:00Henry's archers waited until the French were only 60 metres away,
40:04and then unleashed volley after volley of arrows.
40:09Just imagine what it would have been like for the French, advancing across this field in full armour and knee-deep in mud.
40:25And with every step, thousands more armour-piercing arrows slamming into their ranks.
40:32Every minute the French were being hit by over 30,000 arrows.
40:37There was no escape from the onslaught.
40:40Clambering over dead bodies, the French advanced slowly towards the English knights.
40:46With thousands of French troops pushing from the rear, the pressure on the front ranks must have been unbearable.
40:52The men-at-arms leading the attack would have found it almost impossible to remain on their feet.
41:00The French eventually reached the English front line.
41:04They were completely exhausted, and so tightly packed together, they hardly had room to use their weapons.
41:11The narrow width of the battlefield had completely neutralised the French army's massive numerical advantage.
41:24Row after row of French men-at-arms were literally pushed onto the English front line.
41:29Many of the French lost their footing, and as they lay sprawling on the ground, little hit squads of English archers ran out to finish them off.
41:41The 6,000 knights that made up the 2nd French division moved down the field to join the battle.
41:47But this only increased the pressure on those at the front.
41:51Some of the French tried to surrender, but were hacked to death by battle-crazed Englishmen.
41:57Others were trampled by their own men, and suffocated in the crush.
42:01The English were doing the impossible, and beating an army six times their own size.
42:08Piles of dead Frenchmen littered the battlefield.
42:11The 3rd French division stood rooted to the spot, watching the carnage in total disbelief.
42:20After an hour of fighting, the 1st and 2nd French divisions, a total of 14,000 men, were defeated and forced to retreat.
42:28Of those abandoned or lying wounded in front of the English positions, many were simply held down and finished off.
42:36The lucky ones were taken prisoner.
42:39The French had their hands bound and were led to the rear.
42:44These nobles could be ransomed after the battle, and hundreds of Henry's knights left the front line to guard their prisoners.
42:51But just as it seemed that the battle was over, Henry received two pieces of worrying news.
43:00The first was that the English camp, situated to the rear, was being overrun.
43:06The second was that the 3rd French division, consisting of 10,000 cavalry, was preparing to attack.
43:13Suddenly, Henry thought he was about to be hit on two fronts at the same time.
43:21He needed every man available, including those guarding the French.
43:26In a highly controversial move, Henry ordered the prisoners to be killed.
43:31But the threat failed to materialise.
43:38The English camp had been attacked by a handful of knights and 600 peasants, who were easily chased away.
43:45And when it transpired that the 3rd French division had not been about to attack,
43:51but was in fact withdrawing from the battlefield, Henry stopped the killing.
43:55But by the time the order was given, hundreds of French prisoners had been butchered in cold blood.
44:06It's thought that a total of 10,000 Frenchmen were killed at Agincourt.
44:11The English lost perhaps as few as 400.
44:15With the battle over, Henry's men began to scour the field, removing anything of value from the dead.
44:25Two days later, Henry arrived in Calais, before returning home to England and a hero's welcome.
44:34His march through Normandy had very nearly ended in disaster.
44:39But thanks to the longbow, the English had beaten the odds.
44:44This great battle saw the English destroy the cream of the French aristocracy.
44:50It would take a generation for them to recover.
44:52After Agincourt, there was almost nothing to stop Henry's ambition.
45:03Over the next five years, the rest of France, including Paris, fell to the English.
45:09Henry eventually married the daughter of the King of France and became first in line to the French throne.
45:14But he was to die seven weeks before his new father-in-law and never lived to hold the thrones of both England and France.
45:23the English were difíceps no longer.
45:38Aígen.
45:40We will not catch him New Perfection.
45:42The Tourостanels Music, New France.
45:46The World of Performanceyal side is 23 countries,
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