Henry V: The Background, Strategies, Tactics and Battlefield Experiences of the Greatest Commanders of History Paperback Read Online Free PDF

France
    Henry V (1) stands on the after-castle of his ship issuing orders as the French coast
    appears on the horizon. He has his leg armour and cuirass on, with a heraldic surcoat
    over it, but is still to don his vambraces and his helm, which is being held by a liveried
    squire on the far right (2). On the left are a herald (3) and Sir John Cornwall (4)
    (c. 1364-1443), one of the most respected knights of the period. He was part of the first
    scouting party landed by the English armada and later led the vanguard of the English
    army from Harfleur to Agincourt before being replaced by the Duke of York. In front
    of Henry an archer (5) bows his head and clasps his hat in front of him. He is dressed
    for riding, with long boots and spurs, and armed with a falchion and buckler. Henry's
    ship is the Trinite Royale , which at 540 tons was one of the largest ships in northern
    Europe and the flagship of the fleet. The ship to the right bears a swan, one of Henry's
    personal symbols, on its sail (6).

    ordinances for the control of his army, forbidding acts of arson, plundering
    of church property and granting protection for women, as well as regulating
    discipline within his army and ordering that all his soldiers should wear
    the cross of St George as a symbol of identification. Once all this had been
    done he organized his army into three divisions or 'battles' under Thomas,
    Duke of Clarence, Edmund, Duke of York, and Henry himself and marched
    them the short distance to Harfleur, appearing before the town on the 18th.
    The town itself was well protected, with a strong wall studded with
    26 towers. It was also surrounded with water on three sides, while the defenders
    had opened sluice gates to flood the valley of the river Lezarde, making
    it impassable apart from by small boat. There were three gates in the
    walls - traditionally the weak spots for any form of siege warfare - Montvilliers
    Medieval houses lining the
    to the north, Rouen to the south-east and Leure to the south-west. Each of
    banks of the river Lezarde
    these was protected by a bastion or bulwark projecting beyond the line of the
    that runs into the Seine.
    fortifications. The harbour itself was defended by the town wall to the north
    It was Harfleur's
    and a further, higher wall punctuated by defensive turrets and towers facing
    strategic position on
    seaward, while chains and sharpened stakes blocked the entrance on the river
    these waterways that led
    itself. The garrison at the start of the siege consisted of around 100 men-at-arms
    to it being the target of
    commanded by Jean, Sire d'Estouteville, while 300 reinforcements arrived
    Henry's armada in 1415.
    under Raoul, Sire de Gaucourt, on Sunday 19 August, approaching from
    Once the Seine silted up
    beyond the flooded Lezarde Valley so that Henry, who had set up his camp
    in the 16th century its
    opposite the Leure Gate, could not block their progress. In response to this,
    importance diminished
    and in order to create a proper blockade of the town, Henry sent his brother
    and it was replaced
    around the flooded Lezarde Valley, who set up his camp on the hills to the
    by the newly built
    north-east of the town, completing the blockade. The author of the Gesta Vita
    port of Le Havre.
    Henrici, an anonymous chaplain who accompanied the expedition, describes
    (Author's collection)
    what followed next:
    •m Pmi^m' 4
    B i a r
    m
    -

    And after orders had been given for a blockade on the sea-ward side by the
    fleet and on the side of the valley and the fresh-water river by small boats
    (which would also serve, if necessary, as a means of communication between
    the king and the duke and their divisions of the army), our king, who sought
    not war but peace, in order to arm with the shield of innocence the just cause
    of the great enterprise on which he had embarked, offered in accordance with
    the twentieth chapter of Deuteronomic law, peace to the besieged if, freely and
    without coercion, they would open their