Customer Reviews

The Battle of Agincourt: Sources and Interpretations (Warfare in History)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have Boydell Press's book, The Battle of Hastings: Sources and Interpretations (Warfare in History) , which is of great value to my study of my favorite historical subject and period. After the Crusades, I hold my interest in the Hundred Year's War higher than any other period or subject. And the battle of Agincourt is second, after Hastings, as my "favorite" battle. It is very heavily documented, for a medieval battle. The details of it remain controversial. The best any student can do is to read the original sources, then what scholars have to say about them, and form your own conclusions (your own picture). Anne Curry makes this as easy as possible with her superb editing job and her observations on each of the original sources. The sources are examined in chronological order. Each one has strengths and weaknesses. And Curry makes them clear. She includes the most viable historical maps that have appeared in earlier published accounts of the battle, as well as modern maps to compare them to.

In addition to her many other accomplishments (see my review of 'Agincourt, A New History' (2005)), Anne Curry is a most generous scholar. She and her colleagues at Southampton have now set up a database devoted to the medieval soldier, which will enable Englishmen and women to trace ancestors who fought at Agincourt and in other medieval conflicts.

Ten years before that, she published this book, which serves several valuable functions. It brings together all the chroniclers, English, French and Burgundian, and many of the historians, who wrote about Agincourt in the fifteenth century and sixteenth centuries. It contains a fascinating discussion of the historiography between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. You may ask what happened in the seventeenth, when the history books were largely silent. Answer, the Stuart dynasty was Scottish, and Agincourt was an English victory; and in any event, historical attention was diverted by two civil wars and at least one revolution.

The book is very interesting on the origin of various myths surrounding Agincourt; but it does not deal in any detail with fiction or film, or the dozens of productions there have been of Shakespeare's play, 'Henry V'. For that, I would recommend Emma Smith's book in the series 'Shakespeare in Production.' But Anne Curry is a great facilitator. In this book, she provides the reader with a readable and accessible version of the main literary (and some archival) sources; and allows us to draw our own conclusions. What a feast it is!

Stephen Cooper