The overwhelming victory of Henry V's English army at Agincourt in October 1415 has passed into myth ? as one of the defining events of the Hundred Years War against France, as a feat of arms outshining the previous famous English victories at Crecy and Poitiers, and as a milestone in English medieval history. This epic story of how an exhausted, outnumbered army, commanded by an inspirational leader, crushed a huge French force on French soil has given rise to legends and misconceptions that make it difficult for us to reach a clear understanding of what really happened on the battlefield 600 years ago. But that is what Stephen Cooper attempts in this thoroughgoing, perceptive and fascinating reconstruction and reassessment of the battle and its history. In graphic detail he describes the battle itself and the military expedition that led to it. He examines the causes of the conflict and the controversies associated with it, and traces how the story of the battle has been told over the centuries, by eyewitnesses and chroniclers and by the historians of the present day. AUTHOR: Stephen Cooper is an Oxford graduate, lawyer and civil servant who has previously written on life in eighteenth-century England and on English crime and criminals in the nineteenth century. But his main interest has always been in medieval history, and he has made a close study of the Hundred Years' War and of mercenary warfare in medieval Italy. His most recent book is Sir John Hawkwood: Chivalry and the Art of War. 30 illustrations
