The 25th of October is St Crispins Day and on this day in 1415, Henry V, King of England, together with 1000 men-at-arms, 5000 archers and a couple of thousand armed peasants gave the flower of French aristocracy and an army of around 12000 a rattling good biffing at the battle of Agincourt.
Henry's success has been attributed to the success of his archers, armed with the immensely powerfull longbow and armour-piercing bodkin tipped arrows against the heavily armoured French. We English know that in fact, this, the greatest victory in English history, was achieved by simply having at the, to quote Mr Simpson, "cheese-eating surrender monkeys".
I believe that old Bill Shakespeare's rendition of Henry's stirring tonic for the troops said it better than I ever could:
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."
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