Henry the Myth

Posted on by Frank Brinkley

The Battle of Agincourt has given its name to a ship, a racehorse, a locomotive and several towns in pioneer societies. Today, when you stick two fingers up at someone, it’s supposedly a cultural relic of Agincourt. Yet as a generator of myths, the battle more often than not appears to be sticking two fingers […]

When England Ruled France

Posted on by Frank Brinkley

Perfectly timed for the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, the fourth volume of Jonathan Sumption’s epic narrative of the Hundred Years’ War takes the story from Richard II’s death in 1399 to Henry V’s in 1422. The period, as Sumption lucidly explains, is marked by two brutal political assassinations. In 1407, Louis, Duke of Orléans, effectively ruler of France while his brother King Charles VI, a paranoid schizophrenic

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