Falkirk and Agincourt

One weapon, two battles

On 22 July 1298 an English king of fifty-nine, with two ribs broken by his own horse the night before, rode at the head of some 15,000 men against perhaps 6,000 Scots drawn up in rings of spears outside Falkirk. On 25 October 1415 an English king of twenty-eight, his army halved by dysentery and outnumbered on a rain-soaked field in Picardy, stood on foot among his archers and waited for the French to come to him. Both won, and both won because of the longbow. But the exam does not ask who won. It asks why, and it asks what part each commander played against the weapons, the ground and the mistakes of the other side. This module gives you both battles with the detail that earns marks, then the question shapes that use it: the four-mark comparison, the twelve-mark explanation and the sixteen-mark judgement.

Five words the examiners use

Each definition ends with the battle it belongs to, because a term without a battle is worth half a mark.

From Stirling Bridge to Agincourt, in order

Put these six events in the order they happened.

• Wallace and Moray destroy an English army at Stirling Bridge
• Edward I breaks the schiltrons at Falkirk
• Wallace is captured and executed in London
• Henry V lands in Normandy and lays siege to Harfleur
• Harfleur surrenders after five weeks, with dysentery in the English camp
• The French army is destroyed at Agincourt on St Crispin Day

Why did the schiltrons fail at Falkirk?

Sixteen years after Falkirk the same formation, the schiltron, beat the English cavalry at Bannockburn. Which explanation best accounts for the difference in 1298?

• At Falkirk the schiltrons stood still while Welsh and English archers shot into them from a distance they could not answer, and once the rings were thinned the cavalry rode into the gaps; at Bannockburn Bruce kept the schiltrons moving and the English never brought their archers to bear.
• The Scottish spearmen ran away as soon as the English appeared.
• The English had ten times as many men.
• Edward I used cannon against the schiltrons.

Reasons for the outcome, side by side

The examiners want reasons in categories: weapons, ground, leadership and the mistakes of the enemy. Both battles fit the same four.

Reasons, not story

Five statements about Agincourt. Tap the TWO that give a reason for the outcome connected with the ground, as opposed to telling the story.

• Henry marched north from Harfleur with about six thousand men, meaning to reach Calais, and found the French army across his road.
• The field had been freshly ploughed and it had rained all night, so the French men-at-arms sank to their shins and arrived at the English line exhausted.
• The battle was fought on the feast of St Crispin, which Shakespeare later put into the mouth of the king.
• The woods on either side narrowed the field to a few hundred yards, so that the larger French army could not spread out and its ranks pressed into one another.
• Among the French dead were the Constable of France and three dukes.

Agincourt: which are true?

Select the THREE statements that are true of the Agincourt campaign.

• The siege of Harfleur in August and September 1415 cost Henry about a third of his army, mostly to dysentery, before a single battle had been fought.
• Each archer planted a sharpened stake in front of him, so that the French cavalry could not ride the line down.
• The English were outnumbered, by perhaps two to one on recent estimates and by far more in the traditional accounts.
• The English outnumbered the French.
• French archers decided the battle.
• The English won with a cavalry charge.

Weighing the leaders

The spec says "the roles of William Wallace and Edward I" and "the role of Henry V". A role is not a description of a man; it is a judgement about how much the outcome depended on him. Edward I was fifty-nine, had marched from Roxburgh on short rations with a Welsh contingent close to mutiny, and had been about to withdraw when scouts found Wallace. He rode with broken ribs, held the army together, and when the first charge failed he turned the archers on the rings. Without him the English might not have fought at all. Wallace chose a defensive position and a formation that had never yet been beaten, and was abandoned by the nobles who commanded his horse. His error, if it was one, was to stand still against a king with archers. Henry V made the gamble of marching for Calais, chose the field, ordered the stakes, moved his line forward to provoke the French, and fought on foot in the front rank. Chroniclers on both sides give him the victory. The examiner wants you to weigh him against the mud and the bow, not to crown him.

Command decisions

Four moments where a commander had to choose. Pick what was actually chosen, and notice what it cost or won.

• Falkirk, mid morning. Your first cavalry charge has been thrown back from the spears with heavy loss. You are Edward I. What next?
• The night before Falkirk. Your scouts report the whole English army within a few miles and your own nobles are unreliable. You are Wallace. What do you do?
• Late September 1415. Harfleur is yours, a third of your army is dead or sick, and winter is coming. You are Henry V. What now?
• Dawn, 25 October. The French are drawn up across the field and show no sign of attacking; every hour they wait, more of them arrive. You are Henry. What do you do?

From cause to consequence

Because the schiltrons at Falkirk could not move, the English _____ could shoot into them until the rings broke, and the cavalry finished what the arrows began. Because the Scottish _____ rode away, there was nothing to drive the archers off. Because the siege of _____ cost Henry a third of his men to disease, he faced the French with a small army and had to let them come to him. Because rain had soaked a ploughed field between two _____, the larger French army arrived at the English line tired and crowded, and the _____ did the rest.

The archers at Agincourt

Historians estimate that about five in every six of the men Henry V led at Agincourt were archers. What percentage of his army is that, to the nearest whole number?

Question 3: similarity or difference

Question 3 reads: Explain one way in which the role of the longbow at Falkirk in 1298 was similar to its role at Agincourt in 1415. It is marked one point of comparison plus detail from each battle. Which answer scores all four marks?

• In both battles the longbow broke a formation that cavalry alone could not: at Falkirk the archers shot into the standing schiltrons until the rings thinned and the horse could enter, while at Agincourt the archers behind their stakes shot down the French cavalry and then the men-at-arms struggling across the mud.
• At Agincourt the longbow was decisive because the archers planted stakes and shot the French down in the mud.
• The longbow was very important in both battles and helped the English to win.
• At Falkirk the English fought the Scots, whereas at Agincourt they fought the French.

A 12-mark paragraph, marked

Question 4: Explain why the English won the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. One reason the English won was the ground. The French chose to fight on a strip of newly ploughed land between the woods of Agincourt and Tramecourt, no more than a few hundred yards wide, and it had rained through the night of 24 October. This meant that the French, who had the larger army by every account, could not use their numbers: the woods squeezed their ranks together, the mud slowed their cavalry to a walk in front of the English stakes, and their men-at-arms, advancing on foot in armour, sank to their shins and reached the English line too exhausted to fight. The archers shot into that crowd from the flanks, and when the French fell the men behind fell over them. The ground did not win the battle by itself, but it turned the French advantage in numbers into a disadvantage, which is why Henry, who had the choice, let them come to him. What earned the marks: a cause named in the first sentence; specific support (the two woods, the ploughing, the rain, the stakes, the flanks); the link phrase this meant that; and a closing sentence that returns to the question and weighs the cause. Two more paragraphs, on the archers and on the leadership of Henry, and the answer reaches the top level.

Write the 12-mark answer

Explain why Edward I won the Battle of Falkirk in 1298. You may use the following in your answer: the longbow; the Scottish nobles. You must also use information of your own.

• Support that counts: a date, a formation, a number, a name or a piece of ground
• Causes of your own: the immobility of the schiltron, the leadership of Edward, or the position Wallace chose

Question 5: how far do you agree?

Question 5 might read: "Leadership was the main reason for English victory at Falkirk and at Agincourt." How far do you agree? A student has written the case FOR. Which is the strongest point to set AGAINST it?

• The one factor common to both victories is the longbow, not the commander: two different kings a century apart won the same way, by shooting formations to pieces before the horse or the foot went in, which suggests the weapon mattered more than the man holding the army.
• Wallace was a brave leader too.
• It rained at Agincourt.
• Henry V ordered the prisoners killed.