This Day in History: 1415-10-25

On 25th Oct 1415, Henry V defeated the French armies at the Battle of Agincourt. Following the battle, many of the defeated French nobles were brought to England in captivity, including the Duke of Orleans who was imprisoned at Pontefract Castle. Charles, Duke of Orleans, nephew of the French King Charles VI who was absent from the battlefield, was only twenty years old with no military experience and had arrived at Agincourt only the previous day. The duke was found beneath a pile of French dead. Estimates of the French dead were between 3,000 and 12,000 whilst English mortalities varied between 20 and 1,600 with only two of Henry V’s nobles killed: the Duke of York and Earl of Suffolk. Thomas Halliday, of Pontefract, commanded five hundred archers in Sir John Shirley’s division of the English army at this battle.