October 25th 1415 a small, hungry and weary English army of 6000 defeated a French one possiblyt as big as 36000 men. The English had recently besieged Harfleur, forcing its capitulation on 22nd September, but now the French were mobilising. Henry had hoped to reach Calais 10 days before and to leav e France, but had found every ford blocked, only crossing the Somme on the 21st. It was to prove too late as the French army had caught up with them. The ground suited the French, who had heavy cavalry. Henry had his men place stakes to their front and expecting a night attack they stayed awake. The French drank and gorged themselves confident in victory and looking forward to putting this new upstart English king to flight.
In the morning Henry moved his small Infantry army of mostly archers closer to the French and to ground 1000 yards wide flanked by impassable trees hoping to bring on an engagement. Time was not on his side, as French numbers would only keep growing and his men were without food. The French took the bait. They wanted revenge for Crecy(1346) and Poitiers(1356). At 11am they advanced. The English line held as 5000 archers put volley after volley in to the French. The French had not sent out scouts or they would have discovered the ground that looked so good was actually muddy and soft. The weak cavalry charge was easily routed and only broke up the advancing 2nd line. Still they advanced blindly; it was too dangerous to lift the visor to see properly. The battle did become a hand to hand affair and the small number of men at arms,fewer than 1000, fought fantastically well. They were joined by the archers fighting with mallets when their arrows ran out. This bloody encounter lasted 3 hours. Things looked bad when the French Duke of Brabant turned up, but he too was killed and added to the mass of bodies piling up in front of the English lines. It was now that a mass killing of prisoners was ordered by Henry, for fear they would turn on them. Though an unpopular decision, because of the loss of revenue from ransom, it was carried out.
The feared 2nd attack never came. French losses were in the thousands including 3Dukes and 90 Counts. The English ones probably 112.for a long time this English miracle would be known in France as "la malheureuse journee(that unfortunate day).