Facing a volley of arrows, falling like steel sleet at nearly 200mph, is not for the faint of heart, discovers Graeme Fife, as he relives the role of the English archers at Agincourt.
The French, about 1,000 yards distant up the narrow defile, refused to be lured to engage them. After three hours of inactivity, shivering in the dank cold, Henry ordered his men forward to arrow range, about 250 yards. The archers prepared their bows— the silk or hempen strings kept dry under their hats (origin of the expression keep it under your hat)—and planted their two sheaves of 24 arrows. They stood in lines four deep, in chequerboard formation, the foremost with clear view of the enemy, those behind with intermittent sight.
By whatever process of coordinated command their senior men deployed, the bows pointed skyward in unison to the angle that would deliver maximum trajectory. In one movement, the archers spread their shoulders to open the bow to full extent and together unleashed, in a sudden, fourfold cloudburst of volleys, nearly 6,000 arrows. A word or signal of command, probably, but these men had trained together and, like a flock of geese taking flight simultaneously, almost certainly had a sort of inner pulse of recognition—‘now, boys’.
Denne historien er fra August 23, 2017-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra August 23, 2017-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds