Henty, G. A. (George Alfred), 1832-1902 / 2008-08-02 00:00:00

EBOOK AT AGINCOURT ***


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[Illustration: GUY AYLMER SAVES THE KING'S LIFE AT THE BATTLE OF
AGINCOURT.]

AT AGINCOURT
BY
G. A. HENTY


PREFACE

The long and bloody feud between the houses of Orleans and Burgundy--which
for many years devastated France, caused a prodigious destruction of life
and property, and was not even relaxed in the presence of a common enemy--
is very fully recorded in the pages of Monstrellet and other contemporary
historians. I have here only attempted to relate the events of the early
portion of the struggle--from its commencement up to the astonishing
victory of Agincourt, won by a handful of Englishmen over the chivalry of
France. Here the two factions, with the exception of the Duke of Burgundy
himself, laid aside their differences for the moment, only to renew them
while France still lay prostrate at the feet of the English conqueror.
At this distance of time, even with all the records at one's disposal, it
is difficult to say which party was most to blame in this disastrous civil
war, a war which did more to cripple the power of France than was ever
accomplished by English arms. Unquestionably Burgundy was the first to
enter upon the struggle, but the terrible vengeance taken by the
Armagnacs,--as the Orleanists came to be called,--for the murders
committed by the mob of Paris in alliance with him, was of almost
unexampled atrocity in civil war, and was mainly responsible for the
terrible acts of cruelty afterwards perpetrated upon each other by both
parties.
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