Agincourt: Battle of the Scarred King

In October 1415, British king Henry V. outnumbered and in flight, was forced to give battle to a superior yet hubristic French army at what became known as the Battle of Agincourt. The unexpected and decisive victory for the English was later immortalized by Shakespeare in the play Henry V. This is the standard and generally accepted version of events. In swift, novelistic prose, Livingston (English and history, the Citadel; Crécy: Battle of Five Kings) successfully challenges the reality of this narrative through a rigorous examination of the sources and modern understandings of military tactics and topography. The author consults the appropriate sources and analyzes their strengths and weaknesses adroitly. As such, this work has two compelling and intertwining threads: a novel and well-argued interpretation of this seminal battle, and a popular accounting of how historians use competing sources (both written and archaeological) to try to get closer to the truth of an event, all while understanding both historical and contemporary blind spots.