Hi my name is Kevin Hicks welcome to the History Squad, now this video is all about the siege of
Harfleur. September 1415 this is part of Henry V's invasion of northern France. Harfleur is where
he lands the siege was supposed to be a quick affair but unfortunately it took a long time,
the French put up a stout resistance, English casualties were high and then on top of that the
terrible disease dysentery ripped through Henry V's Army. It was a victory, however at a terrible
cost. Now Henry V was faced now with a problem, he could either return straight back to England where
he would lose face. One victory it's uh, not that good, so he decided to march on Calais which would
result in that incredible battle, a pivotal battle Agincourt. So let's begin with the leadup to event
that led to the invasion of Normandy by Henry V. You see Henry came to the throne of England
in April 1413 and straight away he's making plans for the invasion of Normandy, he believed that it
was his birthright to have the Duchy of Normandy which had been lost 200 years previously by King
John of England. Now while all this is going on overtures were made to Charles VI of France on
Henry V's behalf that perhaps he should marry the King's daughter, Catherine thus uniting the crowns
of England and France. Now negotiations went on all the way through to June 1415, however as early
as the summer of 1413 the master of ordinance Nicholas Murbury was ordered by the King to begin
to stockpile weapons. Bow staves, bows, arrows, bow strings, guns, gun stones, in fact new guns
were being cast both in London and Bristol as well as siege equipment being constructed and
stockpiled, and as early as spring 1415 ships were being requisitioned ready for the crossing over to
France. For his invasion of Normandy Henry V's Army had 2,500 men at arms, that's your armored
fighting man. Each one of those would have between two and four horses, he would even have horses for
his squires that kind of thing, but half of the 8,000 archers were also mounted. This numbers up
horses alone to be around 10,000 beasts, can you imagine the logistics literally of transporting
those beasts across the channel but then add the specialist troops your siege troops your engineers
your gunners, so add another thousand men to that number. They required, so sources of the day
reckon, 1,500 ships but some say that's slightly inflated to look good. Now they set for sail on
the 11th of August 1415, the voyage took two days and they drop anchor opposite Harfleur. None of
the soldiers knew where they're actually going, Henry V kept his plans close to his chest. Now
he'd chosen Harfleur so he could turn it into a port for his invasion a second Calais which meant
that the English would literally have two ports of entry into France Harfleur and Calais in the north
which was in English hands. Now now Harfleur was going to be a tough nut to crack and as you can
see I've made a model. Now the town was surrounded with around 2 and 1/2 miles of strong, stone walls
which included 24 towers. As well as this, it had three defensive gates just like this one here. Two
of the gates to the northwest and then to the east were actually protected by water because
the French had actually destroyed the sluice gates which controlled two small rivers. The
one that goes actually through the town into the harbor in the town walls was actually the Leure,
and now the other one the Lezarde, the other River flowed around forming the moat. Now where the moat
didn't actually form over the other side there was a very deep ditch, not only this salt marshes to
the south here and to the east and where the sluice gates have been broken down there was
flooding right around the other side of the town. Now this is summertime as well, mosquitoes, filth,
it's going to be difficult. In fact the English managed to keep contact with each other when they
actually surrounded the town of Harfleur by rowing boat, that shows you how bad the conditions were,
and of course it was high summer. Now the entrance to the to the harbour was just round the other
side but Henry couldn't launch an attack on the harbour because as the river passed through the
town walls there was a chain across two towers and wooden stakes have been driven in and sharpened in
the riverbed so ships couldn't get in and out unless they knew their way through. Now the
Leure Gate is the only gate that's accessible for a frontal assault and this is where Henry V chose
to have his camp just on the hill just in front of this gate, and interestingly in front of each
of the gates there was a barbican, this is a bit of an earthwork that was heavily reinforced with
wooden stakes. Accounts of the day say they were almost as high as the town walls themselves and
this is where the English are going to have to assault but before they could invest the siege,
they need to make sure that the town is surrounded. Interestingly Harfleur at
the beginning was only defended by 100 men at arms and soldiers they were led by John, Lord
of Estuteville, but they were confident that the walls, the defenses of Harfleur, would stand them
in good stead but it took the English two days to disembark, so you can imagine them watching
all these English troops coming ashore, but it was here that Henry V made a declaration. there
will be no looting, pillaging, burning or killing of any of the civilian population in Normandy. He
was reclaiming his homeland his, his own assets, he didn't want his own men to actually despoil it
and he also said that his men had to be marked out with the cross of St George. So if you're caught
stealing you got the cross of St George on you, if you've been stealing from the civilian population,
you're going to be hanged. It was on the 18th of August that the Duke of Clarence,
the King's brother, was moving part of the army round to the eastern side of Harfleur to fully
invest the siege. While he was moving his army around he managed to actually intercept to supply
convoy going into Harfleur that was loaded up with guns, bows, arrows, crossbows that kind of thing,
but he failed to intercept a reinforcement convoy of 300 men, men at arms and troops these were led
by Ralph de Gaucourt. Now he was an exceptional soldier, a good leader and for sure it was he
who extended the siege of Harfleur in the French favor. Although the odds were in Henry V's army's
favor, things weren't going according to plan, his engineers weren't optimistic at all. Now
the reason being when they tried to dig trenches right up to the foot of the walls of Harfleur they
would quickly flood, when they tried to dig mines underneath the walls, the French counter mined so
the engineers were having a heck of a time. Not only that they were being shot at constantly from
the high walls of Harfleur, so the English had to rely not only on their guns they had their
catapults, their trebuchets, that kind of thing. Some of them could sling a quarter of a ton stone
at the walls of Harfleur, many of them hurled stones into the town that were covered in tar
and were on fire they were incendiaries, but on top of this the French would often sally forth and
attack the English emplacements, so things weren’t going the English way at all really when you think
about it. So before I go on any further a couple of things I think I need to explain some of you
might not realize the word sally or sally forth, it means when the enemy sallied out, they attacked
out of their defensive positions and also this is a model of a siege castle or what some would call
a siege tower. Now the English had one, just about there, but what had happened on the 15th
of September the French sallied forth and they captured Henry V's siege castle and they burnt
It to the ground. I’ve left a load of wreckage there to show the spot. Now English casualties
at this part of the siege were quite high. The French are high up they can see down into the
English positions and the French actually mounted the cavalry charge, but they were beaten back,
nothing more than a skirmish, but the real enemy was disease, dysentery, the bloody flux. The
English soldiers had been collecting shellfish from the estuary and eating massive quantities
of this. That hot summer, the foul water that was all around them now contributed to this bloody
flux. The shellfish for sure gave them a good run for their money. Now Thomas Courtney, the Bishop
of Norwich, on the 10th of September contracted dysentery, 5 days later he was dead, so it ripped
through the nobility. The Earl of Suffolk, the earl of March the both of them fell with this
disease, as well of course it ripping through the common soldiers. Where Henry V positioned
his army opposite the Leure Gate is, it's quite interesting, because upon the high ground he
had his own camp here. Now you imagine that's 10,000 horses that have got to be stabled, all
of the wagons must have extended for literally for miles, but the fighting end, he's got his siege
engines. I've got a trebuchet here and then we got a mangonel here, they will be hurling those stones
many of them on fire right, into to the town causing a lot of damage. Now the troops couldn't
get too close, they were having trouble, and I've got a bit of a trench here with the flooding
coming from the salt marshes and the flooding from the uh sluice gates there, but the gun positions
they couldn't get too close because they had guns in Harfleur, so you can only shoot as much as they
can shoot back. Henry's guns have been pounding away at this heavily defended barbican and they
had destroyed part of the front of it, so John Holland actually attacks with his force and they
capture after a fight the barbican, this meant now that the English could bring up their guns
and at point blank range, they could batter away at the French walls and Harfleur would very soon
fall. Now De Gaucourt, he actually realized that there was no hope, so negotiations. Uh Tuesday the
17th of September they agreed that if the King of France did not send reinforcements by midday the
following Sunday that the garrison of Harfleur would surrender. These terms were accepted. No
relief came from the King of France for the besieged town of Harfleur, they surrendered
to Henry V who entered the town on Monday the 23rd of September. The Siege had lasted five,
weeks the King thought it would last two weeks at worst. Now 2,000 English were dead from dysentery,
2,000 who were sick with the disease were sent home to recover, including the Duke of Clarence
the King's brother who was ill with that terrible disease. Now before Henry V could continue on his
journey into France he had to leave a garrison behind at Harfleur. So in charge of the Garrison
was the Earl of Dorset, he garrisoned it with 500 men at arms and a 1000 bowmen. Now this left
Henry V short of men, he just had 900 men at arms and 5,000 Bowman to continue on his campaign. Now
what had begun as a great chevauchee, this great move through France he had to moderate it. Now in
order to bring all of this to a conclusion Henry VI challenged the dauphin of France,
the King of France son to personal combat and that would then decide everything,
but there was no take upon on the offer, so Henry V went against the advice of his Council of War,
raised his standard and began his march to Calais, but that of course is another story. Well, I hope
you enjoyed that video if you did like share and subscribe and if you'd like to support the
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go I'd like to give a shout out to some of our Patreon members Michael and Amy James they're
actually friends of mine. I shoot with Amy across the way with our bows and I will be seeing them
later on because we volunteer at the Saskatoon Museum of Military Artifacts I'll see you later
Michael. Here we have Shilo Harrington and Emily Rauwerdink, hey guys thanks a million bye for now.