Read Online WAR CRIMES AND ATROCITIES (True Crime) by Anne Williams, Vivian Head, Janice Anderson - Free Book Online Page B
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and riders that did get as far as the English line were impaled on the stakes in front of the archers. The remnants of the cavalry, retreating, plunged back into the heavily-armed and armoured foot soldiers, slowly lumbering into action behind them. The same thing happened to the second French battle.
Within four hours, the whole thing seemed to be over. The field was covered with dead and dying French; the French are calculated to have lost more than 6,000 men at Agincourt, while the English dead numbered less than 250. Many slightly wounded or unhorsed knights became so bogged down by their armour in the deep mud that they had become completely ineffective as fighting men. As one commentator noted, ‘Great people of [the French] were slain without any stroke’. There was a perceptible lull in the fighting, and it looked as if the third French battle would not continue. The English began gathering up prisoners who could be ransomed and searching for booty among the dead.
Then came what looked like a serious attack on the English from the rear. A French knight and a troop of men-at-arms made a sally from Agincourt Castle and seized Henry’s baggage train and the 1,000 peasants that looked after it. Thinking that he would have to repel an attack from his rear as well as cope with renewed fighting on his front, and seeing that many of the French prisoners and wounded still had their weapons, Henry ordered the slaughter of all French prisoners in English hands. He also warned that any Englishman who disobeyed his order would be hanged.
Although many of the English nobles and senior officers, thinking of the fortunes in ransom money to be made from the prisoners, refused to follow the order, the common soldiers did, and many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of French prisoners were slaughtered before the order was rescinded.
Modern historians have condemned Henry V for his order, forgetting that he was acting within the codes of an age much harsher and more cruel than our own. Then, too, it is probable that the number actually butchered was considerably less than suggested in accounts of the battle in the years after 1415. It is a matter of record that nearly 2,000 prisoners, still alive, were in Henry’s train when he moved on to Calais. One of them, Charles, Duke of Orléans, was to spend 35 years in captivity in England while his ransom money was raised.
Like many war crimes, Henry V’s ‘crime’ was the result of a decision taken in the heat of battle in response to his realization that certain specific actions by the enemy could, if not checked, turn victory into defeat. His action was not condemned by his contemporaries, English or French: indeed, French commentators blamed the leaders of the French army for not withdrawing when they could see that the battle was lost. Despite his ‘crime’, Henry V remains England’s most heroic king and Shakespeare’s ‘star of England’, whose sword was made by Fortune [– and, Henry would have added, by God].
Pizarro Destroys The Inca State
1532
Christopher Columbus returned to Europe from his first voyage of discovery across the Atlantic in 1493. His enthusiastic report to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain of his findings and his assessment that the New World had vast riches ready for the taking could not have come at a better time. Spain had recently ended several centuries of struggle to rid their country of the infidel Moo. It was full of religious fervour and had a good supply of soldiers and fighting men willing to risk their lives for the sake of those riches in gold and silver that Columbus had described.
In Central and South America, the Spanish conquistadors found two great, rich empires. Although they had witnessed years of burnings in the name of religion in their own country – Torquemada’s years as Inquisitor General in Castile and Aragon had seen some 10,000 people sentenced to death by the dreadful auto de fe – the Spanish used their shock
Within four hours, the whole thing seemed to be over. The field was covered with dead and dying French; the French are calculated to have lost more than 6,000 men at Agincourt, while the English dead numbered less than 250. Many slightly wounded or unhorsed knights became so bogged down by their armour in the deep mud that they had become completely ineffective as fighting men. As one commentator noted, ‘Great people of [the French] were slain without any stroke’. There was a perceptible lull in the fighting, and it looked as if the third French battle would not continue. The English began gathering up prisoners who could be ransomed and searching for booty among the dead.
Then came what looked like a serious attack on the English from the rear. A French knight and a troop of men-at-arms made a sally from Agincourt Castle and seized Henry’s baggage train and the 1,000 peasants that looked after it. Thinking that he would have to repel an attack from his rear as well as cope with renewed fighting on his front, and seeing that many of the French prisoners and wounded still had their weapons, Henry ordered the slaughter of all French prisoners in English hands. He also warned that any Englishman who disobeyed his order would be hanged.
Although many of the English nobles and senior officers, thinking of the fortunes in ransom money to be made from the prisoners, refused to follow the order, the common soldiers did, and many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of French prisoners were slaughtered before the order was rescinded.
Modern historians have condemned Henry V for his order, forgetting that he was acting within the codes of an age much harsher and more cruel than our own. Then, too, it is probable that the number actually butchered was considerably less than suggested in accounts of the battle in the years after 1415. It is a matter of record that nearly 2,000 prisoners, still alive, were in Henry’s train when he moved on to Calais. One of them, Charles, Duke of Orléans, was to spend 35 years in captivity in England while his ransom money was raised.
Like many war crimes, Henry V’s ‘crime’ was the result of a decision taken in the heat of battle in response to his realization that certain specific actions by the enemy could, if not checked, turn victory into defeat. His action was not condemned by his contemporaries, English or French: indeed, French commentators blamed the leaders of the French army for not withdrawing when they could see that the battle was lost. Despite his ‘crime’, Henry V remains England’s most heroic king and Shakespeare’s ‘star of England’, whose sword was made by Fortune [– and, Henry would have added, by God].
Pizarro Destroys The Inca State
1532
Christopher Columbus returned to Europe from his first voyage of discovery across the Atlantic in 1493. His enthusiastic report to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain of his findings and his assessment that the New World had vast riches ready for the taking could not have come at a better time. Spain had recently ended several centuries of struggle to rid their country of the infidel Moo. It was full of religious fervour and had a good supply of soldiers and fighting men willing to risk their lives for the sake of those riches in gold and silver that Columbus had described.
In Central and South America, the Spanish conquistadors found two great, rich empires. Although they had witnessed years of burnings in the name of religion in their own country – Torquemada’s years as Inquisitor General in Castile and Aragon had seen some 10,000 people sentenced to death by the dreadful auto de fe – the Spanish used their shock
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