Scans_Daily

Entirely true....you know, except for the fact that it isn't.

1. The French ULTIMATELY WON THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR. That's why England is an island nation. Notice that Crecy and Agincourt are fought...in FRANCE. Because the Plantangenets believed themselves kings of England AND France.

2. Despite Shakespeare's poetic license, Agincourt was NOT a complete rout. It was a risky battle for both sides. Had the French attacked when Henry moved his archers forward and before they dug in a second time, we might not be talking about it today. In both cases, the battle was not so much won by the English as lost by the French nobles who refused to follow orders of their experienced soldiers or their king..because they were over-confident. Crecy was a battle that changed how wars were fought...Agincourt was a testament to stupidity that has more cache due to its prominence in a famous play.

The Black Prince took the king's helmet of ostrich feathers as his crest (as the prince of Wales) as an honor to his bravery, as it's said that the near-blind King John inflicted several of the few casualties the English experienced that day. (It's also worth noting that he wasn't called 'the black prince' during his lifetime).

History more often proves that a good story is more popular than the truth, that I'll grant you.