V. The Lancastrian Phase

         1413-28: Henry V, another English king of Edward III's abilities (a great grandson, in fact), comes to the throne, smashes French armies and reconquers more of France than Edward III ever did. At Henry V's decisive victory at Agincourt, the English army had about 5,000 "foot" mostly bowmen but including some others, and about 900 "horse," who were serving as heavy infantry, figures which are pretty well established, as the muster rolls of the English army were preserved more or less intact. The French probably had only about 20,000 men at the battle, mostly dismounted men-at-arms, plus a thousand crossbowmen, two thousand shortbowmen, and a couple of bombards. The English stood on the defensive and allowed the French to charge themselves to death: several thousand French died as against only about 100 English (including one killed by a bombard). Figures for the French reaching up to 60,000 are cited by some authors, but these invariably include all French forces in the theater. There were several French armies roaming around and the English had been having a tough time trying to elude them all. Older works sometimes give the French as many as 100,000 men.

         1422: Henry marries the French king's daughter, gets the old man to repudiate, his heir, and has a son (Henry VI). Having effectively won the war Henry V then dies almost immediately, followed shortly afterwards by the French king, leaving English fortunes in the hands of his brothers, who are able not very lucky.

Henry V was called the "Lancastrian king" because he was descended from a younger son of Edward III, who was the duke of Lancaster.