In October 1415, an outnumbered English army stood waiting for a much bigger French force in a muddy field near a French village called Agincourt. The French had at least 20,000 soldiers, including thousands of armored knights. The English had about 6,000, most of them archers carrying longbows.
When the French knights charged, they had to wade through deep mud in heavy armor - and run into clouds of arrows. A skilled longbowman could fire 10 to 12 arrows a minute, accurately, for over 200 yards. With thousands of archers firing all at once, the sky filled with arrows. Knights and horses fell, and those behind tripped over them.
The battle was a disaster for France. Thousands of French knights died or were captured. English losses were tiny in comparison. Agincourt proved that a well-trained common soldier with the right weapon could beat a battlefield full of expensive armored aristocrats - a lesson that quietly began the end of the age of knights.
