arl of Dorset, was left to command Harfleur; the
Earl of Westmoreland, so far from quitting England, was appointed to
defend the marches of Scotland, nor does it appear that the Earl of
Salisbury was either at Harfleur or Agincourt. The Earl of Warwick[*]
had returned to England ill from Harfleur. The characters introduced in
the play who really were at Agincourt, are the Dukes of Gloucester and
York, and Sir Thomas Erpingham.

Holinshed states that the English army consisted of 15,000, and the
French of 60,000 horse and 40,000 infantry--in all, 100,000. Walsingham
and Harding represent the English as but 9,000, and other authors say
that the number of French amounted to 150,000. Fabian says the French
were 40,000, and the English only 7,000. The battle lasted only three
hours.

[Footnote *: Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. He did not obtain
that title till 1417, two years after the era of this play.]

(K) _How thou pleasest, Heaven, dispose the day._] At the battle of
Agincourt, having chosen a convenient spot on which to martial his men,
the king sent privately two hundred archers into a low meadow, which was
on one of his flanks, where they were so well secured by a deep ditch
and a marsh, that the enemy could not come near them. Then he divided
his infantry into three squadrons, or battles; the van-warde, or
avant-guard, composed entirely of archers; the middle-warde, of bill-men
only; and the rerewarde, of bill-men and archers mixed together; the
horse-men, as wings, went on the flanks of each of the battles. He also
caused stakes to be made of wood about five or six feet long, headed
with sharp iron; these were fixed in the ground, and the archers so
placed before them that they were entirely hid from the sight of the
enemy. When, therefore, the heavy cavalry of the French charged, which
was done with the utmost impetuosity, under the idea of cutting down and
riding over the archers, they shrunk at once behind the stakes, and the
Frenchmen, unable to stop their horses, rode full upon them, so that
they overthrew their riders, and caused the utmost confusion. The
infantry, who were to follow up and support this charge, were so struck
with amazement that they hesitated, and by this were lost, for during
the panic the English archers threw back their bows, and with axes,
bills, glaives, and swords, slew the French, till they met the
middle-warde. The king himself, according to Speed, rode in the main
ba