Marching Towards Agincourt

Part I of the material I presented at All Champions

Or: a Drunkard’s Walk

I first read about the battle of Agincourt in grade school, in the book Miniature Battles. The quick account caught my eye, both because of the power of the English Longbow and the odds against the English that they nevertheless overcame. Although my interests at the time were more in the Roman Empire, I seldom bypassed Agincourt when re-reading the book.

In high school I took an elective class on Shakespeare’s plays, one of which was Henry V. From the first reading, the chorus’ calling upon the muse spoke to me; I would later recite the first half for a poetry contest, and today I will present the entire prologue. We also watched Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V, with Derek Jacobi’s brilliant role as the chorus and the beautiful song “Non Nobis Domine.”

I was hooked.

I have been unable to determine exactly when Henry V was released. Certainly it was within a few years of 1600, which puts it at the ragged edge of the SCA’s period. However since a printed version appeared in 1600, I feel that it qualifies as a period piece.

Oddly enough, I had been in the SCA for three years before it really occurred to me that Agincourt was period battle.

To digress slightly, filk isn’t something I do, it just happens in my head – it is who I am. It is, to mangle a phrase, 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, but the 1% pops into my head whether I like it or not. So the final line of the March of Agincourt popped, fully formed, into my head one day and rapidly became a draft of the first verse. There, however, I got stuck. Bits and pieces of couplets drifted about, seldom forming verses, for more than a year. Inspiration struck again, and the bits lined up into three verses. While I wasn’t quite satisfied, I decided it was good enough for Champions – how could I do a Bardic competition without filk?
Then, yesterday morning (no, I’m not kidding), inspiration hit a third time. The third time was, indeed, the charm, and I am pleased to present the full four verses (plus the reprise of the first) here today.

In researching Agincourt, I came across a reference to another song; Osprey’s Agincourt 1415 mentions a victory song “with the refrain ‘Deo gratias Anglia redde pro victoria.’” Although the book gave no more detail, the internet did. Words, a picture of a period copy of the music, and performances by several groups of “The Agincourt Carol” were all readily available. Interestingly, the song appears in Laurence Olivier’s 1944 version of Henry V, which had costumes provided by the same house that would provide them to Kenneth Branagh 45 years later.

While filk comes naturally to me, period music is a stretch. However, with the strong encouragement of my wife I will present today as a solo entry “The Agincourt Carol.”