Burials of Agincourt dead

To date no burial pits have been found at Azincourt. It is clear that some men were taken from the field and buried elsewhere, some nearby and others at a greater distance.

In 1936 Captain Benoit-Guyot excavated the burials at the abbey church of Auchy-les-Moines (now Auchy-lès-Hesdin), seeking in particular the skeleton of Gallois le Fougères, the provost marshal of the French army in 1415. His office was a forerunner of today’s Gendarmerie Nationale. The Chifflet Manuscript ((a) below) indicated that Gallois lay alongside the teenage son of the bailli of Rouen. As a result, his skeleton was easy to identify. Disinterred, it was reburied on 24 September 1945 in the monument to the Gendarmerie Nationale at Versailles.

a. From an eighteenth century text in Bibliothèque Municipale de Besançon MS Chifflet 64 folios 2-3, with facsimile in Bacquet, Azincourt)

Vieil-Hesdin, church of the monastery of the Cordeliers(Franciscans)

Constable d’Albret (before the high altar)

Entrails of the duke of Alençon (near high altar)

Amaury de Craon (near the constable)

Jean de Montmorency (between chapel of sains and the high altar)

Colart de Fosseuz and his brother Philip (before the tomb of the Créquy)

Jean de Gayencelles (choir)

Jean de Montenay (choir)

Jean de Beaumont (chapel of Notre Dame)

Msr de Coulonces (chapel of Notre Dame)

Gallois d’Arsy, sire de Sarquegny (before the crucifix)

Robert le Sauvage, esquire of the duke of Alençon (before the crucifix)

Sire d’O (quite close to the chapel of Notre Dame)

Two unnamed men (before the benoittier of the nave)

Auchy-lès-Hesdin (previously known as Auchy-les-Moines)

Jacques de Chatillon, admiral (in choir, to left near high altar)

Msr de la Rochguyon (in chapel of St Jean.)

Philippe de la Rocheguyon, lord of Athecy sur Aisne, brother of msr de la Rocheguyon (chapel of St Jean)

Guichard Dauphin (chapel of Notre Dame, to right)

Pierre de St Cler (chapel of Notre Dame, to right)

Philippe de Poitiers (chapel of Notre Dame, to left)

Charles de Chatillon, sire de Sain (chapel of Mary Magdalene, to left of choir)

Msr de Quesnes, count of Poix (nave, before the crucifix)

Guillaume de Bueil (Nave, before the crucifx, nr count of Poix)

Drieu de Mello, sire de Saint-Bris (nave, left side)

Msr de Nouyant (nave, before altar of St Martin)

Msr de Liergne d’Auvergne (at end of nave before the great door)

Jean de Quesnes (at end of nave before the great door)

Le Gallois de Fougeres (at end of nave before the great door)

Le petit Holland, son of the bailli of Rouen (at end of nave before the great door)

And 12 others in the cemetery behind the choir, in a ditch:

Jacques de Haplaincourt

Jean de la Tournelle

Charles de Bequigny

Jacques de Han

Sire de Fouqueroles

Folleville, eschanson of the Dauphin

Summonet de Moranvilleirs, previously bailli of Chartres

Adam de Chamvillers

Robert de Pontaudement

Guillaume Fortescu

Buriau de Griesme

Bertran de Bournonville, bastard son of Engueran de Bournonville

 

 

The Church of Auchy-lès-Hesdin (photo by Anne Curry)

 

b. Evidence of more distant burials

Cathedral of Sens: Jean de Montague, archbishop of Sens

St Omer, church of Saint Aldegonde: Philippe de Wissoc

St Omer: abbey of St Bertin, Jean de Croy

St Omer: Chapel in parish of St Denis: Guillaume d’Avroult

Busigny: Gilles de St Aubert, sire de Chin in Hainault

Cambrai cathedral: Henri de Gavre, sire de Leiderkerque

Arras, church of St Nicholas: Colart de Mailly

Tervueren, choir of church of St Jean: Anthony duke of Brabant

Bar-le-Duc: chapel in castle, dedicated to St Maxime: Edward, duke of Bar (demolished 1670)

Cistercian abbey of Elan near to Mézières (Ardennes): Jean, count of Nevers

Braine-sur-Vesle (Aisne), abbey of St Yves: comte de Roucy

Dieppe, church of St Jacques: Guillaume de Longueil, captain of Dieppe, and his son.

Abbey of St Martin de Sées: duke of Alençon (but his entrails in church of Cordeliers at Vieil Hesdin)

Sainte Catherine du Val des Escoliers, Paris: Pierre Orgremont, sire de Chantilly et Montjay

Abbey of Han, near Lillers: Robert de Wavrin, sire de Wavrin and his son Robert jnr

Chartreuse de Clercq: Jean, sire de Werchin