“Sitting on a noble horse as white as snow”: the English royal horses at Agincourt

Abstract

Despite the intense interest in all aspects of Henry V’s victory at Agincourt in 1415, the study of the royal horses on the campaign and at the battle remains neglected. This is because the only known source for them until now – an account by the Master of the Horse, John Waterton, for 1414–16 – survives only in summary form on England’s foreign account rolls. However, the “particulars of account” used to compile the summary on the foreign has been rediscovered in the equitium regis collection in The National Archives. These particulars are far more detailed than the summary on the foreign account roll, containing a full, nominal list of Henry V’s horses at the time of the Battle of Agincourt detailing those that were killed at the battle and lost on the campaign. This article is the first detailed analysis of these “Agincourt” particulars. It provides the first examination of the king’s horses – their number, names, and types – at the time of the battle, detailing their fate in terms of those that died or were lost on the expedition. It also places the royal horses within the martial context of the time, illuminating several facets of equine management and the organization of the royal stables, by comparing Waterton’s account with other surviving records of the equitium regis from both the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In so doing, it shows how horses served as important diplomatic tools, as a social glue that bound the king to his leading subjects, and that the types of horse being utilized for war at the time of Agincourt, and within the royal equine establishment, had undergone a marked change from only a half century before.

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