October 25 is fraught with anniversaries. It marks a turning point in European history that was to later provide one of the greatest speeches ever to emerge from the English language and that has inspired millions for over 400 years.
We are speaking here, of course, of the Battle of Agincourt that was fought on the feast of St. Crispin's Day in 1415 when young King Henry V and his army defeated the French army under the command of Constable d’Albret and his 100,000 men. The English had 6,000 men-at-arms in addition to 24,000 foot soldiers who were mostly archers. On the sodden field at Agincourt, the English met the flower of French chivalry who charged the English lines only to become enmired and exhausted. By tradition it was thought that the English were able to defeat the French with their famous bows that could loose storms of arrows on their enemies. Modern research tends to show that the fight was rather more prosaic: English foot soldiers could have merely walked up to the unhorsed French knights and clobbered them with the wooden mallets that they used to create palisades of sharpened stakes as protection against cavalry.
In the play Henry V, Shakespeare’s young king urges on his men with words that still ring with heroism and martial flair. Here is an excerpt:
“He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.”
Crispin and his brother Crispinian died in 287 AD and emerge from holy tradition as companions of St. Quintinus. Working by day as shoemakers in Gaul, the three had success especially at night in converting the locals to the faith. Eventually, by order of Emperor Maximian, the two brothers were brought before Rictiovarus for judgement. A hater of Christians, Rictiovarus subjected them to torture. Unsuccessful in getting them to recant, Rictiovarus committed suicide in despair. Maximian then had the pair beheaded. Crispin and Crispinian are now the patrons of shoemakers and leatherworkers. The feast day was to become a frolic for cobblers in Olde England as attested by the following:
“Dear Saint, the saint of those who make good shoes, Thee for my patron saint I also choose; Whene’er I walk in highway, trail or street, Bring thou unblistered home my grateful feet. The twenty fifth of October cursed be the Cobbler that goes to bed sober.”
On this date in 322 BC, the philosopher Demosthenes – a seeker of truth – died in Greece. English engraver and painter, William Hogarth, died on this day in 1764.
Pablo Picasso was born on St. Crispin’s Day in 1881, as was composer Johann Strauss in 1825.
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