riiAi'. VII.] 



DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. 



219 



line. The archers' equipment had received an addition 

 which was first employed in this action, and was evidently 

 an adaptation of the pike and its successor the bayonet 

 of the present day. The archer carried his bow and 

 arrows, a bill-hook, a hatchet or hammer, and a long 

 stake sharpened at both ends, which he was to fix 

 obliquely in the ground before him so as to serve as a 

 firm pike to resist the direct charge of cavalry. The 

 u[)per end was tipped with iron and presented a formid- 

 al)le obstacle to advancing horsemen. It was a new 

 precaution, never before used in a war by Christians. 

 These pikes formed a rampart that could be erected at 

 once and taken down and put up again at every change 

 of position. Agincourt forms another epoch in the im- 

 provement of the infantry service, and in its increased 

 ability to defend itself against cavalry. 



The men-at-arms fought on foot again in this action. 



The French chivalry were soon put in confusion by the 



constant volleys of arrows which the archers poured 



in upon them from behind their rampart of pikes, and by 



being overcrowded in the narrow space between the 



woods. The flank attack of the two detachments at 



this juncture completed their disorder, and then the 



English king gave the order to advance, and archers and 



men-at-arms charged upon the enemy. Being lightly 



equipped they fell with their battle-axes upon the French, 



who by this time were so crowded together that they 



could neither fight nor fly, and hewed them to pieces 



almost without resistance. Henry showed great ability 



in changing from the defensive to the oflensive at the 



proper moment and a brilliant victory w^as the result. 



The losses of the French army in nobles and gentlemen 



both killed, wounded, and prisoners, were enormous, 



the killed as well as the captured being both greater by 



far than the whole numbers contained in the English 



army. The English losses were comparatively trifling. 



The war between France and England had alreadv 

 been carried on with little intermission for over seventy 

 years, and the armies had naturally changed from the 

 feudal to the mercenary type. The battles of Crecy, 



