Agincourt is one of the epic battles of history.It was fought by two badly matched armies that met in atrocious conditions on St Crispin's Day I415, and resulted in an extraordinary victory that was celebrated in England long before Shakespeare immortalised it in Henry V. It has always been held to be the triumph of the longbow against the armoured knight, and of the common man against the feudal aristocrat,but those are history's myths. Bernard Cornwell,who has long wanted to write this story, depicts the reality behind the myths.