The Battle Script

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The scenario to read by the chorus, to the public

The year is 1398 during the last few years reign of the English King Richard II. France under the rule of King Charles IV and England have enjoyed many years of truce during this time known as the “The Hundred Years War”.

 Large swathes of English territory in France have been lost back to the French during this time. Land the English believe to be theirs originally won in battle by Edward III and his son Edward of Woodstock “The Blackprince” now lost back to the French due to treaties between King Richard II and King Charles V and also in battle due to the combat tactics of Constable of France, Bertrand Du-Guesclin

Today is the 27^th July 1398, a typical skirmish of that period is about to unfold in front of you as an English army under the command of Sir Thomas Erpyngham is traveling through what they believe to be their own territory but they are mistaken and are in fact on French held soil.

The English unaware of their mistake meet with a small French army under the command of the Constable of France Charles d’Albret, with a force twice their size. Despite desperate negotiations hostilities erupt.

The armies start locations

The English muster point is in their authentic camp. The French muster point is in their authentic camp. Ideally the French will out number the English two to one if numbers permit.

The order of battle

Prompts for commanders are in italic throughout the script please follow them where possible.

Remember those who are commanders, for the script to work there are times you may not be able to fight but hold back and make sure that all is going well. Troops please try to follow your orders

The English will march on the battlefield first and form 3 battle positions close to the English camp (take lots of banners!). The French army will hidden from public view and wait until the English army is in place. 3 or 4 French soldiers playing dice and drunk are seated close to the edge of the battlefield, but they will not notice the English army arriving. The drunken French soldiers troops on seeing the English forces will run away in panic and shout at the French camp “alarm! alarm!”.

The French commander will then bring his army onto the field and then send a herald (representative), with at least two knights to the English forces to discover why they are there (with banners flying). During an angry parley, (which will be at the center of the battlefield), weapons are drawn with some minor fighting and injuries. The two sides then retire in disarray from the field at speed shouting abuse at their opposite numbers (swearing should be kept to a minimum).

The French may shout only these choices of abusive words:

          Montjoie,  Saint-Denis, Sus aux anglois, sus aux guedins , bourses molles.

The English will shout only these choices of abusive words:

         For God Harry and Saint George and so on.

The English will begin to advance to about one third of the way along the battlefield towards the French (if possible set-up some form of mobile barricade i.e. stakes of some kind). Three volleys of arrows will be loosed from the English lines into the French (with some casualties on the French side). Some return of fire from the French crossbows and longbows will also add to the effect at this stage.

Any non-combatant archers should now retire to the safe areas and continue to loose their arrows towards the opposite lines. Try if possible get your arrows as close to your opposite numbers to allow for rapid collection.

Once the third volley of arrows has landed, the French will advance to attack the English who will push the French back, after a few minutes the two armies will fall back to their original lines (if possible remove any debris and dropped weapons from the field as you retire these should be left at a safe place). The English will advance to engage the French again in the center of the field, after a few minutes of reasonably heavy combat the armies will fall back to their original lines. 

Archery must stop at this stage. While horses are on the field archers collect your arrows.

It will be at these stages that if there is cavalry available they will take the CENTRE of the field, at no point should foot fighters engage the horses unless it is scripted previously. After a few minutes of combat the riders will fall back to their start points.

At this point the English left-hand flank will engage the French right-hand flank in the center of the field, after a few minutes they will return to their lines.

Archery must stop at this stage. While horses are on the field archers collect your arrows.

It will be at these stages that if there is cavalry available they will take the CENTER of the field, at no point should foot fighters engage the horses unless it is scripted previously. After a few minutes of combat the riders will fall back to their start points.

At this point the French left-hand flank will engage the English right-hand flank in the center of the field, after a few minutes they will return to their lines. .

Archery must stop at this stage. While horses are on the field archers collect your arrows.

It will be at these stages that if there is cavalry available they will take the FRONT of the field, at no point should foot fighters engage the horses unless it is scripted previously. After a few minutes of combat the riders will fall back to their start points.

At this point the English center flank will engage the French center flank in the center of the field, after a few minutes they will return to their lines.

After the attacks the armies will form up in their battles facing each other for the penultimate assault. At a given signal both armies will engage each other in the CENTRE of the field. This should go on for as long as possible with the French slowly pushing the English back towards their campsite, then once the French lines have reached the English starting point. The French lines WILL fall back to center of battlefield and reform.

The French herald will again step forward with the protection of his knights their swords drawn and offer parley for the English to surrender. The English will refuse the offer and the herald will retire displaying his disappointment to the crowd.

The English commander will order an Arrow storm as the herald returns to his commander. (Approximately half of each French army should take casualties at this point). After 3 volleys the English line will advance to engage the French army for the final assault. (This will be at the CENTER/FRONT of the field and be as bloody and violent as possible as many deaths and injuries as possible for public entertainment).

Archery must stop at this stage. While horses are on the field archers collect your arrows.

It will be at these stages that if there is cavalry available they will take the REAR of the field, at no point should foot fighters engage the horses unless it is scripted previously. After a few minutes combat the riders will fall back to their start points reform and then attack again until the end of the battle.

Day one ending

The French army will progressively push the English back towards their campsite. French remember if you push the English line back too quickly and do not fall back and reform sometimes during the battle it will finish a lot quicker then the hour we are hoping for. The French will overwhelm the English lines and pursue survivors to capture or kill (there is to be no fighting in the campsites or safe areas non-combatants are not to be engaged).

Day two ending

The English army will progressively push the French back towards their campsite. English remember if you push the French line back too quickly and do not fall back and reform sometimes during the battle it will finish a lot quicker then the hour we are hoping for. The French will overwhelm the English lines and pursue survivors to capture or kill (there is to be no fighting in the campsites or safe areas non-combatants are not to be engaged).

At the end of the battle all the dead will arise, (the crowd may wish to be involved with this i.e. three calls to arise, (or be encouraged by Ron, the speaker). Once all dead are resurrected, they rejoin their own army in their own initial battle order. 

Then, the loosing army lead by their leader will start to march in a single line towards the opponent campsite. As they nearly reach their opponents, they will begin making to form an aisle of honour parallel to the public, the following men carry on forming the aisle.

As the aisle grows, the leader starts to make his way back to his camp, while the others continue to form the arch of honour until the winning side start to also pass through and do the same. The first loosing army rejoin their initial battle order position and wait until the winning army as finished the procession.

The winning army carry on passing through the arch until the last of their men has gone through. Once they’ve done so, the first men to have started the aisle, will pass through the last one to have gone trough, then the seconds and so on until the last. As they go through, they move toward their campsite and form up again into battle formation until all men have rejoined them.

Once the aisle of honour is finished, all men should have regrouped to their positions (they don’t go back to their camp yet), and when the armies are facing each other, both army leaders (Albret and Erpyngham) will make their army march forward to turn towards the public until English and French form a single parallel line facing the public.

Then, the army leaders (Albret and Erpyngham) will signal their army to halt. Then, the army leaders will take two steps forward. The speaker (or themselves) will  present the leaders.

Once this is done, the army leaders, call their captains only, to move a step forward. Again, the speaker (or the army leaders) will  present them. Once presentations are done, the two army leaders, will signal their armies an all out charge toward the public.

Document updated 03/07/04