600th Anniversary of The Battle of Agincourt, October 25, 1415

[Gary The Procrastinator]

Hello, here is my latest collaboration, this time to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the battle that provided William Shakespeare with material for one his greatest plays, Henry V. The term, “Band of Brothers” comes directly from this famous play. King Henry V of England himself fought hand-to-hand during the Battle of Agincourt, and even though badly outnumbered his forces crushed the French nobility, changing the political landscape of Europe at the time. For more detail, click on the pictures below:

In remembrance of this event, members of WAMALUG decided to both build a huge castle-related LEGO diorama, and also to launch our own history-related group called HistoryLUG. Built during the span of one of our monthly meetings, we used Magnus Lauglo’s Modular Landscape System, our trees and foliage, Lady Kianna’s buildings and almost 500 of our realistic castle-theme minifigs. This only took about four hours to complete.

From Wikipedia:

The Battle of Agincourt was a major English victory in the Hundred Years' War. The battle took place on Friday, 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day), near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France. Henry V's victory at Agincourt, against a numerically superior French army, crippled France and started a new period in the war. After the victory, Henry V married the French king's daughter, and their son, later Henry VI of England and Henry II of France, was made heir to the throne of France as well as of England. Henry V led his troops into battle and participated in hand-to-hand fighting. During the battle, his brother was wounded badly and fell to the ground. King Henry ran to his brother's side and stood over him to defend against the French until his brother was carried off the field:

The French king of the time, Charles VI, did not command the French army himself as he suffered from severe illnesses. Instead, the French were commanded by Constable Charles d'Albret, who perished during the conflict:

This battle is notable for the use of the English longbow in very large numbers, with English and Welsh archers forming most of Henry's army.

From Shakespeare’s play, King Henry’s Saint Crispin’s Day speech prior to the battle:

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remember'd;

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 accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Hope you like it! Comments welcome,

Cheers, Gary

Edited October 25, 2015 by Gary The Procrastinator

[Captain Braunsfeld]

Terrific, another one of your fantastic battle layouts. Amazing!

[peedeejay]

Amazing! You never fail to deliver.

[MAB]

It's also the battle that is rumoured to be the source of why English use a two fingered gesture as an insult. The French threatened to cut of archers' fingers and hence these are waved in the air.

[Puvel]

Epic stuff, great posing!

And this took only 4 hours?

[Graham Gidman]

So many 'figs... Amazing job, Gary!

[jerryf4]

cool

[Gary The Procrastinator]

Terrific, another one of your fantastic battle layouts. Amazing!

Thanks so much Captain B, I appreciate all your comments.

Amazing! You never fail to deliver.

Very kind of you to say peedeejay, thank you.

It's also the battle that is rumoured to be the source of why English use a two fingered gesture as an insult. The French threatened to cut of archers' fingers and hence these are waved in the air.

Yes indeed! Or so goes the story. I'll buy it, it makes a lot of sense given the Brits and their humor. Or is that humour?

Epic stuff, great posing! And this took only 4 hours?

Thank you Puvel. Yes, four hours but everything was pre-built. Magnus' Modular Landscape System allows this kind of rapid set-up, we already had the trees built from some of my old builds (Defense of Little Round Top, Battle of the Wilderness, etc.) so most of the time was spent setting up minifigs and laying down foliage for ground cover.

So many 'figs... Amazing job, Gary!

Thanks Graham! Magnus has an amazing castle-theme minifig collection. Joshua and I added our 90+ as well.

cool

Thank you.

[Brick Capone]

Very, very, very COOL! I've read a lot of this battle, and this MOC is a good representation of it. Very nice! I'm a big fan of all your builds, Gary.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Brick Capone

[songwm]

What a great battle scene!!

[Gary The Procrastinator]

Very, very, very COOL! I've read a lot of this battle, and this MOC is a good representation of it. Very nice! I'm a big fan of all your builds, Gary.

Thanks so much Brick Capone! Always great to hear that I was able to correctly relate the history in LEGO form.

What a great battle scene!!

Thank you songwm, it was so much fun to set up.

[Hive]

Wow, such astonishing attention to detail. Magnificently captured.

[AardWolf]

Another excellent diorama, Gary, and one of my absolute favorite historical battles. I can't believe this only took four hours!

[Gary The Procrastinator]

Wow, such astonishing attention to detail. Magnificently captured.

Thank you Hive, appreciate the comment very much.

Another excellent diorama, Gary, and one of my absolute favorite historical battles. I can't believe this only took four hours!

Thanks Aaron, even with the modular system and all the trees already built, we were rushing to get it done in time.

[Captain Dee]

These historic battle scene collabs are fantastic. I'm impressed most of all by how something that focuses so heavily on the minifigs can still be made to look like a realistic setting. The attention to detail is superb, and the muddy field is well represented. That level of action has to rank among the most ever done in Lego form. I think a few more trees on the two sides would give it a more accurate dense forest look, but I understand it would require a huge number of leaf pieces and it's really a minor concern anyway. King Henry V is nicely represented too. This is just a splendid arrangement. How many of these historic battles have you done by now, counting both collabs and individual work? I'll take one of these accurate depictions over ten made-up battles any day. Excellent work as always.

Edited October 31, 2015 by Captain Dee

[Gary The Procrastinator]

These historic battle scene collabs are fantastic. I'm impressed most of all by how something that focuses so heavily on the minifigs can still be made to look like a realistic setting. The attention to detail is superb, and the muddy field is well represented. That level of action has to rank among the most ever done in Lego form. I think a few more trees on the two sides would give it a more accurate dense forest look, but I understand it would require a huge number of leaf pieces and it's really a minor concern anyway. King Henry V is nicely represented too. This is just a splendid arrangement. How many of these historic battles have you done by now, counting both collabs and individual work? I'll take one of these accurate depictions over ten made-up battles any day. Excellent work as always.

Wow Capt Dee that is an incredible compliment, thank you so much! Very kind of you to say that. Yes, I think it needed more trees but that was all we have built right now. Need to make some more...

How many large battles have I done so far? I think this is the complete list:

#1 Defense of Little Round Top (Battle of Gettysburg 1863)

#2 Battle of Rorke's Drift (1879)

#3 Battle of The Wilderness (1864)

#4 Battle of New Orleans (1815)

#5 Battle of Waterloo (1815)

And now Agincourt makes 6. I did a naval battle in 2012 with HMS Surprise vs. USS Constitution at Brickfair that year, but since the two ships actually never fought, it's not really historical.

Cheers, and thanks again Captain Dee

[SilentWolf]

I am impressed and blown away. I love the historic battles. I have a lot to learn.

[Gary The Procrastinator]

I am impressed and blown away. I love the historic battles. I have a lot to learn.

Thanks a lot SilentWolf, I appreciate it. No worries, everyone can learn from other builders; I certainly still am!

[Spader]

"And the heavens shall tremble..." What an amazing build! I love the detail you poured into this, it really looks great. I don't even want to know how much those minifigs costed......

[Gary The Procrastinator]

"And the heavens shall tremble..." What an amazing build! I love the detail you poured into this, it really looks great. I don't even want to know how much those minifigs costed......

Thanks so much Andrew, very much appreciate it. My minifigs total only about 60 here. The rest come from JBIronworks and Magnus.

[LegoPercyJ]

Amazing! In every way!

[Gary The Procrastinator]

Amazing! In every way!

Thanks Percy. Next year we are doing the Battle of Hastings and the two battles which lead up to it, Fulford and Stamford Bridge. It's the 950th anniversary of William the Conquerer's victory over the Anglo-Saxons...