… The Battle of Agincourt occurred on 25th October 1415. Welsh involvement at The Battle of Agincourt;
In 1415, Henry V took an army into France as part of his ambition to take over the rule of France and captured the key fortress at Harfleur. He then marched his 5000 soldiers towards Calais to sail back to England but was persued by a French army 20,000, which caught up with them near the village of Agincourt. Hungry, tired and outnumbered, the situation looked bleak for Henry and his army. However, a number of factors worked to Henry's advantage which resulted in him being able to secure an unlikely victory. Firstly the French were a disunified group relying on the traditional armored knight, weighed down by their heavy armour, while the English had a large contingent of foot soldiers armed with the Longbow, the ultimate defensive weapon of the day. Also, heavy rains overnight had created soggy ground conditions that negated the advantage of the French cavalry.
In the battle itself, the French attempted to press home massive cavalry charges against the English across a narrow front of a wet field. In response, Henry set up his archers in a half moon formation around the field, so that they were able to fire not only straight into the onrushing French, but also from both sides. The thousands of high velocity, armor piercing arrows across a narrow front soon reduced the French attack to a mass of dismounted and crippled men and horses. English infantry then attacked, killing many and taking a vast amount of prisoners, most of whom Henry controversially ordered to be executed.
Welsh longbowmen are considered to have played a significant role in securing victory at the battle and their presence was mainly due to the fact that in 1415, Henry V had a great control over lands in Wales, he held several Marcher lordships in South Wales, notably Brecon, Kidwelly, Monmouth and Hay, there were also the lands of the principality which were under the king’s control. Through his years spent combating Owain Glyndwr's rebellion, Henry was familiar with the skill and expertise of the Welsh archers, so it stood to reason that he would wish to recruit them for his French campaigns. It is thought that approximately 500 Welsh troops joined Henry's army, from all parts of South Wales. They were mustered in Carmarthen and Brecon, on 26 June 1415. The combined force met at Brecon before marching to Hereford and then south to Southampton.
According to legend, the French often amputated the index and middle fingers of captured bowmen, so that they would be unable to draw their bow, hence during the battle, Welsh bowmen taunted the French by giving them a two-fingered salute of defiance. Among the Welshmen who fought, Dafydd Gam, an opponent of Owain Glyndwr during the Rebellion of 1400, is the only one known to have been killed. It is said that he was struck down whenn he intervened to save Henry's life.
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Dafydd_Gam
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.. On 25th October 1970, The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales were canonized by Pope Paul VI. The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales comprise a group of Catholic men and women who were executed for treason and related offences in the Kingdom of England between 1535 and 1679. This religious repression existed in part because faithful Roman Catholics were required to rebel against the English Crown and they are considered by the Catholic Church to be Christian martyrs. Six of those canonized were Welsh and the Catholic Church in Wales keeps 25th October as the feast of the 'Six Welsh Martyrs and their companions'.
The Welsh Martyrs are the priests Phillip Evans, John Lloyd, John Jones, David Lewis, and John Roberts and the teacher Richard Gwyn. ..
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