“We Happy Few”: William de Handsacre and the Road to Agincourt
Among the men who marched with King Henry V to France in 1415 was William de Handsacre, one of the last members of the medieval family that had given its name to the village.
Henry landed in Normandy in August 1415 with more than 2,000 men-at-arms and around 9,000 archers. Serving in the king’s army was Sir Edmund Ferrers of Chartley, whose participation followed royal intervention in a violent dispute with a neighbouring landowner. Joining Ferrers’ retinue were several men-at-arms, including William de Handsacre, son of Laurence and Isabella, together with a number of archers.
The campaign began with the siege of Harfleur. Like many men-at-arms, William probably fought on foot, a common practice during sieges and in the muddy conditions of northern France. The siege lasted far longer than expected and proved devastating for the English army. Disease, particularly dysentery—known at the time as the ‘Bloody Flux’—claimed thousands of soldiers. Nobles and commoners alike fell ill, and many were sent home once Harfleur had surrendered.
Henry nevertheless decided to continue his campaign. Rather than return to England or sail directly to Calais, he led his weakened army on a march across hostile French territory. By this stage, Sir Edmund Ferrers’ retinue had been reduced to William de Handsacre, four other men-at-arms and just nine archers. Henry’s entire army numbered only about 6,000 men, while the French force gathering against him may have been three to five times larger. After a lengthy detour to cross the River Somme, the exhausted English finally encountered the French near the village of Agincourt, having marched almost 200 miles with inadequate food and shelter.
On St Crispin’s Day, 25 October 1415, Henry deployed his army across a narrow, freshly ploughed field bordered by woodland. In the centre stood around 900 dismounted men-at-arms, heavily armoured in plate and mail and drawn up four ranks deep. William de Handsacre would have stood among them. On either flank, English longbowmen planted sharpened wooden stakes in front of their positions to protect themselves against cavalry attacks.
As the French advanced, they struggled through deep mud beneath a relentless hail of arrows. The narrow battlefield compressed their formations, while the weight of armour and churned ground exhausted the attackers before they reached the English line. In less than three hours, one of the most celebrated victories in English military history had been won.
King Henry V almost certainly never spoke the immortal words, “We happy few, we band of brothers.” Those lines were written nearly two centuries later by Shakespeare. Yet whatever Henry did say before the battle clearly inspired his men, and William de Handsacre was among those who heard the king’s voice before taking his place in the line at Agincourt.
William survived the campaign, but his family’s story was nearing its end. He left two daughters but no sons, and with him the male line of the Handsacre family disappeared. Although the village retained its ancient name, its medieval lords faded into history. In the centuries that followed, the centre of parish life gradually shifted towards Armitage, leaving the family that had once dominated Handsacre remembered largely through the place-name they left behind.