Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell

I headed into Bernard Cornwell's most recent battlefield narrative expecting some graphic depictions of medieval warfare. I hoped to find an interesting, character-driven story as well. And while I found the first in great abundance, the latter was dissappointingly scarce.

The character development in Agincourt is limited at best. There are a few interesting sketches of historical figures from the time--particularly Sir John Cornewaille, a highly skilled and delightfully vulgar-mouthed leader in Henry V's army, and King Henry himself, a young monarch trying to prove to himself and the world that he is God's man for the job. But only the main character, Nicholas Hook, and his love interest, the French novice Melisande, are given any background story, and even that is undetailed.

Hook alone shows development and change over the course of the novel, from an uncertain young man into a confident, battle-hardened leader. Hook is an archer who finds himself an outlaw mercenary in search of redemption. Near the beginning of the novel, he witnesses a girl being raped by a priest. He hears the audible voice of God telling him to prevent the crime, but unsure of himself and of the voice, Hook fails to act. Thereafter, he finds himself hearing the voices of saints, especially Saints Crispin and Crispinian, who advise him in battle and eventually assist him in redeeming himself from his failure to obey God's behest.

While Nicholas himself is of some interest, Cornwell's real story is that of the battles that led up to Henry V's miraculous victory at Agincourt. From the French massacre of their own people at Soissons to the siege of Harfleur to the battlefield at Agincourt itself, Cornwell clearly takes delight in exploring the details of medieval warfare, including the gruesome bloodshed and barbaric, carnal behavior of the soldiers involved. If there are a thousand ways to die on a battlefield, Cornwell has thought of them all--and described them in extensive detail throughout the 4oo pages of his novel. By the time you finally get to the battle at Agincourt, which is nearly 300 pages in, even the most horrific images fail to impress. At this point, I felt little interest about what happened to Hook or Melisande or the other characters--only a sense of exhaustion and a "Must this go on? Can't you all just wrap this up and go home?" While I see this excruciatingly drawn-out description as a definite weakness in Cornwell's writing, I do have to give him credit: I think I was feeling the same mental exhaustion and disbelief that the soldiers must have felt, knowing that they had yet more fighting in front of them. Perhaps this was all intentional on Cornwell's part?

Despite the shallow characters and exhausting detail, the novel has one major redeeming quality: I learned an incredible amount about medieval warfare in general and about the specific confrontations leading up to and including the famous battle at Agincourt. Henry V is among my favorites of Shakespeare's plays, and I was truly gratified to learn more about the history and the brutal reality of Agincourt and it's preceding battles. I always prefer to glean my history from historical fiction or first-hand accounts rather than from dried-up textbook descriptions. Cornwell does an admirable job portraying the realities of life as a medieval soldier, and I feel I have a much more precise (and de-romanticized) picture of knights and lords and daily life in those times than I did before pushing through this novel.

If you are squeamish about depictions of blood and violence, or if you simply don't want to spend a dozen hours immersing yourself in such images, then avoid this book. But if you are looking for a highly descriptive ground's-eye glimpse into medieval warfare, Cornwell will happily and skillfully assist. As for me, I think I'm ready for a story about kittens or something else equally benign.