Azincourt (novel)
First edition
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| Author | Bernard Cornwell |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | historical novel |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
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Publication date
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1 October 2008 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 366 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC | 233262808 |
| 823/.914 22 | |
| LC Class | PR6053.O75 A97 2008 |
Azincourt is an historical novel written by Bernard Cornwell. The book relates the events leading to the Battle of Agincourt, through its protagonist Nicholas Hook. In the United States, it was published under the title Agincourt.
Nicholas Hook, a forester and archer, feuds with Tom and Robert Perrill and their biological father, the priest Father Martin. He is compelled to participate in the hanging and burning of a community of Lollard heretics. One of them, an archer himself, asks Hook to protect his granddaughter after he (the condemned man) is gone. But Father Martin decides to take the girl for himself, and in an unsuccessful attempt to shield her, Hook attacks the priest. Hook is then held for trial and anticipated execution. Father Martin and Tom Perrill rape and murder the girl, and Hook's guilt at failing to save her haunts him throughout the story.
Hook escapes and joins an expedition to Soissons, in Burgundy, as a mercenary archer. Burgundy and France are in bitter conflict and the French attack, win easily, sack the town, and torture and kill the English archers as well as the loyal French citizens which shocks Europe. Hook manages to conceal himself in a house and save a local nun, Melisande, from rape. Hook believes he is guided in their escape by the voices of Saints Crispin and Crispinian, the patron saints of Soissons. Melisande becomes Hook's companion and lover. Later, he discovers she is the bastard child of the powerful French Lord Ghillebert, seigneur de Lanferelle (called the "Lord of Hell").
By returning alive from Soissons, and reporting the treachery of the English knight Sir Roger Pallaire, who conspired with the French and sacrificed his own archers, Hook earns good stead with his new lord, Sir John Cornewaille, and with King Henry V. Hook returns to France serving under Cornewaille with the royal army to win Henry the crown of France. The campaign starts horrendously with the siege of the port of Harfleur. The town's capture takes too many weeks, and disease decimates Henry's army. During a failed attack, Hook kills Robert Perrill by thrusting a crossbow bolt through the man's eye.
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