French accuse English of war crimes

[Diver]

It's stupid killing the wounded.

Injure them just enough to take them out of the fight.

They then need resources for care and transport, and are a burden on the enemy

[Board Game Geek]

Where there's blame...there's a claim.

I expect the next move, having foreshadowed the harsh treatment the french suffered (decapitilisation intended), is to make a claim for reparations.

It's only fair, 'innit ?

[DS23]

In 300 the Spartans are seen killing wounded Persians too after the battle - in this case we even got video evidence to back up the allegation.

true but that was somewhat before the chivalric code.

[AtW]

In 300 the Spartans are seen killing wounded Persians too after the battle - in this case we even got video evidence to back up the allegation.

[DS23]

juliet barker raises an interesting point in her book "agincourt". there are numerous contemporary accounts of the battle and even small number of eyewitness descriptions of the prisoner executions. she says (my bold):

"the decision to kill the prisoners was undeniably ruthless. yet if henry had spared them and they had launched a second front, the outcome of the day would have been very different and henry himself would be accused of destroying his own men though faint-heartedness or misplaced charity. significantly, not even one of his contemporaries, even among the french, criticised his decision"

[Bob Dalek]

Like modern Britain, modern France seems to be a bollockless namby-pamby, bed-wetting infant. Is it really THAT long ago that they showed the world that they had a bit more about them viz. the French Resistance?

[EternalOptimist]

The French version is actually backed up by History. The same historians have proved that the French under Napoleon did not lose the battle of Waterloo, they merely came second, and the French fleet was sunk by bad weather at Trafalger two days before Nelson showed up to kill all the survivors and claim a victory.

[Diver]

That was during the battle - A couple of thousand French had been taken prisoner, but then a troop of French knights was spotted through some trees and King Henry feared that tackling them might allow the prisoners to overcome their captors and rejoin the fray.

The English were greatly outnumbered, whatever these revisionist Frogs claim. So massacring those prisoners was necessary, even if harsh. (During the Normandy landings in 1944 the order was "no prisoners" for the first 48 hours, for pretty much the same reason.)

Besides they were French.

You know it makes sense

[TimberWolf]

I think the reason given at the time was that the English feared further French attack, so killed the prisoners before they could be freed and re-armed. Still a pretty poor show since the (presumably unwritten) rules benefited both sides. If the French knew they'd have been killed as prisoners they would have fought furiously to the last, killing more English. So it pays both sides to take prisoners, though I imagine this only applied to noblemen at the time.

[OwlHoot]

.. When all the french nobles were lying on the ground injured and stunned after the battle, our yeomen were ordered in and clubbed them to death to a man..

That was during the battle - A couple of thousand French had been taken prisoner, but then a troop of French knights was spotted through some trees and King Henry feared that tackling them might allow the prisoners to overcome their captors and rejoin the fray.

The English were greatly outnumbered, whatever these revisionist Frogs claim. So massacring those prisoners was necessary, even if harsh. (During the Normandy landings in 1944 the order was "no prisoners" for the first 48 hours, for pretty much the same reason.)

[HairyArsedBloke]

Happy Agincourt Day one and all.

This should be a public holiday.

[moorfield]

Er, hang on, remember 1066?

Cheeky f*****s.

[swamp]

French have a point.

Back in those days only the nobles went to war, along with their servants. If you were defeated on the battlefield you were taken prisoner and ransommed. You may have heard of your captor, he may even be a distant cousin.

In the Battle of Agincour we had the nobles and lots of yeomen archers, who were a new middle class. When all the french nobles were lying on the ground injured and stunned after the battle, our yeomen were ordered in and clubbed them to death to a man.

Us English taught the French that war isn't a jolly game for the toffs.

[Diver]

It's an insult the the good people of France.

Bluddy sheep burners that they are

[BrilloPad]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...Agincourt.html

Maybe they should invoke the Geneva convention?

After 593 years who can tell exactly what happened?