Blocked crossings turn the Calais march toward Agincourt

Henry turns toward Calais expecting a manageable march through countryside already damaged by earlier English raids. Torrential rain and French blocking forces instead make one river crossing after another unusable, forcing his army to fight at bridges and fords and detour about seventy kilometres inland before crossing the Somme. Supplies, troop condition, and morale fall together as the French army moves to cut off the retreat. The account rejects Shakespeare's figure of sixty thousand French troops but still estimates a force of twenty to thirty thousand, at least four times larger than Henry's exhausted army. When French messengers announce battle, Henry answers that events will follow God's will. That night, his men camp in mud, see French fires stretching across the horizon, and prepare to die before Agincourt. Failed movement and supply have created the crisis before the battle begins.