[Cronos]

The problem with including Agincourt in that is that we put current day nationalisms on top of medieval kingly battles. Until John, for 200 years the English kings spoke French, were holders of vast lands in France and later with Henry V contended for the French throne

This was more a part of the wider battle for the Angevin dynasty -- this dynasty came close to ruling much of Europe in the 1300s -- one even became king of Hungary and Poland.

[katana]

All true enough. I'm in the middle of reading an interesting history of the Plantagenet Dynasty. Henry II's territories on the continent amounted to a small empire including about half of modern day France.

I would respectfully argue though that while the British nobles at the battle certainly possessed French ancestry and some residual identification with the culture (and were keen on getting their ancestral lands back) the common foot soldiers and archers were as English as the Thames. Their unfortunate opponents did not believe they were fighting fellow Frenchmen and it is celebrated in England as a miraculous English victory. Shakespeare (and Olivier in 1944) certainly played some part in making that so.

PS: I enjoy reading your posts. European history was not my focus in college. Middle East was.