Abstract

The Battle of Agincourt (1415) has played a central role in celebrations of English national heroism. This article examines one of the most important challenges within English culture to the battle's status, Robert Southey's poem, Joan of Arc (1796). The essay analyses why the poem was written, how it set out to change national views about Agincourt but why, ultimately, even Southey came to accept he had failed. Southey was more successful in critiquing Agincourt through his best-selling work Wat Tyler (1794), which played a key role in creating an alternative, radical method of remembering the Hundred Years War.