Today, Then and Now

Today is Saint Crispin's day. Did you remember?

In Shakespeare's Henry V, on the eve of the great battle of Agincourt, Henry gives a great speech about how it's Saint Crispin's day, and how all his soldiers will be remembered, and how people will remember them on this day until the end of time. That I remember Saint Crispin's day has to do with what Shakespeare wrote, rather than anything Henry V didn't say at the time. (I have a feeling he didn't speak beautiful iambic pentameter. Was English his first language, or French?)

When I hear politicians today mention how certain things will never be forgotten, I think back to that day in 1415 and how little that huge battle means to most people today. But it meant enough to people of France and England that they were willing to die there, and hundreds did.

The English won that day at Agincourt, and the English and French eventually signed the Treaty of Troyes, acknowledging Henry V the heir to Charles VI.

But Charles outlived Henry, and Henry's son, Henry VI, couldn't maintain England's claim, and so never took the throne of France. (Joan of Arc for the win!) And today, of course, after a couple world wars, France and England are pretty solid allies within the European Union.

Were all those deaths at Agincourt back in 1415 worth it? I don't know. It's hard to think that many deaths in wars are really "worth it," whatever "it" turns out to be. It's really not fruitful to wonder what might have been, back in 1415, but to think on what might yet be, I suppose.