fandomhigh | Battles That Changed History, Second Period, Friday 3/5

"Welcome back, I hope you enjoyed your break, let's get right to it," Steve said. "The Hundred Years' War, which actually lasted one hundred and sixteen years, was fought between England and France over the French succession. The line of French kings had died out and, as you will recall from a few weeks ago, the kings of England were descended from French nobility via William the Conqueror, so they figured they'd stake a claim. Eventually one of the French noble houses came out on top and the English was forced back to their island, but the battle we're going to talk about today was an English victory, fought on October 25, 1415. Also known as the Feast of St. Crispin."

Steve clicked a button on the remote he held, and the blank walls of the Danger Shop shifted into a fairly unremarkable field. Steve raised his head, straightened his shoulders, looked his students in the eye, and began to speak in the cadences of a man who'd given more than one inspirational speech in his time and knew how it was done:

"And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered--
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now abed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

Then he was back to his usual, fairly affable persona as he said, "William Shakespeare, Henry V. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Agincourt. I'm sure he said something, since people usually do when they're as badly outnumbered as he was, but I don't know if Henry V ever actually said anything like those words, but it doesn't really matter, in a way." Steve knew all about symbols like that. If you asked five different people who were there you'd get five different versions of what he said before they hit the beach on D-Day. "They've inspired men for hundreds of years since.

"Now, the English longbow was a decisive part of this victory, so I thought about letting you mess around with those, but then I thought better of it." Even with the Danger Shop's safeties, Steve was...wary. "So we're going to talk about the power of words. You can investigate the terrain if you like, but it's pretty much...a field, so, pair up, talk about what sort of impact you think speeches have. I have copies of the full speech if anyone wants to give declaiming it a try," he offered, because he was in fact a giant nerd. "Here would be the place to do it, if anywhere."

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"Think we could talk him into letting just us use the longbows?" Mat asked in an undertone.

"...Well, there's no harm in asking," Arthur said, thoughtfully.

"The Two Rivers is famous for our longbows," Mat said with a smile. "I've been using one since I was strong enough to draw one back."

"I have seen you shoot," Arthur pointed out, easily. "Not too shaby."

Mat tried not to preen. He recognized a backhanded compliment when he received one. "Most of us can hit a target at three hundred paces."

"Not four hundred?"

Listen, they had to play the backhanded game here; it was writ in the invisible rules of social conduct between two men of their age and constitution.

"That's just for those of us who are very talented," Mat said with a smirk. "Like I am."

"You can try four hundred and fifty if you manage to talk him into letting us have some longbows," Arthur noted, idly.

Mat grinned. "And you can try to hit the broad side of a barn," he said oh-so-graciously.

Battles That Changed History, Second Period, Friday 3/5

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