Number 127 Autumn 2015 The magazine of the Historical Association Agincourt Photo by: ITV/REX Shutterstock New history writing competition The Historical Association and will receive a £1,000 advance How to enter Amberley Publishing are excited and a contract with Amberley to announce the launch of a Publishing, who will publish, You should include: brand new competition to find promote and distribute the • A 200-word synopsis. the best unpublished, non-fiction finished book. The winner will history book and are seeking also have the opportunity to • A chapter plan with a brief both aspiring and established write an article about their book description of what will be authors to submit interesting and for The Historian. covered in each chapter. original proposals. • A 50-word biography of The judging panel for the yourself including any Whether you have a completed competition will include the relevant experience. manuscript or just a good idea, bestselling author and Historian • 2,000 words of sample we want to hear about it. This Michael Pye, the Historical writing from the opening of is your chance to become a Association’s President Professor the book. published history author. Justin Champion, Amberley’s • Some sample images, if publishing director Jon Jackson, images are integral to the Jon Jackson, publishing chairman of the Book Trade book. director at Amberley, says, ‘This Charity and authors Amy Licence competition taps into the massive and Lesley McDowell. Deadline for entries: grassroots interest in local and 1 November 2015. personal history and the unique Amy Licence says, ‘This is a elements of British heritage. We fantastic opportunity for a new The winner will be announced in the January 2016 issue of are looking for a new, exciting, author to debut their talent, The Historian magazine. untold story.’ just the sort of competition I wish had been around when Please email your submissions to Proposals can cover any aspect I was starting out. I’m very [email protected] of history and the competition excited about this chance to is free to enter and open to help discover the authors of the or post them to: everyone. The winning author future.’ Competition, Amberley Publishing, The winning author will receive a The Hill, Merrywalks, Stroud, Gloucestershire, publishing contract with Amberley GL5 4EP Publishing and a £1,000 advance www.amberly-books.com Issue 127 / Autumn 2015 4 Reviews 30 Playing for high stakes: 5 Editorial the archer’s stake and the battle of Agincourt Mark Hinsley 36 My Favourite History Place: Magdeburg’s Altstadt Elisabeth Davies 37 Mary Seacole in ten tweets Paula Kitching 38 Out and About in Montreuil-sur-Mer John Painter 6 Agincourt 1415-2015 42 WWI and the flu pandemic: Anne Curry life, death and memory Hugh Gault 11 The President’s Column 12 Welsh archers at Agincourt: in this issue myth and reality Adam Chapman 18 On the campaign trail: walking the Hundred Years War Peter Hoskins 24 Henry V in the cinema: Laurence PEFC Certified Olivier’s charismatic version of This product is from sustainably managed forests and history controlled sources PEFC/16-33-254 www.pefc.org Richard Inverne The Historical Association 59a Kennington Park Road London SE11 4JH Telephone: 020 7735 3901 Fax: 020 7582 4989 PRESIDENT Professor Justin Champion DEPUTY PRESIDENT Dr Michael Maddison HONOrary TREASURER Richard Walker HONOrary secretary Dr Tim Lomas GUEST EDITOR Contact us c/o The Historical Association’s office at: CHIEF EXECUTIVE Rebecca Sullivan Anne Curry 59a Kennington Park Road, London SE11 4JH or email us at: [email protected] © The Historical Association 2015 all rights reserved. EDITOR Registered charity 1120261 Trevor James Contributions to The Historian are welcomed for Incorporated by Royal Charter consideration for possible publication but the Advertising Association cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited telephone: 020 7820 5985 EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Alf Wilkinson, Paula Kitching, Rebecca Sullivan, Dave Martin manuscripts nor guarantee publication. All enquiries Printed in Great Britain by should be sent initially to the Association at the above Stephens & George Print Group and Rafael Pepiol Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, CF48 3TD address. The publication of a contribution by the Historical Association does not necessarily imply the PUBLISHER Rebecca Sullivan ISSN 0265-1076 Association’s approval of the opinions expressed in it. DESIGN AND layOUT Martin Hoare Reviews Germany In this book Prit Buttar continues his analysis on the part of the Central Powers balanced Ascendant: the and narrative on what was happening on mismanagement on a massive scale by the Eastern Front 1915 the Eastern Front in the Great War from his Russians, leading to an absence of a final Prit Buttar previous Collision of Empires: The War on the success for either side. Osprey Publishing, 2015, Eastern Front in 1914 [Osprey, 2014]. 448p, £20-00. ISBN 978- Prit Buttar communicates his narrative and 1-4728-0795-3 He continues to make the point that most associated analysis in a very clear manner. This scholars focus on the dreadful suffering and is a book for scholars with a focused interest. stalemate on the Western Front without any By contrast the enormity of the detail will deter consideration of what was happening on the casual enquirer unless they are carefully the Eastern Front. This meticulous survey guided to begin by exploring the opening reveals that the Central Powers were making and concluding chapters. These very carefully measurable progress to the east with the Golice- both set the scene and also explain what had Tarnow Offensive which led to the retreat of happened over that year. With that preparation Russian forces from Poland and the occupation the interested reader might then explore some of Serbia, being two examples of their advances. or all of the key events of the 1915 campaigns These successes were achieved at the expense in the east. of massive human losses, basically unreported in the west. However, amidst this success, Prit Trevor James Buttar does stress that leadership weaknesses Under Fire: Essex and role and experience of the county from a people of Essex experienced, and reacted the Second World strategic perspective. Instead in exploring to, war. Two examples will reflect their War 1939-1945 a number of themes, Paul Rusiecki also behaviours. The famous Maldon by-election Paul Rusiecki emphasises for us that, whatever its strategic of 1942 resulted in the Independent Tom University of Hertfordshire location, Essex continued to be an important Driberg being elected against the huge Press, 2015, and essential part of the national agricultural electoral machine mounted by Churchill’s 320p, £18-99. output; and he also helps us to recognise Coalition Conservatives, a sign of local ISBN 978-1-909291-28-7 that there are different ways to identify determination. Equally, in chapter 5, the Essex as a geographical entity. Obviously manner in which local opinion shifted after there is an open agricultural area with its Soviet Russia joined the Allies in 1941 is also Paul Rusiecki has explored what happened important market towns but, in addition to explored at the important micro level. to Essex during the Second World War in a its defensive role, many people who identified remarkable manner. This book is in many as being from Essex lived, as they still do, What we are offered is an insight into the ways more about the experience of the in the expanding conurbation to the east of Essex society of those critical war years but people who lived in Essex than it is about the London. So Essex is a region of complexities. those of us whose heritage lies elsewhere can conduct of the war itself. use this book as a very valuable template to This book is strongly focused on how the pursue our own investigations into our areas With Essex geographically on the front line varying populations, and age groups, coped of choice. of defence and adjacent to the River Thames, with the challenges of war. What he does it would have been easy just to examine the extremely well is to reveal to us how the Trevor James Armies of the excellent booklet in the Osprey Men-at-Arms British soldiers were sent to Thrace and Greek-Turkish War series covers one of these conflicts, the Greek- Constantinople in late 1922 to help oversee the 1919-22 Turkish War of 1919 to 1922 that led to the armistice and the peace treaty, including the Philip S Jowett establishment of the modern Turkish state. resulting massive population movements that Osprey Publishing, 2015, were a feature of the break-up of the Ottoman £9.95, 48 pages, ISBN Philip Jowett has packed in a great deal of Empire, such as the ‘Armenian Genocide’. Jowett 978-1-4728-0684-0 information, while remaining eminently doesn’t ignore the widespread civilian atrocities readable. He recounts the support that the but space doesn’t allow him to dwell on them. Entente/Allied nations gave to Greece for its invasion of Anatolia and the parlous state of This is part of a series of Osprey booklets on In his introduction to the New Oxford Turkish resistance. Once Allied support was near-eastern armies of the period, including one Illustrated History of the First World War Sir reduced in 1921, on the return of Constantine on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk by Edward Erikson, Hew Strachan noted that warfare didn’t end to the Greek throne, it was only a matter of the American historian who has done much to neatly because an armistice was agreed with time before the Turkish Nationalists triumphed, open up later Ottoman archives. Germany on 11 November 1918, as many under the leadership of Gallipoli hero peripheral conflicts began or continued.