The Duke of Brabant arrived late to the Battle of Agincourt, and in his eagerness to reach the field, he dressed in improvised armour and wore a surcoat made from a trumpeter's flag. He fought valiantly but was captured by some English archers. He was executed along with the rest of the prisoners ordered by Henry V of England, the English being unaware of his high status and ransom value.[2]
The execution was carried out as the much smaller English force found itself stretched to its limits, guarding prisoners with the battle still not won. A counterattack on the King's baggage train (guarded only by women and children) is thought to have driven King Henry to the decision, thinking he was being attacked from the rear and some chroniclers have given Brabant's belated charge as this very cause, adding to the Duke's chivalric but tragic final story (see "Agincourt", J. Barker 2005). Subsequently the executions stopped immediately when the attack was seen to falter.
^Willem Pieter Blockmans and Walter Prevenier, The Promised Lands: The Low Countries under Burgundian rule, 1369–1530, (University Pennsylvania Press, 1999), 30-31.
^The Battle of Agincourt: Sources and Interpretations, ed. Anne Curry, (The Boydell Press, 2000), 174.
^Richard Vaughan, Philip the Bold, (The Boydell Press, 2009), 90.
