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Founded: 1415Category: Statues in France
Historical period: Valois Dynasty and Hundred Year's War (France)
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Azincourt (Agincourt in English) is a town where the key battle of the Hundred Years War took place here on October 25, 1415, in which English outnumbered forces under Henry V defeated a French army. It has gone down in legend as one of England's greatest military victories. Henry's army lost between 200 to 400 men (including the Duke of York and the Earl of Suffolk), while French casualties were estimated as high as 10,000. Among the latter were commander-in-chief Charles of Albret, three dukes, five counts, some 90 barons and over 1500 knights.
No Englishmen were buried at Agincourt; Henry had their corpses piled into a barn which was then burned to the ground. The remains of Albret and 13 French noblemen were entombed in a monastery church in the fortified town of Hesdin (destroyed in 1553), and other slain aristocrats were taken away by their families or retinues. Five days after the battle, Philip Count of Chartlois commissioned the burial of the remaining French dead. Some 5800 bodies were interred in three pits at the eastern edge of the field; the ground was consecrated and surrounded with a stone wall.
In 1734 the Marchioness of Tramecourt built a small chapel there, but this and the cemetery itself were destroyed by pro-revolutionary mobs in 1794. The site of the mass graves is now enveloped by trees and marked only with a wood and stone crucifix, placed around 1820. There is also a more modern memorial on the grounds as well as a museum/tourist center.
References:Kakesbeck is one of the largest medieval fortifications in Münsterland and the oldest castle in Lüdinghausen. The imposingly grown complex originated in 1120 as a motte, a small hilltop tower castle. After numerous changes of ownership, the castle was extended onto two islands, but it was not until the 14th century that it underwent significant alterations and extensions under the von Oer family. The estate experienced its heyday in the middle of the 18th century, when it covered an area of almost one square kilometre and consisted of five further outer castles in addition to the core castle, which were secured by ramparts and moats.
The well-maintained condition of the castle today is thanks to the late Wilfried Grewing, the former lord of the castle. The foundation named after him has been particularly committed to preserving the property since 2020.