AP European History -- Sample answers to chapter 12 questions
Answers to #7
The “band of brothers” speech was a creation of Shakespeare’s play Henry V, who imagined Henry
V trying to boost the spirits of his tired and weak English army during the Hundred Years War to
help them get ready for the history battle at Agincourt, which added to the advantages of the
British, such as longbows, superior war strategies and navy. The speech mainly consisted of Henry
proclaiming that although the British are at a disadvantage in numbers, they will have an advantage
in fighting spirit, heart, and pride for England. Before the speech was given, the English troops
had run into a huge French army on its way to meet up with other troops by the coast. To rally his
troops up for battle, Henry V would have given them the “band of brothers” pep talk, which
worked. The British fought hard, losing only 400 people to an astounding 6,000 French deaths.
The advantages that helped the victory of the British was that the French had to fight with heavy,
cumbersome armour, which made them slow and tired easily, while the English could be quicker
with no armour and could move easily away from their uncoordinated swings of axes and swords.
Additionally, the English used longbows, which shot 3 arrows to the French crossbow’s 1 arrow.
They could be reloaded quickly, even though their shooting accuracy was not as good as the
crossbows. However, the main leg up that the British had was their boosted morale.
This band of brothers is the speech Henry V gives to the English troops on St. Crispin’s day
(October 25) to prepare them for battle in the play Henry V, by Shakespeare, taking place during
the Hundred Years War. The speech is saying that yes, the English are outnumber and the chances
are bleak, but they will fight to the death with pride and fury, and that anybody who’s heart is not
in it can leave. This speech is what Shakespeare imagined Henry V saying before the legendary
battle at Agincourt. Before the battle, Henry V was leading his troops, half of which had been lost
earlier due to disease and casualties, to the coast too meet the English fleet. However on his way
the troops met a French army of about 20,000 men. He has to fight them, but he is outnumbered
by thousands, and his troops are tired and sick. This is when Shakespeare’s speech would have
taken place. The English threw themselves into the battle. While they were outnumbered by an
insane amount, they had some advantages. The French were weighed down in armor, but the
English were unencumbered and agile. They also made excellent use of archers to weaken the
French before they even conflicted. Then, because of the terrible weight of the armor, the French
had an extremely difficult time of attacking the nimble English, who easily swing at them with
swords and axes. Despite the odds, the English had used their few advantages to maximum
potential, and ending with just 400 deaths to the French’s 6,000. The advantages seen in this battle
were advantages for England in the whole war. Their advanced archery gave them a huge leg up,
as well as good strategies and a superior navy.
The “band of brothers” in Agincourt referred to the fact that the English had a much smaller force,
and how England was a more centralized, unified country. The English had several major
advantages over the French. They had longbows, which could fire three times as fast as the French
crossbows, lighter cavalry for more mobile attacks, and were as mentioned before, more unified
with superior strategy. The English also had cannons, but so did the French, so that was not really
an advantage, but marked the first use of artillery.
The “band of brothers” was a consolidated group of the English that fought and won against the
large French army at the Battle of Agincourt. At the time, the English had advantages over the
French that they had more support from the groups outside from England, the English army had
longbows, and the French cavalry troops were ridden on horses. During the battle, the French had
a larger army than the English. The English army was so small that it was only 1/10 of the French
army. Despite the fact of the larger numbers of the opponent army, Henry V gave an astonishing
speech to the “band of brothers”. He motivated his “brothers”, saying that they are the “brothers”
and must go fight against the French. The power and the motivation of the English army increased
and beat the French at Agincourt. The English had some advantages over the French. The English
had more support from the outside of England than the French. A group of the Burgundians is a
perfect example. The Burgundians fought with the English to beat the French army. The English
army used longbows instead of crossbows. Longbows allowed the English troops to reload faster
and to send off three arrows to the French crossbowmen’s one. Also the French troops were all
cavalry, meaning that they rode on horses. That was a great advantage for the English because
when the French troops fell to the ground from their horses, it was hard for them to get up and reride on their horses. Therefore the English troops could easily shoot them with their longbows
while they were on the ground when they fell down from their horses.
In Agincourt the English force was much smaller than the French force, therefore a closely knit
band of brothers, connected to each other by their hardships and blood. One advantage the English
possessed was the long-bow, which could pierce French armor, had a faster reload, about a 3:1
ratio, and could shoot farther than the French crossbow. The English Cavalry were faster and more
mobile, as opposed to the French heavy cavalry, and could outmaneuver the French. The English
army also gained an experience advantage after recently fighting the Scottish Wars. Furthermore
English also used nonstandard tactics and formations to surprise the French, most notably the
Herce formation, where two triangular blocks of archers stood on either side of dismounted menat-arms creating a funnel which was very difficult to break down, as opposed to the traditional
French battle line.
An answer to #6
The hundred years war was caused when King Charles IV of France died childless. The rightful
heir of France was currently the King of England and a conflict of interest was immediately
created. The already increased tensions between England and France doubled when the French
Barons appointed Phillip VI to the crown. The fight continued over Aquitaine, where under the
Treaty of Paris, King Edward was a vassal for the duchy. However, King Philip confiscated it and
Edward saw it as an act of war. The war lasted so long not only because both sides were very
strong forces but also because it turned into a French Civil War when some of the barons supported
England. Ultimately France won the Hundred Years War because of multiple reasons. Primarily
they had the home field advantage, but also the victory was because of Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc
convinced the dauphin to become king of France and helped the army with all of her being. With
her help the French pushed the English from Normandy and Eventually Aquitaine. At the end of
the war in 1453, Calais was the only town left under English control.
Answers to #8
The Hundred years war ended the way it did for one reason alone, Joan of Arc. The French were
on the brink of destruction when a young peasant women, Joan of Arc, stepped up as a prominent
war leader and lifesaver for the French. Joan of Arc claimed to hear the voices of famous Saint
Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret. Supposedly they told her to she must find a way to
crown the young King Charles VII and rid France the English. Joan went to the king but just to be
sure she truly was special he put somebody else on the thrown to see if she would know if it was
him or not. Sure enough Joan of Arc completely ignored the person on the thrown and went straight
to the king who was waiting in the corner. Her mission was to go to Orleans to Crown king Charles
the VII, however the city was through Burundian territory, and allies of the English. The French
soldiers laid siege to the city until on May 8th the English and Burundian allies withdrew from
Orleans. Soon after Henry VII was crowned king. Because Joan of Arc was at Orleans she
strengthened the morality of the army. However, In 1430 Joan was captured by a group of
Burundian soldiers and was sold over to the English. In England she was put on trial for witchcraft.
Though this was absolutely false the English wanted to rid her because of her powerful influence
during the war. Despite all the things she did for France the King would pay the ransom for her
freedom. In 1431 she was burned at the stake. She was declared a maiden and later a patron. The
victory at Orleans and Joan’s helpful war tactics and victories helped build French pride. After her
death the English began to loss more and more money and land. Finally the English army had lost
support from their home country. The people were tired of paying taxes to support the war effort.
They had been stuck under taxes for 116 years. They were through. Soon after, the English
surrendered and the Treaty of Paris was signed. The war was over.
The Hundred Years War ended with a French victory because of English internal problem and a
rallying by the French. The Hundred Years War was costly to the English. After more than one
hundred years they had spent 5 million pounds and had acquired little wealth as recompense. The
king ran out of funds and supplies to support his army. He raised taxes but it was still not
enough. When he asked Parliament for money, he was refused. These taxes angered peasants and
caused protests. With these array of problems the English resolve quickly fizzled out. The
French were able to expel the English by rallying behind Joan of Arc. She went to the uncrowned
king of France, Charles VII asking to let her lead the battle against the English. Charles the VII
allowed her to accompany his army at Orleans. The French army was able to defeat the English
and recapture the city. Ten days later Charles VII was crowned. These two events boosted the
French confidence. Joan of Arc’s reputation was boosted by the fact that she was wounded yet
survived at Orleans. She became a symbol of hope and boosted the morale of the French Army.
After she was captured and late killed, she became a martyr for the French cause. The French
rallied around her memory with new vitality and strength, regrouping their resources, and slowly
pushing the English out of Aquitaine and Normandy.
An answer to #10
A conclave is an electoral vote on an assembly of cardinals who are elected to be the next pope. A
schism in general is a separation of opposing sides or parties because of their contrasting beliefs.
After pope Gregory XI brought the papal court back to Rome from Avignon, he died shortly after.
This thus left an open slot for someone to be the next pope. The Italians wanted another Italian
pope. In the conclave of 1378, sixteen cardinals were chosen for the election. Pope Urban VI was
chosen. He wanted many reforms in the church. He wanted less pluralism, no absenteeism, no
simony and no extravagant luxuries for the cardinals and bishops. Right away he started accusing
the cardinals of these pleasures and attempted to excommunicate them. The defensive cardinals
slowly met at Anagi to declare that Pope Urban VI’s election was invalid. They wanted to elect
another pope, so they elected Clement VII. Clement VII settled in Avignon as the antipope. Now
there were two Popes, Urban, and Clement. The occurrence of two popes caused the Great Schism.
Since Avignon was in France, the French recognized Clement as their pope. The Scottish also
recognized Clement as their pope because they were allies of the French. The English, and Italians
recognized Urban as the true pope. Because of the uncertainty of who the real pope was, and no
real figurehead in Christianity, the religion slowly became weaker, and unstable.