Charles d'Albret
Charles d'Albret was Constable of France and commanded the army destroyed at Agincourt, where he was killed. Born around 1369, he was the son of Arnaud-Amanieu d'Albret, a Gascon lord whose family had shifted allegiance from the English to the French crown, and of Margaret of Bourbon, which made him a cousin of King Charles VI. He was appointed Constable of France in 1402, the senior military office of the kingdom, and held it until 1411 and again from 1413. He campaigned in Guyenne against the English and served as lieutenant-general in the south-west. His command was undermined by the circumstances rather than by any lack of experience. France in 1415 was split between the Armagnac and Burgundian factions, the king suffered periodic insanity, and the Duke of Burgundy stayed away with his forces. The army that assembled at Agincourt was large but included many great lords who outranked or refused to be commanded by the Constable, and the sources describe a council in which the princes overruled a more cautious plan. On 25 October 1415, after Henry V's army had been forced to fight in a narrow field between woods, sodden by rain and ploughed, the French attacked on a compressed front. The dismounted men-at-arms were funnelled together, exhausted by mud, shot at by longbowmen, and unable to use their numbers; those who fell were trampled or suffocated. D'Albret was killed with a very large part of the French nobility, including three dukes and about a hundred other lords.
- Lived: 1370 CE – 1415 CE
- Nationality: French
- Roles: military_leader, noble
