Listing the dead of battles: the example of Agincourt (1415)

Lists of dead are often found in late medieval chronicles. It is not easy to know on what sources of information they were based, and such questions are often neglected in editions and studies of texts. Building on an initial critical analysis by Olivier Bouzy, we carry out a comparative study of the lists of dead at Agincourt as found in fifteenth-century chronicles. This corpus is complemented by two independent lists compiled soon after the battle, of which one is published for the first time as an appendix. Our research shows that the composition of such lists is the result of two interlinked factors: access to information and authorial choice. We also suggest that these lists were based on an original list in whose compilation, as well as circulation in England, a herald was involved, thereby providing a concrete example of the tallying and identification of battle dead which is often ascribed in the chronicle sources to the officers of arms.