Agincourt has become one of a small number of iconic events in our collective memory. Anne Curry explores how succeeding generations have exploited its significance.

In his budget statement of 18 March 2015 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, announced £1m had been awarded to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the battle of Agincourt. He used the opportunity to make a political jibe, claiming that the victory showed a strong leader defeating ‘an ill-judged alliance between the champion of a united Europe and a renegade force of Scottish nationalists'. The Scots did indeed send troops to France on several occasions in the 1420s. Many Scots fell fighting for the French at the battle of Verneuil on 17 August 1424, a battle which has been termed ‘a second Agincourt' because it was won, as Agincourt itself had been, thanks to the power of English longbows. But no...