The Château de Tramecourt

By Professor Anne Curry

Burgundian accounts of the battle have the French drawing up their troops between two areas of woodland, one close to Azincourt, the other to Tramecourt.

They also claim that Henry sent a group of archers ‘towards Tramecourt to a meadow close to where the vanguard of the French were positioned’. Tramecourt is not mentioned in in any other French accounts or in any English narratives of the battle of the fifteenth century.

By at least the early nineteenth century the area between Azincourt and Tramecourt was considered to be the battlefield. When medals were presented to  Waterloo veterans on the field of Agincourt in 1816, a commentator noted that  part of the woodland  belonging to Tramecourt, where Henry had sent a group of archers, was still visible even if thinned in comparison to 1415 (The Caldedonian Mercury, 16 June 1816).

The current Château de Tramecourt dates back to the 1740s, replacing an earlier château of 1615. It is approached down a wide avenue. At the 500th anniversary of the battle of Agincourt in 1915, French troops of the 3ème battalion of Chasseurs-à-pied were stationed at the Château and invited British troops  ‘to join them on the scene of the battle and commemorate the day in unison’. Both English and French newspapers published a photograph of French troops lined up in the avenue in front of the château.

In July 1917, during their visit to the ‘Battlefield of France’,  George V, Queen Mary and Edward Prince of Wales stayed overnight at the château de Tramecourt, being joined by the king and queen of the Belgians. For a film made of the royal visit under the sponsorship of the War Office Cinema Committee, see http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060008209

A photograph (Australian War Memorial H09574) shows King George at the again in August 1918 inspecting Fijian troops.

The Château de Tramecourt  is poised to play a major part in the 600th anniversary. We are grateful to M. Robert de Chabot-Tramecourt for the information which follows and hope that readers will follow up his invitation.

See also www.tramecourt.com

For more information on visiting the site click on the PDF file.

Image of the Château de Tramecourt taken from Wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 unported license