Henry V musters his army at Portchester

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In the summer of 1415, King Henry V assembled his invasion force at Portchester Castle before embarking for France and the campaign that would culminate in the Battle of Agincourt. The castle's position on Portsmouth Harbour made it an ideal mustering point, and the large outer bailey could accommodate a substantial body of troops, horses, and equipment. Henry's army of around 12,000 men gathered at Portchester and along the shores of Portsmouth Harbour before sailing across the Channel in mid-August 1415. The fleet, numbering some 1,500 vessels, departed from the harbour and made for the Norman coast, landing near Harfleur. The subsequent siege of Harfleur and the march to Agincourt, where Henry's outnumbered army defeated a much larger French force on 25 October, became one of the defining episodes of English medieval history. Portchester Castle's role as a royal embarkation point was not unique to 1415. The castle had served as a marshalling point for armies crossing to France throughout the Hundred Years' War, and its association with the Agincourt campaign cemented its place in national memory.