AUBURN — Holding makeshift swords and longbows, medieval soldiers played by sophomores marched across the football field Tuesday morning, ready to attack.

“Everyone, get your weapons!” directed Tate Howes, 15. “Get your bow. Get a sword.”

Someone started playing the battle drum. The English ran toward the French, with swords drawn on both sides.

Unlike a real battle in the Hundred Years’ War, these soldiers were smiling as an Edward Little High School world history class re-enacted the Battle of Agincourt, which happened in 1415 in northern France.

The idea came from Howes, a sophomore interested not only in history, but film and the military.

History teacher Erin Towns explained students could do an extra credit project about the Middle Ages. Student teacher Robert Fellner asked for ideas about the Hundred Years’ War.

Tate said, “Well, I have a movie script.”

Surprised, Towns said, “You have a movie script about the Hundred Years’ War?”

He said yes.

Towns teaches about the conflict between England and France, how France eventually kicked out the English, but how it took a heavy toll on France.

She doesn’t teach about individual battles, Towns said. For a student to put together a detailed project as Howes did, “it blew me away,” she said.

Howes asked his class members if they’d act out the battle while it was videotaped. They agreed.

He said he chose to research the Battle of Agincourt because it was interesting. He wanted to know how war was waged 1,000 years ago. “It was pretty much whoever had more guys would be the winner,” Howes said.

Weapons then were swords and bows. In the Battle of Agincourt, a prevalent weapon was the English longbow, one reason the British won that fight, Howes explained.

The powerful longbows were “new technology to them,” Howes said. “They were able to shoot really far, more than they had ever seen. It turned the momentum in their favor by using those bows.”

Howes said he also learned how the Hundred Years’ War influenced the American Revolution. The war in France influenced how the English taxed the colonists, and how the French were willing to help the colonists because they still hated the English.

In the history classroom Tuesday morning, students prepared for battle by taping an “E” or “F” on their jackets, identifying which side they would play.

One student wearing an “F” drew a mustache under her nose and spoke French.

Patrick Cowan played the role of the French duke Charles d’Albret. “I believe I’m going to lead people into battle and then I’m going to get killed, shot by an archer,” Cowan said as he walked on the field. Students around him shivered in the cold.

The English troops began their invasion at the high school’s snake path. In formation to the sound of a war drum, they marched up a hill and over a field, finding the French soldiers at camp.

Howes was at the football field at 6:30 that morning setting up props for the camp, his teacher said.

At the camp, Howes directed one of the students wearing an “F” to pretend he was dying, representing those who died from the plague or sickness. A boy groaned and fell to the ground. His comrades cried out.

The same boy soon jumped to his feet and went to battle. In this war soldiers are recycled, Howes said with a grin.

Fellner, who is retired from the Army, said he was pleased with the re-enactment. Any time a group of students physically take ownership of a project, learning becomes deeper, he said.

“I think it’s outstanding,” he said.

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