The Origin of "Band of Brothers"
Posted on 30 Jun 2025
Category: leadership, discipleship
Author: Barney Barnes
The year is 1415 and young King Henry V has landed a well-equipped English army in Normandy. On their march inland they encounter stiff opposition as they lay siege to the strategic city of Harfleur. However, their greatest enemy is dysentery which kills or incapacitates about one third of the army or 3000 men. After Harfleur surrenders, Henry marches on covering 200 miles in just 16 days. The English army now exhausted, filthy, and starving reaches Agincourt only to find themselves facing a much larger French army of 15,000. Not only were they the visiting team but the home team had much more than home field advantage.
Dr. William Bennet in his wonderful classic, The Book of Virtues, says this of the speech Henry gives to his men just before the Battle of Agincourt: "I believe, from my experience, that this speech is the model for all half-time talks given by all football coaches every Fall in America."
Here are a few excerpts of Henry’s speech from Shakespeare’s King Henry the Fifth:
That he which hath no stomach for this fight, Let him depart; his passport shall be made...
We would not die in that man’s company, That fears his fellowship to die with us.
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers
For he today that sheds his blood with me, Shall be my brother, be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition; And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhood’s cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
The day of the Battle of Agincourt, October 25, was also the English holiday, St. Crispen’s Day. This fact made the decisive English victory even more endearing. The French army suffered an estimated 8000 killed in action while the English only had about 600 killed in action. During the darkest days of World War 2, Sir Winston Churchill employed some of Shakespeare’s imagery from the very well-known victory at Agincourt to inspire the British to "to band together".
As men in The Lord’s Army in 2025, we often appear to be greatly outnumbered, in our quest to redeem and re-take the culture surrounding us. The "weakened "English army rallied to the call of their king, we few, we happy few, we band of brothers. We too must rally to the call of Our King. We must ask the Holy Spirit to help us filter out all the cultural noise so we can hear what Our King is saying. We must enjoin ourselves individually to Bands of Brothers for we know that it pleases The Father that we dwell together in unity. Therein is our strength as we march forth in unity of Spirit... we few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
Let us not squander the many current and emerging opportunities that lie before us, as we purpose to never be counted among those men who hold their manhoods cheap!"
Barney Barnes, 06-26-25, Former Promise Keepers National Ambassador for the Military and Prisons