As the 600th anniversary of the famous Battle of Agincourt looms – it’s on 25th October 2015 – one descendant of a great many participants on both the British and French sides, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, has written a book full of fascinating period detail.
To take but one example: drummers, known as “knackerers” in the British Army wore two small drums slung low over their crotch “and this is thought to be why in slang language, testicles have been called knackers ever since”.
Source: Agincourt: My Family, The Battle and the Fight for France, by Ranulph Fiennes, Hodder & Stoughton, 2014.