The year has started wet and muddy, but there’s nothing unusual in that. Much of British history has been caked in mud, and in fact such quagmires have come to the rescue of the English in some key historic battles.
At Agincourt in 1415, Henry V’s army was vastly outnumbered by the French, but torrential rains had turned the battlefield into a mud bath. When the rain eventually stopped on October 25, the French attacked using heavily armoured cavalry but they sank into the mud and made easy targets for the English archers. The cavalry retreated in panic, colliding with their own infantry, opening the way for the English troops to attack and secure a spectacular victory.
Mud again came to the rescue in June 1815, when Napoleon was forced to delay his attack on the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo.
A thunderstorm turned the ground to thick mud, making it difficult for the French to move artillery and cavalry, and Napoleon had to wait for the ground to dry. That delay proved crucial for Wellington as he waited for the appearance of his Prussian allies, led by Field Marshal Prince Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.
Before they arrived, Wellington’s army was outnumbered and outgunned by the French, and by late afternoon the British were in a precarious state before the Prussians appeared and turned the battle into a rout.
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Apart from historic battles, mud also has an interesting reputation for health. Best known are mud baths and mud packs for healthy skin, but contact with the substance is also thought to boost the immune system.
Children brought up on farms are generally less likely to have conditions such as hayfever and asthma, and it is thought that the microbes in mud help to build up immunity.
A study in Finland found that children in day centres that introduced mud in playgrounds developed much healthier gut microbes within only four weeks, and also suffered fewer coughs and colds for months afterwards.
