1415: Henry V's Year of Glory

by Mortimer, Ian

  The bishop must have felt some sense of trepidation as he entered the refectory of the Dominican monastery, where the Italian nation sat, and looked at all the solemn faces. But he did not fail. According to Cerretano, he spoke with such elegance and persuasiveness that he ‘charmed the ears of everyone in the congregation, moving many of them to tears of pleasure, and won them all to unanimous agreement with his proposal’.50

  In reality, the decision had already been made. Pope Gregory XII had recently sent word to Sigismund that he was prepared to resign his papal title if his rivals would resign theirs. Only yesterday Cardinal Fillastre had urged John XXIII to travel to Nice so he could resign alongside Benedict XIII. Any Italians who still might have spoken up for Pope John XXIII were informed that a list of his crimes was quietly being circulated, to be used against him. If he was not made to resign, he would undoubtedly be deposed. And then he would not only lose his papal title but his good name too, dragging many Italians down with him. Although it is highly unlikely that there were any ‘tears of pleasure’ among the prelates who heard the bishop of Toulon’s speech, there is little doubt that most of them accepted the decision without protest.

  Saturday 16th

  No medieval king achieved renown for paying his bills on time, and Henry was no exception. His uncle, Thomas Beaufort, was still owed a large proportion of the £5,397 he had spent on his soldiers’ wages in Gascony the previous year. Medieval service required the captain in charge of an army to pay such bills himself and seek repayment from the king. Hence Henry’s brother John had been forced to break up his silverware to pay the troops on the Scottish March in 1414. Only now did the king and council decide to reimburse Beaufort for his expenditure, with a payment of £2,000 ‘in full satisfaction’ of the sum owed to him.51

  The above grant, being made by the ‘king in council’, indicates that Henry was back at Westminster (if he had ever gone away). He spent part of the afternoon leaning on his cushion in the great chamber, listening to petitions presented by his chamberlain’s office. Sir Hugh Standish petitioned him today for a suit of armour from the Tower of London. Henry assented.52

  *

  At Constance, the two weeks which John XXIII had requested to think over his resignation were up. He called the whole council to meet after supper in the cathedral. In the candlelight he sadly declared that he had decided to resign. He then let the the cardinal of Florence, Francesco Zabarella, outline the resignation process, as he and his cardinals saw it taking place:

  Our most holy lord pope here present, although bound by no vows, oaths or promises whatever to this pledge, yet for the repose of the people of Christ proposes and agrees willingly and freely to give peace to the Church, even by the method of abdication, on condition that, and in as far as Pedro de Luna [Pope Benedict XIII] and Angelo Corrario [Pope Gregory XII], condemned by the holy council of Pisa for schism and heresy, and deposed from the papacy, make a sufficient renunciation of the rights they claim to the papal office. The abdication is to take place by methods and under circumstances to be named forthwith, and confirmed in negotiations to be held immediately hereafter between our lord or his deputies and your deputies.53

  For those present, including the emperor, this was a great relief. The decision had been made, and made publicly. But this was not an appropriate way forward. It was too vague. Referring to the other pontiffs as schismatics and heretics was hardly the best way to encourage them also to resign. And it made John XXIII’s own resignation conditional. Clearly it would not do. As they had learnt the hard way, after the council of Pisa: if you are going to get rid of a pope, you need to do it properly.

  Sunday 17th

  The most important act Henry performed today was undoubtedly the confirmation of the truce which had been arranged on 24 January.54 The documents containing the French ambassadors’ authority and the terms of the truce itself – to last until 1 May – had been received and checked by Henry’s chancery staff for the king’s approval. The king simply directed the chancellor to apply the great seal.

  Henry’s confirmation of this short truce was a foregone conclusion. More interesting are the grants he issued, many of which were endorsed ‘by the king’. They included rewards for faithful service, such as the 100 marks yearly granted to Sir Richard Arundel, and the grant of the chancellorship of the collegiate church of St John of Beverley to the chaplain Robert Bryde.55 However, some were clearly political. For example, he granted to ‘Richard Beauchamp of Bergavenny, king’s kinsman, and Isabel his wife, sister of Richard, son and heir of Thomas, late Lord Despenser … the reversion of all the castles, towns, lordships, manors … late of the said Thomas, which the king’s kinsman Edward, duke of York, has for life.’56 Thomas Despenser had been one of the lords who had tried to kill Henry and his father and brothers during the Epiphany Rising in 1400. All his lands had been confiscated and the reversion of them had been granted to the informant who had betrayed the conspiracy, the present duke of York. This grant was therefore part of a scheme of reconciliation with the families of Henry’s attempted murderers. Further elements of this scheme were his grants to Constance of York, widow of Lord Despenser, and Eleanor Despenser, widow of Lord Despenser’s son, allowing them to receive the rest of the Despenser estates.57 This was reconciliation on a major scale, for not only had Constance been married to Despenser, but had herself committed treason when she had released Edmund Mortimer and his brother from prison in February 1405. Henry wanted there to be no residual animosity or any threat to his position while at war in France.

  There were other grants, commissions and pardons made today, but only one other need be specified.58 At the request of William, duke of Holland, Henry granted a pardon to one ‘Nelle, Bartholomew’s daughter’ for all felonies, receipts of felons, concealments and trespasses. Henry also undertook to restore to her all her possessions in the town of Calais, and to allow her to live and trade there as before.59 It is not known what Nelle did to get into trouble, but that is not the point. Her pardon raises a question about the relations between Henry and the duke of Holland at this time, for the granting of a pardon at the duke’s request suggests a cordial relationship.

  In exploring this relationship, it is worth noting that the English ambassadors sent in June 1414 to John the Fearless – the duke of Holland’s brother-in-law and ally – had included Thomas Chaucer, Lord Scrope, Hugh Mortimer, Philip Morgan and John Hovingham.60 Before they set out, Philip Morgan was given a safe conduct to treat with the duke of Holland, and he did indeed go to Holland after he had seen the duke of Burgundy.61 What he said in Holland we do not know, but in a rarely consulted set of documents, the Teller’s Rolls, we find that Thomas Chaucer also went to see the duke of Holland at about the same time. The entry reads ‘to Thomas Chaucer sent to the duke of Holland and other lords in foreign parts for the king’s secret negotiations’.62 It looks very much as if there was a secret agreement with Holland. And, as later events proved, what had been promised went far further than merely restoring the goods and good name of ‘Nelle, Bartholomew’s daughter’.

  Monday 18th

  From a historical point of view, one of the most frustrating things about a medieval king’s ‘secret business’ is that it tends to remain secret even today. When we declare that ‘there is no evidence’ for something, the line is a little disingenuous, as most of the king’s really important business was never written down. Evidence and reality do not always match up. What are we to make of an order, issued today, for Sir Bernard Montferrat to speed to the king’s presence ‘for particular causes moving the king’, stating that he should arrive by 1 May at the latest?63 Maybe this was more of the king’s secret business. Maybe he was planning to send this man – who has a Gascon-sounding name – to Gascony, to reveal to certain lords there what he was planning to declare at his great council on 15 April? Perhaps the man just owed the king some money?

  Less uncertainty surrounds the formal appointment today of Sir Thomas Carew and Sir Gilbert
Talbot as captains of the royal fleet, charged with resisting an invasion during the king’s voyage abroad.64 Henry placed 110 men-at-arms and no fewer than 520 archers at their command, thereby contradicting the advice of his council earlier in the month (which had recommended 232 men-at-arms and 232 archers).65 The saving in wages was relatively slight – a daily cost of £17 8s as opposed to £18 10s – but the demonstration of faith in the archers is striking.

  Also today Henry issued a warning to his estranged friend, Sir John Oldcastle. The offer of a free pardon to all the Lollards, offered on 9 December 1414, would be withdrawn if Oldcastle did not give himself up before the great council on 15 April.66 In line with his reconciliation with the Despenser family and Constance of York, Henry wanted no trouble from Lollards while he was in France.

  Tuesday 19th

  By this time all the English ambassadors had arrived in Paris and taken up their lodgings at the hôtel de Clisson. According to the French chroniclers, they rode into the city with a cavalcade of six hundred mounted men. This number sounds like an exaggeration but it might not be: later in the year a French embassy received safe conducts for almost as many men. Either way, it suggests that the English embassy was impressive. The Parisians thronged the streets to see the glamorous display. The English leaders wore cloth of gold and silk.67 The counts of Eu, Vertus and Vendôme went out to receive them with honour, and conducted them to the hôtel de St Pol where the king was residing. The dauphin entertained them in royal style at dinner; and there they saw the thirteen-year-old Princess Katherine, and accepted a portrait of her to take back to Henry. According to Monstrelet, the Englishmen ‘carried themselves so magnificently … that the French, and particularly the Parisians were very much astonished’.68

  Why did Henry send such an impressive peace mission if he was so determined on war? Surely the money would have been better spent on more armour or wages? The answer is not difficult to establish. Henry needed his war to be considered a just one – the shedding of Christian blood could not be condoned unless it was seen in that light. So he had to be seen to give the French a genuine chance to meet his demands. We might say that this was extremely cynical, and that he was only looking for the appearance of a just war; for we know he had already issued the summons for his lords to come to hear the declaration of war on 15 April. But that is precisely why the embassy was so prestigious. Its purpose was symbolic – to give the impression of seeking peace. It had to be magnificent to be convincing.

  Wednesday 20th

  On the Issue Rolls for today we find payments for mercery stuff by Sir Roger Leche, treasurer of the royal household, and Richard Clitherowe, formerly victualler of Calais.69 Old debts were paid: John Horn, fishmonger of London, was reimbursed 100 marks for his losses when his ships had been requisitioned by the king for the siege of Harlech – in 1409, six years earlier. The sum of £300 was sent to pay the wages of the English men-at-arms and archers in Wales. Various messengers were paid for taking letters ‘to all and singular the counties of England’ summoning lords to the great council on 15 April, and now Henry added that they were to be informed that the meeting was to last three days, until the 17th. Frustratingly, we also find another of Henry’s secretive payments. ‘To William Bolton and Nicholas Auncell, messengers, sent with all speed with seven letters under the great seal directed to various sheriffs of various counties for making proclamations within their counties and for certain causes convenient to the king and especially touching his kingdom …’

  With regard to preparations for his invasion, the clerk of the royal ships, William Catton, was paid for cables. Richard Porter was paid for iron spades and shovels for the royal stores, and Nicholas Frost of London, bowyer, was paid £57 3s 4d for making bows from the start of the reign up until 29 May 1414.

  Far more intriguing are three payments on this roll to Henry Scrope. ‘To Henry Lord Scrope of Masham sent on the king’s embassy to the duke of Burgundy to discuss with the duke certain negotiations and secret matters moving our king … £111’. This included repayment of his passage across the sea each way. In itself there is nothing odd about this; we know that Scrope was absent on the king’s business from 26 June to 28 October 1414, during which time he saw John the Fearless in person and sealed an agreement with the duke on Henry’s behalf. In this agreement John the Fearless agreed to offer no opposition to Henry’s attempt to wrest the crown of France from Charles VI but rather to support him and even to supply him with troops.70 But that was just one voyage. Immediately after this entry, there is another, stating that Scrope had crossed the sea a second time on the same secret business with the duke of Burgundy, for which he was paid £180.71 There had been another secret communication. What is important about these pieces of evidence is not what they say, it is what they do not say – their secretive nature. We cannot be certain, but the likelihood is that this second communication built on that earlier one, and confirmed John the Fearless’s promise that he would not hinder Henry in his quarrel with the French king.

  It is among the payments for the king’s ships that we find the most astonishing detail. William Soper was today paid for painting swans and antelopes and various coats of arms on the king’s great ship, the Holy Ghost at Southampton. He was also paid for painting a royal motto on this ship: une sanz pluis (one and no more). The fact that the motto was in French is significant – most royal mottoes had been in English since the 1340s, the one notable exception being the motto of the Order of the Garter. So this particular motto may have been directed at the French. However, the source is significant, for it almost certainly comes from a medieval French version of Homer’s Iliad (which Henry would only have heard in French). The arrogance of the message is quite breathtaking: ‘d’avoir plusieurs seigneurs aucun bien je n’y vois / qu’un sans plus soit le maistre et qu’un seul soit le roi (‘As for having several lords, I see no good therein / let one and no more be the master, and that one alone be the king’). It is difficult to read this as anything other than Henry’s determination to exercise complete authority – over France as well as England, and over his religious subjects as well as his secular ones.72

  Thursday 21st

  In Constance John XXIII met the emperor and presented a new form of words whereby he proposed to resign. He added a clause requiring Sigismund to take arms against his rival popes if they refused to resign. As Fillastre noted, ‘while the first declaration had been unsatisfactory, this second one was still more unsatisfactory’.73 John had misunderstood why his first offer had been unacceptable. In terms of the unity of Christendom, he had no special rights or privileges over the other two popes. Pressure began to build against him, as it was suspected that he was trying to squirm out of his promise.

  *

  In Paris, another tournament was due to take place. A band of Portuguese knights had arrived in the city and challenged any Frenchmen who dared fight them to a joust of war. This contest would be a fight with steel lances and sharpened swords, axes and knives.

  Jousts of war were relatively rare events, and so this one was bound to draw a huge crowd. As Portugal was an ally of England – Queen Philippa of Portugal being Henry V’s aunt – it was decided that Thomas Beaufort, her half-brother, should lead three Portuguese knights out into the lists. With much pageantry and fanfares of trumpets, the seigneur d’Alenton, Sir Jean Cousaille and his brother Sir Peter Cousaille followed Thomas Beaufort and the other English lords into the rue St Antoine. Beaufort was the admiral of England, so it was deemed fitting that his opposite number, Clignet de Brabant, admiral of France, should lead out the three French knights. Then followed the various proclamations and oaths, determining the identity of the knights, and ensuring that they did not use concealed weapons or necromancy in their struggle. Thomas Beaufort and the English lords withdrew to the stands to watch the fight.74

  The ensuing battle was hard. Eventually the Portuguese yielded, and begged for mercy – much to the indignation and embarrassment of Thomas Beaufort and the ot
her English lords, which they made no effort to hide. The French were delighted, and their champions were given an honourable escort through the streets of Paris.

  Friday 22nd

  How do you keep a king prisoner? How do you ensure he remains a prisoner when you leave the country, taking most of the fighting men with you? Henry’s solution to this was to follow his father’s example and use the safest prison in the kingdom, Pevensey Castle, in Sussex. It was far more secure than the Tower of London, from which people did escape from time to time. King James of Scotland had now been in prison for nearly nine years, and Henry had every intention of keeping him in custody – at least until he could negotiate his return to Scotland on favourable terms. It was also vitally important that he keep James alive, for only a living king of Scotland could act as a check on the authority of the Scottish regent, the duke of Albany.

  King James was quietly transferred from the Tower of London to Pevensey Castle, which had been guarded for many years by the redoubtable Sir John Pelham. If James strayed from his tower chamber, he was still confined within the enormously strong walls of the castle and the moat. Even if he were to escape from the castle he would find himself within the outer ward – the vast encircling walls which had been built by the Romans and which were still kept in a good state of repair. And if he managed to climb over those outer walls, he faced miles of marshland. The castle even had an oubliette – an underground dungeon which could not be accessed except by a trapdoor. There was no point in James even thinking of trying to escape. More importantly, there was no easy way for his fellow Scotsmen to spring him from this castle, one of the furthest from Scotland.