1415: Henry V's Year of Glory

by Mortimer, Ian

  Fusoris’s answer is very revealing. Henry had a great stateliness, and the fine manner of a high lord, but he seemed better suited for the Church than for war. The real soldier in the family was not Henry but his brother Thomas, duke of Clarence – or so it appeared to Fusoris.24

  That afternoon the king and the ambassadors reconvened in the great chamber. Fusoris was with them this time. There was no further debate. Henry Beaufort reiterated the whole process of the peace negotiations, from the original demands in 1414 down to the debate that morning.

  But you do not have the power or the will, as each of you knows, to agree with our lord the king about the manner and the form in which he will hold these lands: if, for example, it will be as King Edward III of happy memory held them, and without prejudice to his rights, or otherwise. You are no better when it comes to the prolongation of the truce and avoiding the effusion of human blood, nor on the exact date and time of the handing over of the Princess Katherine with the money and jewels.25

  Beaufort went on to juxtapose these supposed failings on the part of the French negotiators with the fact that Henry had showed himself prepared to forego ‘great, important and notable things’ such as his claim to the throne of France, the duchies of Normandy and Touraine, the counties of Anjou and Maine, overlordship of Brittany and Flanders, and other lands claimed ‘in the time of Edward of venerable memory’ and delivered to him by treaty. As a result of this, claimed Beaufort, it seemed that the French king had no sincere intention of working towards a permanent peace.

  According to the chronicler Enguerrand Monstrelet, it was the archbishop of Canterbury, not Beaufort, who delivered the speech. He states that he ended with the declaration that unless the French delivered Henry everything that had been owed to Edward III by the Treaty of Brétigny, he would invade France and despoil the whole of the kingdom, and that he would remove Charles VI from the throne with his sword. To this Boisratier is supposed to have replied,

  O king, how can you consistently with honour and justice, wish to dethrone and iniquitously destroy the most Christian king of the French, our very dear and most redoubted lord, the noblest and most excellent of all the kings in Christendom? O king, with all due reverence and respect, do you think he has offered, by me, such an extent of territory and so large a sum of money with his daughter in marriage, through any fear of you, your subjects or allies? By no means! But moved by pity and his love of peace he has made these offers to avoid the shedding of innocent blood … for whenever you will make your promised attempt, he will call upon God, the blessed Virgin, and on all the saints, making his appeal to them for the justice of his cause … We have now only to entreat you that you will have us safely conducted out of the realm and that you will write to our said king under your hand a seal, the answer you have given us.26

  Henry ordered that a letter summarising the final response be drawn up and sealed with the privy seal. It would be ready by the end of the day. The peace negotiations were over.

  A later source states that Archbishop Boisratier lost his temper at this point and declared that Henry had no right to claim the throne of France as he had no claim to the throne of England; and he and his fellow ambassadors should have been negotiating with the heirs of Richard II, not Henry.27 We cannot be certain whether this preserves a real event – a loss of control that could not have been allowed to stand in the official record – or whether it was just an imaginative embellishment. If Archbishop Boisratier did lose his temper, who could blame him?

  *

  Back at Constance, the king of France’s ambassadors succeeded in having the propositions of Jean Petit refuted. Although Petit was not actually named in the edict condemning tyrannicide, it was clear in which direction it was intended. Drafted by Dr Jean Gerson, it stated:

  The holy synod, being particularly desirous of finding measures to extinguish the errors and heresies now springing up in various parts of the world, as it is bound and was convened to do, has learned recently that certain propositions have been published, erroneous and scandalous on many counts, both to faith and good morals, and aimed at the overthrow of the whole fabric and order of the state. Among these propositions the following is reported. ‘Any tyrant may and should be rightfully and meritoriously killed by any of his vassals or subjects, even by methods of secret conspiracy, blandishment and flattery, notwithstanding any vow or league the vassal may have made with him and without waiting for a sentence or mandate from any judge whatsoever.’ In order to oppose this error, the holy synod … decrees and affirms that this doctrine is erroneous in faith and morals, and disapproves and condemns it as heretical, scandalous and seditious, opening the way to craft, deceit, falsehood, treachery and perjury. In addition, it declares and decrees and affirms that those who obstinately maintain this most perilous doctrine are heretics and as such should be punished by the rules of the canons and the law.28

  By this reckoning, John the Fearless was a heretic and deserved the same punishment as Jan Hus had just received. His lawyers Martin Porée and Pierre Cauchon were going to have a hard time refuting this decision and exonerating their lord.

  *

  After the French ambassadors had left, Henry attended to a few more items of business at Wolvesey with his council. He dictated a letter to the Jurade of Bordeaux on behalf of the earl of Dorset, to whom they owed money. He declared he had already asked them once to pay; he now requested they do so immediately, so he did not have to write to them again on the matter. The earl of Westmorland and eight other men were commissioned to enquire into the abduction of Mordach of Fife in Yorkshire, and to arrest and imprison the offenders.29 And finally he consented to see Peter Benefeld, the tenacious envoy of the Teutonic Knights.

  Hearing Benefeld’s case, Henry beckoned the chancellor and his secretary to him and asked what was being done about the matter. Beaufort declared that a friendly letter was going to be drafted to the Grand Master of the Order explaining that no money was currently available but that the debt would be honoured in due course. Beaufort would be riding back to the capital on the following day; perhaps Peter would care to travel in his company. Then the letter could be written when they were back at Westminster.

  Henry was satisfied. He dismissed Benefeld, and called for supper. Then he set out for Titchfield Abbey, near Southampton.30

  Sunday 7th

  Fusoris knew the French embassy would be leaving Southampton this morning, so today was his last chance to get his money. He rose early and went to the town house in Winchester where Courtenay was staying. The bishop was apparently still in bed, but a servant went to a chest and took out 100 nobles for the tenacious Frenchman. Fusoris pointed out that when he had tried to change the last 100 nobles in Paris he had lost out to the tune of 33 crowns. The servant assured him these were all good – in other words, they were all of the correct weight.31

  Fusoris had finally got what he came for. His servant came to the house with his horses and belongings, and he set out on the journey back to Paris, catching up with the ambassadors shortly afterwards.

  Wednesday 10th

  Henry stayed at Titchfield Abbey with the remaining members of his privy council. They discussed the dossier of diplomatic agreements with the French, which Bishop Courtenay had compiled on 10 May. Key to them all was the Treaty of Bourges of 1412: the document in which the Armagnac lords ceded sovereignty of Aquitaine to the king of England. In order to win the approval of the council of Constance for his war, and especially the emperor, he needed to show that his cause was a just one. It was somewhat ironic that the Treaty of Bourges – a document that Henry had been forced to swear to uphold by his late father – was now the best justification for his forthcoming campaign. The French could indeed argue that he had no right to the English claim on the throne of France, but they could not deny that the lords now in authority had once confirmed that Henry was the rightful sovereign lord of Gascony, and had offered to help him regain sovereignty of the duchy.

  Henry dire
cted the archbishop of Canterbury to draw up copies of the agreements and to have them witnessed and sealed by a notary public – a common means used on the Continent for authenticating documents – as well as by the archbishop himself. When this was done, the whole file was sent to Sigismund as an explanation for the forthcoming war. According to a contemporary writer, Henry hoped that ‘all Christendom might know what great acts of injustice the French in their duplicity had inflicted on him, and that reluctantly, and against his will, he felt compelled to raise his standards against the rebels’.32

  *

  Fusoris and the French ambassadors had now been travelling for three days. An English esquire came among them, asking where the count of Vendôme was staying. He had presents, he said, for the ambassadors. He was pointed in the direction of the right inn, and all the Frenchmen in the party crowded around to see what the squire had brought. Jean Fusoris failed to get near, but met the squire later and was given 40 nobles (£13 6s 8d) in return for the astrolabe and the books he had given the king, together with a message of thanks.

  Fusoris was grateful and walked along with the esquire. When he was asked why the ambassadors had taken such a long time to arrive, thereby forcing the kingdom to go on to a war footing (in the esquire’s opinion), Fusoris replied that, as far as he knew, it was because there had already been one embassy; it was not thought that a war was likely. And the king of England was a fool to press for war – he had much more to gain from a marriage than a war. After all, Fusoris had seen that a number of people in England thought the earl of March should be king. Some preferred the idea that Thomas, duke of Clarence, should have inherited the throne instead of his elder brother, and hoped that Henry would die soon without an heir so Thomas would inherit. There had been a rising against Richard II when he had left the country, and Richard had lost his throne; perhaps Henry would find that the same thing happened to him? War was dangerous, in more ways than one. And what did he hope to gain? If he meant just to make a short raid, he would not be met with much of a welcome when he returned – having taxed the country so heavily and forced so many towns and lords to make loans to him. And if he meant to undertake a longer campaign, he would find armies more numerous and better-trained than his army now gathering at Southampton. Henry could not rely on the king of France and the duke of Burgundy fighting each other.

  In response to all this the esquire could only say that, with God’s help, there would yet be peace. The two men then parted, Fusoris to ride on to Dover and sail for France with the ambassadors and the Celestine monks from Sheen. If Henry was not going to build them a monastery, and insisted on going to war with their country, they were not going to stay. As Fusoris said, for a Frenchman in 1415 England was a good country to have visited but a bad one in which to linger.

  Thursday 11th

  When Henry Beaufort had left Winchester he had carried a number of Henry’s instructions back to London with him. These were all issued in formal letters over the next few days. Henry instructed the collectors of customs in London and various other ports to repay a loan to the Venetians of 1,000 marks, to pay £285 0s 6d for sails, ropes and tackle for the king’s flagship, Trinity Royal; and to repay £9,000 to the treasurer of Calais.33 Sir Ralph Rochford was reimbursed £102 6s 8d for his expenses in going to the council of Constance; and Dr Jean Bordiu, archdeacon of Médoc, was reimbursed £171 16s 8d for his mission to negotiate with the king of Castile at Fuenterrabia, from which he had returned in February. A number of sergeants-at-arms were appointed; and Henry ordered that the wages of the keeper of the privy seal be paid.34 A royal judge, William Loddyngton, was given permission to celebrate Mass in an ancient chapel. Formal assignments were drawn up concerning the major jewels pledged. In particular, an indenture conveying the Crown Henry to Thomas, duke of Clarence, was sealed, stating that he could dispose of it as he saw fit if the king had not redeemed it by 2 February 1417. This document also stipulated that he should not break it up – a direction that Thomas ignored, dividing it among his followers as security for future payment of their wages.35

  Friday 12th

  Henry arrived at Southampton. He wrote a letter under the signet to the council – probably those members with Chancellor Beaufort in London – enclosing a schedule of four carracks that the earl of Huntingdon had been promised. He urged that a warrant be issued to the masters of these ships for each of them to take a hundred mariners to serve in them.36

  With the king was one of the royal ‘esquires of the body’, John Cheney. He was about to set out with three men-at-arms on the mission to Harfleur. Today he penned one of the few private letters to survive from this year, addressing Sir John Pelham, who was also due to sail:

  Right worshipful and worthy Sir, I recommend myself to you with all my heart thanking you for the great kindness and gentleness that you have shown me up to now without fail, praying you might always be of good continuance; and you will wish to know that the king and all the lords here are well blessed by God. And as regards my lord the earl of Huntingdon now at sea at last, the bearer of this letter shall declare it more plainly by mouth than I can write it at this time. Furthermore, right worshipful and worthy Sir, you will want to know that I am here, and have been at great costs and expense, wherefore I need to borrow a notable sum before I go and fare from my house, and from other friends of mine, save only you, worthy Sir, having full hope and trust in your gracious and gentle person to help and succour me at this time in my greatest necessity, to lend me some notable sum of gold such as the bearer of this, Thomas Garnetier, my servant, shall truly declare … praying the Holy Trinity send you honour prosperity and joy. Written in haste at Southampton, the 12th day of July.37

  So the first ships were at sea already, with the earl of Huntingdon. And Henry was not the only one feeling the financial strain of the expedition.

  Saturday 13th

  About this time the Teutonic envoys had a final meeting with the chancellor in London. At last he was honest with them: they could expect nothing in the immediate future. If the money was to be paid, it would only be in small instalments, at long intervals; and there really was no point in them pressing for more than that.38 And with that even Peter Benefeld realised he had come to the end of the road. All there remained to do was to write up the whole episode for the benefit of the Grand Master, and to sail back to Marienburg.

  Tuesday 16th

  It is not clear exactly why the earl of Huntingdon was already at sea. One might speculate that he was guarding against a pre-emptive French attack. However, as the French ambassadors were still on their return journey, this seems unlikely. Rather it seems we should connect the earl of Huntingdon’s expedition with an assault on the Norman town of Fécamp, which took place today.39 People in the area and all along the coast now knew they could not rely on the French government to protect them. Many packed up their belongings and left. The war had begun.

  Wednesday 17th

  From Bishop’s Waltham, Henry sent out an order to the sheriff of Norfolk. He had been informed that certain men of Norfolk had refused to keep watch for the safety of the coast. He ordered that the sheriff make a proclamation that the king declared that this remained their duty, and they should not fail to do perform it adequately.40

  *

  At Constance, Sigismund and the council had achieved the feat of deposing one pope and persuading another to resign. Now they turned their attention to Pope Benedict XIII. The conference to discuss his abdication had been planned to take place at Nice in June, but it had been delayed, partly by an outbreak of the plague in that town and partly because of concerns for Sigismund’s safety, following the threats made against him by John the Fearless. But now the time had come to act. Sigismund appointed the duke of Bavaria-Heidelberg to preside over the council in his absence and urged the deputies to discuss the reform of the Church but not to make any final decisions until his return.41

  Sigismund did not want to run the risk of coming across John the Fearless. He set out
to travel through Savoy, to the south of the duke’s lands, keeping his route secret.

  Friday 19th

  In Portugal, at the royal estate of Odivelas, Henry’s aunt, Queen Philippa of Portugal breathed her last. She was fifty-five years of age, and a much-loved woman in her adopted country. Among the children she left were such figures as the future king, Duarte I of Portugal and Enrico (Henry the Navigator). But to Henry her death would have meant little beyond the gradual breaking of a diplomatic bond. She had married João I of Portugal in Oporto in February 1387 – when Henry was only a few weeks old. In all probability, Henry had never actually met her.

  *

  Sir Thomas Gray of Heton had come down from the north and had spent about a week in London. Yesterday he had saddled up and started his journey westward to Southampton. He had spent last night at Kingston upon Thames, and was riding to Southampton along the road through Guildford.

  Treason was on his mind. After throwing the earl of Cambridge’s letter into a cesspit at York, he had been visited by a man called Cresswell, who was a retainer of the imprisoned Lord Percy. Cresswell had shown him some copied documents: an indenture between Sir Robert Umphraville and someone – possibly the duke of Albany – and a copy of a letter from Percy to the earl of Cambridge and Lord Clifford. Gray had commented to Cresswell that the king would like neither the indenture nor the letter. But Cresswell had told him that it was God’s will that Henry Percy should come from Scotland with a strong hand in the name of King Richard II, as the earl of Cambridge and Lord Clifford were urging him to do in their letters. Gray seems to have promised nothing; he had yet to make up his mind about the earl of Cambridge, whose plan to exchange Mordach for Lord Percy had been thwarted and whose new plans were even more dangerous. Cambridge was now considering kidnapping one of eighteen important English lords on a list provided by the duke of Albany, any one of whom he would exchange for Lord Percy.