1415: Henry V's Year of Glory
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Art MacMurrough, the native Irish lord of Norragh, was granted a two-year safe conduct for two of his men to come to see the king.62 What it was the erstwhile rebel had to tell Henry we do not know; but what is striking about this reference is that it is practically the only Irish business which we can associate with Henry all year. After appointing Sir John Talbot to govern the country in 1414, he had simply left him to it. So little had been his involvement with the country he had not even paid Talbot – even though he had budgeted for Talbot’s salary in June. And if Art MacMurrough’s representatives had anything to report to the English council it was about the utter ruthlessness and severity with which Talbot was treating the people. In February he had ordered the arrest of all traitors, outlaws and felons, and the arrest of all the children of rebels, be they Irish or English, so that they could be brought up with the loyal English. He had then proceeded with a savage attack on anyone who dared to oppose English rule, plundering where he went and hanging rebel warriors and their sons. The Irish annals were most indignant on his plundering from the poets of Ireland.63
The irony is that Henry did not deal with even this piece of Irish business. By the time the representatives of Art MacMurrough arrived to let him know what was being done in his name, Henry was in France.
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Henry’s will was finalised today. Unlike his father’s will, this was not written in English but in Latin, the language of the Church. It began with the dedication to the Holy and Indivisible Trinity and was immediately followed by acknowledgement of the saints by whom Henry was particularly moved, namely:
The Virgin Mary,
St Michael, Gabriel and all the angels and archangels,
St John the Baptist and all the patriarchs,
St Peter, St John and all the apostles,
St George, St Thomas and all the holy martyrs,
St Edward, St John of Bridlington and all confessors
St Anne, St Mary Magdalene and St Bridget
Catherine, Barbara, Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins, and all the holy virgins, and all the celestial court
Henry specified that he wished to be buried in Westminster Abbey, to the east of the shrine of St Edward, in the place where the relics were then kept. He wanted a fine stone tomb and requiem masses sung in vast numbers, three each day by every monk of the abbey. He wanted a special altar to be set up in front of his tomb, dedicated to the Virgin; and he wanted further Masses to be said daily at the altar. So strong was his instinct to control his reputation in death that he even went so far as to stipulate the types of Masses that were to be sung each day and which times of day each of these Masses was to be sung. He left £100 per annum to pay for all these services.
This was just the beginning of the religious requests. As one would expect, he was generous to his new foundations, Syon Abbey and the Charterhouse at Sheen, to each of which he left 1,000 marks. He left vestments, patens, chalices, candelabra, crucifixes and other religious artefacts to Westminster Abbey. In addition, he wanted thirty paupers to be kept in food and clothing for a whole year after his death: they had to be men who were genuinely in need and they all had to pray to Almighty God every day for Henry’s soul. The king willed that another three thousand Masses should be sung in honour of the Holy Trinity for the benefit of his soul. And fifteen Masses should be sung every day of the year in honour of Christ’s wounds. Five thousand Masses were to be sung in honour of the five joys of the Virgin Mary. Nine more were to be performed in honour of the nine orders of angels, three hundred in honour of the three Patriarchs, twelve in honour of the twelve apostles, and 4,125 in honour of all the saints. And all of these Masses had to be celebrated as soon as possible after his death.
With regard to the individual beneficiaries, the first-named was the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, to whom Henry left precious stones to the value of 500 marks. The list of names that follow Sigismund’s is the clearest and fullest indication we have of Henry’s friends among the aristocracy and his servants in the year 1415:
The Holy Roman Emperor
John, duke of Bedford
Humphrey, duke of Gloucester
Henry Chichele, archbishop of Canterbury
Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, chancellor
Thomas Langley, bishop of Durham
Stephen Patrington, bishop of St David’s, Henry’s confessor
Joan Bohun, dowager countess of Hereford, Henry’s grandmother
Edmund Mortimer, earl of March
Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick
Thomas Beaufort, earl of Dorset
Thomas Fitzalan, earl of Arundel
Ralph Neville, earl of Westmorland
Joan of Navarre, queen of England, Henry’s stepmother
Edward Holland
Gilbert, Lord Talbot
Henry, Lord Fitzhugh, royal chamberlain
Sir Walter Hungerford, royal steward
Sir John Rothenhale
John Woodhouse
Sir Gilbert Umphraville
Sir John Gray
Roland Leinthal
William Porter
John Cheney
Roger Salvayn
John Steward
Lewis Robesart
John Waterton
William Bourchier
John Brown
Nicholas Merbury
John Botteler
John Stone, royal secretary
Stephen Payne, royal almoner
Nicholas Colnet, royal physician
John Wickham, royal chaplain
Henry Romworth, royal chaplain
Thomas Rodburne, royal chaplain
Richard Cassy, royal chaplain
Only after listing all these men by name, and many other servants by their offices, did Henry make a bequest ‘to our successor,’ meaning of course Thomas, duke of Clarence. This included his best two crowns, two pairs of astrological spheres, the sceptre of the kingdom, an ensign of Spain, a queen’s crown, and all his armour.64
In many ways Henry’s will confirms all the things that we have known or suspected of him to date: extreme religiosity – excessive, even for the period – huge self-importance, a great favouritism for his uncles, no personal love for his brother Thomas, and no acknowledgement of any women except his grandmother and his stepmother. There was a single note of conscience in the will – he ordered that the 25,000 marks that he still owed to his fathers’ executors should be paid in full – but otherwise the document was a statement of Henry’s vision of his own importance and piety.
His choice of men to be executors was largely predictable: Bishop Beaufort, Bishop Langley, Bishop Courtenay, the earl of Westmorland, Lord Fitzhugh, Sir Walter Hungerford, Sir John Rothenhale, John Woodhouse and John Leventhorpe. Nevertheless, there are some surprising inclusions and omissions. It is interesting that Lord Scrope’s name does not appear – as he had been appointed a trustee of Henry’s Lancastrian inheritance as recently as 22 July and was to be re-appointed later this same month. Probably the most surprising beneficiary was the earl of March, who was also a witness to the sealing of the will.
Henry signed his will as follows: ‘This is my last Will subscribed with my own Hand. R[ex]. H[enricus]. Jesu Mercy and Gremercy Ladie Marie help.’
It is the last word that resonates.
Thursday 25th
Sir Thomas Gray and the earl of Cambridge made their way to Hamble in the Hook, where the earl of March was lodging. They wanted to know whether March was still with them or whether Lord Scrope’s warnings had dissuaded him. No, said the earl. He was still in favour of the rising. After further discussions about March’s role, Gray and Cambridge left him and went to the Itchen ferry, where they met Lord Scrope.
There are two accounts of what happened next, one by Gray and the other by Scrope. According to Gray, he and Cambridge met Scrope at the ferry and they discussed the expedition to France. Cambridge asked Scrope what he thought, and the latter declared that it was �
��best to break the voyage’ if at all possible. Cambridge agreed, and the two men asked Gray how this might be achieved. Gray responded that he did not know how they could drive so many men away from Southampton. Scrope suggested it could be managed by burning the ships; and Cambridge agreed. If Gray’s testimony on this point is correct, Scrope was contributing ideas that might lead to the disruption of the campaign.65 However, Gray’s testimony also named men such as Robert Umphraville and the earl of Arundel as fellow plotters; it seems that he was out to implicate as many people as he could, Scrope included.
According to Scrope’s own testimony, he spoke to Edward Courtenay, who was brother-in-law to the earl of March, and to Lord Clifford, the earl of Cambridge’s brother-in-law. He tried to show them what folly the rising would be, and to put them in fear of taking action against the king, or helping those that did. On the way home from seeing Lord Clifford he met Cambridge and Gray at the Itchen ferry. They told him they had just been to see the earl of March, and asked him when the ships would set sail. Scrope said he was not sure but said ‘I believe our tarrying should lose us all’. He left it at that, supposing that once the men had set sail, and Gray and Cambridge found themselves with the army on enemy soil, they would see the danger of taking up arms against the king.
Before Cambridge and Gray left him, they urged Scrope to call on the earl of March. He agreed to do so, if the earl was not yet in bed. As it happened, the earl was still up, so Scrope talked to him about the plot. Once again he tried to persuade the earl not to go through with any of Gray’s and Cambridge’s plans, whatever they might be.66
In all this, Lord Scrope’s behaviour and testimony concerning his own actions is consistent with the way that Edward, duke of York, had gathered information about the Epiphany Rising in 1400. York had attended the secret meetings of the conspirators without telling the king for more than two weeks; and when they had been about to act, York had sent an urgent message to the king, warning him.67 Scrope’s evasive and ambiguous answers were clearly designed to lead Cambridge and Gray into revealing more information about their plans. Apart from Gray’s assertion that Scrope thought it best to ‘break the voyage’ and had suggested burning the ships, Scrope was consistently a receiver of information fed to him by others – and someone who warned others about the implications of what they were doing. Even if he had suggested burning the ships, this may have been no more than an attempt to win the trust of the plotters. Still there were things that Scrope did not know, as the earl of Cambridge later pointed out; and so he still had good reason to stay in with the conspirators. But he was not one of them. Why otherwise did he try to dissuade the earl of March and Walter Lucy from rebelling? And why did Cambridge hold back some crucial details about the plot?68
Friday 26th
Archbishop Boisratier and the other envoys who had left Southampton on 7 July arrived back in Paris. They went straight to the hôtel de St Pol and delivered their report to the dauphin and the rest of the council. It cannot have been well received. They had found Henry intractable and, despite his honeyed words of peace, they had themselves seen thousands of troops pouring into the Southampton area, as well as cattle for victuals on the campaign, and carts and wagons full of bows, arrows, armour and supplies. There was now not the slightest doubt that Henry meant to follow up his attack on Fécamp with a full-scale onslaught on France.69
Some Englishmen were not waiting for the invasion to start. About this time the garrisons of the castles around Calais prepared to raid the Boulogne region as soon as the truce came to an end.70
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John the Fearless could see the mood at Constance shifting against him. The French had been successful in their attempts to have Jean Petit condemned as a heretic. The Justification of the duke of Burgundy looked as if it was going to go the way of John Wycliffe and Jan Hus’s writings. But Duke John still had some cards to play. He had to lift this condemnation, otherwise he too could be classed a heretic, and all hope of regaining influence in France would be lost. So he authorised his ambassadors in Constance to start bribing the cardinals – with good Burgundy wine.71
Saturday 27th
At Southampton the king was growing desperate. Already late setting out, he was paying the wages of the crews manning the ships that had arrived from Flanders and Holland, and yet he was still short of vessels. So Henry ordered John Acclane and John Scadlock to seize all the ships they could find in the port of London, regardless of whether they were English or foreign, and to bring them straightaway to Southampton. He did not have enough arrows either, and a second commission was issued to John Acclane to acquire bows, arrows, bowstrings and artillery.72
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In Bordeaux, the mayor and jurats of the city wrote back to Benedict Espina, their agent in London, telling them that one of the two siege engines called ‘brides’ that Henry had asked for was now ready, and that they would send it whenever he required it. As for the other, it would be ready when Benedict Espina arrived in person, in several weeks’ time.73
Sunday 28th
Sir Jean le Maingre – better known as Boucicaut – had once been the most feared jousting champion in Christendom. He had fought at the famous St Inglevert tournament of 1390, when he and two other knights had faced more than a hundred knights one by one, all of them jousting with sharpened steel lances – including Henry’s father. He had attended his first battle at the age of twelve, had been knighted at sixteen, and had fought on crusades and campaigns from Prussia to Nicopolis. Now all his experience was to be put to the test. He was commissioned to serve as the King’s Lieutenant and captain general of the French, with responsibility for the defence of Normandy, among other places.
Unfortunately the duke of Alençon had previously been appointed captain general for Normandy. The division of responsibilities was now unclear. It was also a mistake to fail to consider the duke’s pride: he did not take kindly to being overlooked in this way.74
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Henry ordered a final letter to be drawn up to send to the king of France. As it is one of the most remarkable documents of the year – indeed, in all English medieval history – it justly deserves to appear here in full:
Most serene prince, our cousin and adversary, the two great and noble kingdoms of England and France, formerly joined as one but now divided, have been accustomed to stand proud through all the world by their glorious triumphs. The sole purpose of their unification was to embellish the house of God, that holiness might reign and peace be established throughout the Church, and to join their arms by a happy accord against her adversaries, to subdue the public enemies. But, alas! The discord that plagues families has troubled this harmony. Lot, blinded by an inhuman feeling, pursued Abraham: the honour of his brotherly union is buried in the tomb, and hatred – the sickness inherent in human nature and the mother of fury – comes to life once more. Nevertheless, the judge of all, who is susceptible neither to prayers nor to corruption, is the witness of our sincere desire for peace; we have done in conscience everything within our power to achieve it, even to the extent of an imprudent sacrifice of legitimate rights that we have inherited from our ancestors, to the prejudice of our posterity. We are not so blinded by fear that we are not ready to fight to the death for the justice of our cause. But the law of Deuteronomy commands that whoever prepares to attack a town begins by offering it peace; thus, since violence, the enemy of justice, has ravished for several centuries the prerogatives of our crown and our hereditary rights, we have done out of charity everything within our power to re-enter possession of our rights and prerogatives, so that now we are able by reason of the denial of justice to have recourse to the force of arms. Nevertheless as we wish to be confident of a clear conscience, we now address you with a final request, at the moment of setting out to demand from you the reason for this denial of justice, and we repeat to you in the name of the entrails of Jesus Christ, following the example shown us by the perfection of evangelical doctrine: friend, give us what we are owed and by
the will of the Almighty avoid a deluge of human blood, which has been created according to God; restore to us our inheritance and our rights that have been unjustly stolen, or at least those things that we have demanded earnestly and repeatedly by our various ambassadors and deputies, and with which we would be contented in respect of God and in the interests of peace. And you will find us disposed on our part to forego 50,000 crowns of gold of the sum that we have been offered as dowry, because we prefer peace to avarice, and because we would prefer to enjoy our paternal rights and this great patrimony which we have been left by our venerable predecessors and ancestors with your illustrious daughter Katherine, our very dear cousin, than to acquire guilty treasures in sacrificing to the idol of iniquity, and to the disinheritance of the posterity of the crown of our realm, which would not please God, to the eternal prejudice of our conscience.
Given under our privy seal in our town of Southampton, upon the coast, 28 July.75