Henry V: The Background, Strategies, Tactics and Battlefield Experiences of the Greatest Commanders of History Paperback (20 page)

estates, negotiating with the son of Henry Hotspur for his return from

Scotland and appointing Lord Mowbray to his hereditary title of Earl Marshal.

Although conciliatory at times, he could also be vindictive, with Henry, Lord

Scrope, being executed in disgrace for a flimsy involvement in the

Southampton Plot while Henry Beaufort's appointment as Cardinal and papal

legate in 1417 saw him lose Henry's favour until he had refused the honours

and offered Henry some £22,000 in loans.

Henry also made concrete efforts to improve the law-and-order situation

throughout his kingdom, instigating special commissions of the King's Bench

in an effort to put down disorder in Staffordshire and Shropshire, and he was

not afraid to fine one of his most important supporters, Thomas, Earl of

Arundel, in the process. There is some evidence that the relatively peaceful

state of England during his reign, so unusual in the 15th century, began

to break down during the latter years of his reign while he was absent in

France. In France itself he issued famous ordinances regulating the behaviour

of his men prior to his campaigns in both 1415 and 1417, famously hanging

one of his army for stealing a pyx from a church on the march from Harfleur

to Agincourt.

However, though all sides agreed that Henry could exercise mercy as

befitted a Christian king of the period, he was also ruthless in his campaigning

and capable of acts of brutality. The slaughter of the prisoners in the confused

situation towards the end of the battle of Agincourt may not in the medieval

context have been what we today would term a 'war crime', and it may

certainly have been militarily justifiable at the time, but it certainly did not

fit the ideal of a Christian king. Following the siege of Meaux he had a

trumpeter who had insulted him executed, while at the earlier siege of Melun

Reims Cathedral, the

traditional site for the

coronation of kings of

France. Although John,

Duke of Bedford, had

hoped to have the young

Henry VI crowned here,

the Dauphin and Joan

of Arc beat him to it,

entering Reims on

16 July 1429 and he was

crowned Charles VII, king

of France, on the 17th.

(Author's collection)

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he had hanged 20 Scots on the somewhat dubious basis that their imprisoned

king (in Henry's custody) had ordered them not to fight, and at the siege of

Louviers in 1418 he hanged eight gunners who had come near to killing him

during the siege.

Thomas Hoccleve

(c.1368-1426) presenting

A L I F E I N W O R D S

a copy of his
De Regimine

Prindpum (Regiment of

Henry V was well aware of the power of the written word and many of the

Princes)
to Prince Henry in

earliest sources for his campaigns and reign were written while he was still

around 1413. Even before

alive. The
Gesta Henrici Quinti,
widely acknowledged as the most reliable

his accession to the throne

English source for the Agincourt campaign, was written by an anonymous

Henry was well aware of the

chaplain in the royal service and was probably finished in either 1416 or

power of the written word

1417. The impression of Henry as a servant of God in both his suppression

and would always seek to

of the Lollards and defeat of the French at Agincourt is perhaps unsurprising

win the propaganda war.

given the author's royal connections. The only other strictly contemporary

This illumination is from a

work is the
Liber Metricus
of Thomas Elmham, and this work follows a similar

manuscript (Ms. Arundel

line to the
Gesta.
The
Vita Henrici Quinti
by Tito Livio was written in the

38, fol. 37) held in the

1430s after Henry's death, though there is a strong suspicion that it was

British Library, London,

commissioned by Henry's brother, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in an

(akg-images/

effort to emphasize the Duke's close personal relationship to Henry and thus

British Library)

advance his political position.

The French sources might be expected

to be more negative towards Henry, yet

although they are mostly negative about

the English in general and the English

presence in France specifically, they

generally speak highly of Henry's abilities

as a medieval king and military leader,

with the monk of Saint-Denis stating that

'No prince in his time appeared more

capable to subdue and conquer a country,

by the wisdom of his government, by his

prudence and by the other qualities with

which he was endowed', while Jean de

Waurin, the Burgundian chronicler,

describes him as 'a most clever man and

expert in everything he undertook'.

It is with the Tudors that Henry's

reputation began to be set in stone. The

nature of the Tudors' accession to the

throne of England meant that they were

keen to emphasize the restorative

nature of their rule by denigrating their

15th-century predecessors, so Henry IV

60

is portrayed as a usurper, Henry VI as weak and vacillating and Richard III

as the cruel hunchback of popular imagination. The one exception to

this list of villains is Henry V, whose reputation is enhanced throughout

the period for his supposed embodiment of chivalric ideals and, perhaps

more importantly, his victories over the French. The early years of the reign

of Henry VIII saw the publication of
The First English Life of Henry V,
which

is largely based upon the earlier work of Tito Livio. It was written in 1513

partly to inspire Henry VIII in his campaigns against France and uses

Henry V as an example for the 16th-century Henry to follow. This idea of This portrait (oil on

Henry as an exemplar of medieval kingship carried on into the Elizabethan canvas) of William

period, and runs through the works of writers such as Richard Grafton Shakespeare (1564-1616)

and is emphasized in one of the most famous works of history of the was painted between 1600

period,
Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland,
published and 1610 and is attributed in 1586-87. Compiled by Raphael Holinshed and others, this work to John Taylor. It is

synthesized a range of 15th- and 16th-century sources and provided a popularly known as the

good source of material for the many dramatists of the period, including Chandos Portrait, after

William Shakespeare.

one of its owners, and was

Shakespeare was not the first playwright to take Henry V as his theme. the first bequest to the

The Famous Victories of Henry V: Containing the Honourable Battle of Agincourt
National Portrait Gallery by an unknown author was used by Shakespeare, along with Holinshed on its foundation in 1856.

and other sources, when he came to writing his cycle of history plays that (National Portrait Gallery, has been so influential in preserving an image of Henry throughout the London, UK/The

years. Shakespeare's Henry appears in three plays:
Henry IV, Parti, Henry IV,
Bridgeman Art Library)
Part II
and
Henry V
. The Henry, or Hal,

of the first two plays is a wastrel prince

engaged in dissolute activity with his

drinking companions, while at the same

time supporting his father at the battle of

Shrewsbury when he is in time of need.

The Henry of
Henry V
is the familiar

charismatic warrior king, encouraging his

troops with 'a little touch of Harry in the

night' and leading them to victory on

St Crispin's Day before wooing the French

princess Katherine. Though Shakespeare

paints a largely heroic picture of Henry, he

does have him giving the order to kill the

prisoners at Agincourt and foreshadows

the temporary nature of his achievements:

Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crowned King

Of France and England, did this king succeed.

Whose state so many had the managing,

That they lost France and made his England

bleed,

Henry V,
Ep. 9-12

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