1415: Henry V's Year of Glory (13 page)

With regard to his spiritual welfare, Henry made a grant of pavage to the burgesses of Beverley, ‘because of the devotion which the king bears to the glorious confessor St John of Beverley, whose body rests in the church of Beverley’.
⁷⁰
Pavage was the right to levy a tax on those coming to and going from a town so that the streets could be paved. As most towns in medieval England were unpaved, Beverley was hoping not only to elevate itself in cleanliness and appearance above its neighbours but also to attract more visitors. This meant more pilgrims coming to the church, and a greater wealth and dignity being attached to the saint’s shrine.

As for the defence of the realm, Henry gave orders for another three ships to be made ready with mariners and soldiers – the
Katherine of the Tower, Gabriel of the Tower
, and
Paul of the Tower.
⁷¹
These were all royal ships – the
Katherine of the Tower
being the recently paid-for
Katherine de Guérande
. They are also identifiable in two naval surveys made in 1417: the
Katherine
was a
nef
or ship, but not a great ship, so it probably had a carrying capacity of about 100 tuns (a tun being a large barrel containing 252 wine gallons). The
Gabriel
was a balinger, a smaller vessel; and the
Paul
was the largest of the three, a carrack. They were all harboured at the Tower of London, the military base where Henry also assembled and stored all his munitions. Henry’s determination to go to war required a large navy to be assembled. Edward III had commanded a navy in the region of forty or fifty royal ships; but all of those vessels had long since gone, and few had been replaced.
⁷²
As the few ships which did remain in the royal navy were relatively small – not many were longer than 100ft from stem to stern – he would need several hundred more to transport a large army. These initial commissions were probably issued now for one of two purposes: either to assemble the necessary stores, weapons, munitions
and provisions at the Tower, or to defend the coast against French attack.

The most memorable information we have about Henry on this day relates to his exercising of justice. Edmund Cornhill was a servant of Bishop Courtenay. On his way to Paris, Courtenay and his household had passed through Calais. The bishop had noticed a decaying corpse hanging from a gallows. On enquiry it turned out to be one William Cole, who had been found guilty of murdering a man from Calais. The judgment of the court had been that he should hang there until the rope around his neck broke. Moved by pity for the dead man, the bishop had asked the mayor and aldermen of Calais to allow the corpse to be cut down, and he gave Edmund Cornhill the task of removing the body and burying it. Cornhill did as he was ordered. But he was then arrested on the orders of the mayor and aldermen, who had decreed that anyone cutting down William Cole’s corpse would himself be hanged. Poor Cornhill was thus detained in Calais and sentenced to death for a work of charity ordered by his lord, the bishop. His only hope was a royal pardon.

A petition was drawn up on his behalf and rushed to the king at Westminster. Leaning on his cushion in his great chamber, Henry listened and nodded his assent. And, with that gesture, he saved Cornhill’s life.
⁷³

February

Friday 1st

IT WAS THE
eve of Candlemas, the formal end of winter – or as contemporaries thought of it, the retreat of the dark. Good Christians were expected to fast on this day, in order to heighten the sense of anticipation for the feast itself.
¹
As a deeply religious man, Henry may well have followed this exhortation. But it is unlikely that he forced the rest of his household to do likewise – accounts from the previous reign show that the royal household was accustomed to eat normally on 1 February.
²

The king’s fast is perhaps the reason why we find few orders dated today. John Melksop, the master of a London ship called
Cob John
, was commissioned to make his vessel ready and to have it manned for action.
³
Similarly Nicholas Dalton, master of the
Trinity of London
, and Perin de Fargh, master of a balinger called the
Petre de Bayonne
, were both ordered to prepare their vessels and to take on mariners and servants.
⁴

*

The great bells of Constance Cathedral were rung early today, first at dawn, and then twice more, summoning all the prelates to assemble.
⁵
There was excitement in the air. The cardinal of St Mark, Guillaume Fillastre, had written a memorandum which had sparked great interest. In his words, ‘it is a mark of a good shepherd that he lays down his life for his sheep. If he does not lay it down, he is not a good shepherd. And if he is bound to lay down his life, how much more [readily] should he lay down the accidents of life – honour, power, dominion!’

Cardinal Fillastre went further. If John XXIII or either of the other
popes failed to resign, the council could compel any or all of them to do so. In a staggeringly direct assault on his own superior, he declared

In view of the condition of the Church … the supreme pontiff and shepherd of the Church may be compelled for the peace and the unity of the church to offer to abdicate, on condition that the others agree to cease their usurpation of office and carry out their abdications honestly and freely … For since he is bound to abdicate, he may be compelled to do so … For when a man is commanded to make restitution and fails to obey the command, his property may be taken from him by armed force, or other means may be used to oblige him to perform his duty. If the pope does not obey, he may be deposed as bringing scandal on the Church of God, which he is bound to protect and cherish …
⁶

That was not the end of it. It was not just
this
pope who was subject to such judgment by such a council, it was all popes.

Many other reasons might be adduced from the laws of God, of nature and of Man, to prove that a general council is superior to a pope in matters which concern the universal state of the Church, such as the present case and numerous others. Nevertheless, although these conclusions are correct, we recognise the propriety of proceeding mildly at the outset.

No one in authority had had the courage to say these things before, but once they were written down and circulated, they were widely applauded. Pope John XXIII was horrified, and felt betrayed, but there was nothing he could do but play for time. He asked for fourteen days to consider the memorandum.
⁷

A delegation of prelates and scholars from the kingdom of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, who had just arrived, were present at this session. They agreed that the pope ought to be deposed if he should refuse to resign. However, the future of the papacy was not the main purpose of their visit. Their mission was to request that St Bridget of Sweden be recognised as a saint by all those at Constance.

St Bridget had been the founder of a religious order, the Order of St Saviour, in the 1340s. After giving birth to eight children (one of whom, Catherine, became a saint herself) and going on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, she went on many more pilgrimages,
spreading the word about the way to live a moral life, and distributing the rule of her Bridgettine nuns. She urged the pope to leave Avignon and return the holy see to Rome. Through this and other such spiritual interventions, and her own moral lifestyle, her advocation of peace, and her long-distance pilgrimages, she became an internationally renowned figure. She had finally obtained papal confirmation of the Rule of her Order in 1370, three years before she died. According to her representatives at Constance, many miracles were due to her sanctity. She had, in fact, been beatified once already, in 1391, but that act had been carried out by the Roman pope alone. The French pope did not recognise the beatifications of his rival. So now her followers and countrymen wanted the Church universally to recognise her as a saint.
⁸

The council deliberated. They decided that nine doctors of theology among the scholars should swear to St Bridget’s sanctity and miracles, and then she should be recognised as a saint. This was done: the nine doctors swore on the Holy Gospels. Then a figure representing St Bridget was set up on the altar, an archbishop from Denmark began to sing
Te Deum Laudamus
, and bells rang throughout the city, both after dinner and at night.

At some point in the day – whether before or after these events is unclear – Pope John XXIII provided the pious and hard-working John Catterick to the see of Lichfield, in line with Henry’s wishes. No doubt Catterick took the lead in requesting that Henry’s confessor, Stephen Patrington, be provided to the see of St David’s (which Catterick had previously held). The pope agreed to this also.
⁹
Perhaps there was some genuine friendship between him and Catterick? Or maybe the pope felt he needed all the friends at Constance he could get, and gave in to Catterick in order to win his support? Either way, he was in for a shock.

Saturday 2nd: Candlemas

The feast of Candlemas had come, one of the principal feasts of the Christian calendar. It was more formally known as the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. For Christians it was the day of Mary’s purification or ‘churching’ – the fortieth day after the birth, when new mothers of male babies were welcomed back into the community, and thanks given for their safe delivery. It was also a
celebration of Simeon’s recognition of the Messiah. As the story appears in St Luke’s gospel, Simeon was an old man in Jerusalem who had been promised by the Holy Ghost that he would not die before he had seen Christ. The Holy Ghost led him into the Temple at the same time as Joseph and Mary brought in the baby Jesus. Simeon understood the significance, and took up the child in his arms, and said:

Lord now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word,

for my eyes have seen your salvation,

which you have prepared before the face of all people:

a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.
¹⁰

This phrase, ‘a light to lighten the Gentiles’, accorded perfectly with the medieval view of the retreat of winter. The chapel royal at Westminster was thronged with candles – as many as possible for the celebration of this morning’s Mass. Henry processed into the chapel with his acting chamberlain carrying his candles before him. There he was surrounded by the incense of the church, members of his household in prayer, and the paintings of scenes from the Bible. At the east end were the portraits of Edward III and all his family, including his sons Edward the Black Prince and Henry’s own grandfather, John of Gaunt.

Fittingly Henry’s business today included giving permission for Geoffrey Colville and several of his fellows to endow a religious fraternity or gild in a chapel of Holy Trinity church, Walsoken, near Wisbech. The usual fee of £5 was paid into the royal coffers.
¹¹

*

In Constance there were celebrations, too. Pope John celebrated Mass in the cathedral. The candles were blessed in his presence, and he himself sprinkled holy water over them, and read five collects. After Mass he went into the bishop’s palace and stood on the balcony with four cardinals, overlooking the crowds in the square. He gave the people his blessing, and passed down huge candles, each weighing 60lbs, according to Ulrich Richental. As wax candles were expensive – far dearer than ordinary tallow ones – this was a mark of great generosity. Then his chaplains threw down smaller candles, and ‘among the people there was a great scramble, one falling over another, and loud laughter’.
¹²
After
dinner the pope sent out candles to all the great lords present, both spiritual and temporal, so they might share the light with their households.

*

In Paris, the king’s council had come to a decision regarding John the Fearless and his untrustworthiness in relation to the Peace of Arras. They presented the king with an
ordonnance
drawn up for his approval. Anticipating the arrival of proctors from John the Fearless who would agree to the terms of the
ordonnance
– namely John’s brother, the duke of Brabant, and his sister the duchess of Holland – they proposed that a general pardon would be proclaimed for all the followers of John the Fearless except five hundred named persons. Lands taken in war would be restored. The peace agreed at Chartres in 1409 would be renewed, and all treaties between French princes and the English would be torn up.

We strictly enjoin upon all those of our blood and lineage that they do not, on any pretence whatsoever, form any alliances with the English, or with others, to our prejudice, or to the prejudice of this peace; and should any such alliances have been formed, we positively command that all treaties be returned and annulled.
¹³

Having drawn up this
ordonnance
, permission was sent to the proctors of John the Fearless to enter Paris, so they could also seal it and swear the necessary oaths to maintain it. A letter was sent to the ambassadors from the king of England, that they might enter the capital in their official capacity.
¹⁴