Agincourt (53 page)

8 Anne Curry,
The Hundred Years War
(Palgrave, London and New York, 1993), pp. 66-7; Maurice Keen, “Diplomacy,”
HVPK
, pp. 182-4.
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9 Since he was a minor at the time, the act could be repudiated as invalid.
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10 Palmer, “The War Aims of the Protagonists and the Negotiations for Peace,” pp. 54-5.
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11 Vale,
English Gascony
, pp. 5, 27-8;
ELMA
, p. 289; Curry,
The Hundred Years War
, pp. 83-8.
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12 G. L. Harriss,
Cardinal Beaufort: A Study of Lancastrian Ascendancy and Decline
(Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1988), pp. 23-5; Curry,
The Hundred Years War
, pp. 90-1.
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13 McLeod, pp. 30-1, 56.
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14 Vale,
English Gascony
, pp. 48-9, 53;
ELMA
, p. 320.
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15 For a discussion of Charles VI’s madness, which began in 1392, see Bernard Guenée,
La Folie de Charles VI Roi Bien-Amé
(Perrin, Paris, 2004).
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16 Lewis,
Later Medieval France
, p. 114.
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17 Vaughan, pp. 44-7, 67-81; McLeod, pp. 33, 38-40.
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18 Vaughan, pp. 81-2; McLeod, pp. 58-66.
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19 K. B. McFarlane,
Lancastrian Kings and Lollard Knights
(Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1972), pp. 103-4.
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20
ELMA
, p. 321; Vaughan, pp. 92-4.
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21 Ibid., pp. 94-5; Vale,
English Gascony
, pp. 58-62.
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22 Capgrave, p. 124 n. 2.
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23 Monstrelet, i, pp. 451-2.
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24
St Albans
, pp. 65-7.
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25
ELMA
, pp. 322-3; Christopher Allmand,
Henry V
(Yale University Press, New Haven and London, new edn, 1997), pp. 56-8; Vale,
English Gascony
, p. 67. An audit of the Calais accounts cleared Henry of any misdoing.
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26 Cornewaille’s name is usually transcribed as “Cornewall” in modern texts (including
ODNB
) but I prefer the archaic spelling which is consistently used in medieval sources.
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27 Vale,
English Gascony
, pp. 62-8;
ELMA
, pp. 321-2; McLeod, pp. 82-6, 275.
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CHAPTER TWO: A KING’S APPRENTICESHIP

1
ELMA
, pp. 322-3; W&W, iii, p. 427; Vale,
English Gascony
, p. 67.
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2 Thomas Hoccleve,
The Regiment of Princes
, ed. by Charles R. Blythe (Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1999), pp. 97ff.
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3 Christine de Pizan,
Le Livre du Corps de Policie
, summarised in Edith P. Yenal,
Christine de Pizan: A Bibliography
(Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, N.J. and London, 1989), pp. 65-6.
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4 Kate Langdon Forhan,
The Political Theory of Christine de Pizan
(Ashgate, Aldershot, 2002), pp. 13, 30, 74. Christine had placed her son in the household of John Montagu, earl of Salisbury, a Francophile poet, patron of poets and favourite of Richard II; Salisbury was killed in revolt against Henry IV in January 1400 and Henry then took the boy into his own household.
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5 Hilary M. Carey,
Courting Disaster: Astrology at the English Court and University in the Late Middle Ages
(Macmillan, London, 1992), p. 129.
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6 McFarlane,
Lancastrian Kings and Lollard Knights
, pp. 233-8, 117.
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7
First English Life
, p. 17; Nicholas Orme,
Medieval Children
(Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2001), p. 190; Nicolas, p. 389; John Southworth,
The English Medieval Minstrel
(Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1989), pp. 113-14; Richard Marks and Paul Williamson (eds),
Gothic Art for England 1400-1547
(V&A Publications, London, 2003), pp. 121 (illus.), 157.
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8 Orme,
Medieval Children
, p. 182.
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9 John Cummins,
The Hound and the Hawk: The Art of Medieval Hunting
(Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1988), p. 4.
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10 Ibid., p. 53.
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11 Juliet Barker,
The Tournament in England 1100-1400
(Boydell Press, Woodbridge, repr. 2003), pp. 33-40, 132-3;
St-Denys
, i, pp. 672-82.
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12 Barker,
The Tournament in England
, ch. 7
passim
; Philippe de Commynes,
Memoirs: The Reign of Louis XI 1461-83
, ed. and trans. by Michael Jones (Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1972), p. 71.
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13 Geoffroi de Charny,
The
Book of Chivalry
of Geoffroi de Charny: Text, Context, and Translation
, ed. by Richard W. Kaeuper and Elspeth Kennedy (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1996), p. 89.
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14 James Hamilton Wylie,
History of England under Henry IV
(London, 1884-98), i, pp. 42-3; Maurice Keen,
Chivalry
(Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1984), pp. 7, 65, 78; Charny,
The
Book of Chivalry
of Geoffroi de Charny
, pp. 167-71. By the fifteenth century, knights created at this type of ceremony were known as Knights of the Bath. According to one contemporary French source, Richard II had already knighted Henry on campaign in Ireland earlier in the year (see Desmond Seward,
Henry V as Warlord
[Sidgwick and Jackson, London, 1987], pp. 9, 11) but knighthood could not be conferred twice.
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15 Allmand,
Henry V
, pp. 16-17.
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16 Ibid., p. 27;
ELMA
, pp. 306, 313; for Orléans’ campaign, see above pp. 17, 18-9.
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17 Nigel Saul,
The Batsford Companion to Medieval England
(Barnes and Noble Books, Totowa, NJ, 1982), pp. 264-7; R. A. Griffiths, “Patronage, Politics, and the Principality of Wales, 1413-1461,” in
British Government and Administration: Studies Presented to S. B. Chrimes
, ed. by H. Hearder and H. R. Loyn (University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1974), pp. 74-5.
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18
ELMA
, p. 309; Allmand,
Henry V
, p. 21.
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19 John de Trokelowe, “Annales Ricardi Secundi et Henrici Quarti,”
Johannis de Trokelowe & Henrici de Blaneford . . . Chronica et Annales
, ed. by Henry Thomas Riley (Rolls Series, London, 1866), pp. 367-71; Ken and Denise Guest,
British Battles: The Front Lines of History in Colour Photographs
(HarperCollins, London, 1997), pp. 47-9.
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20 C. H. Talbot and E. A. Hammond,
The Medical Practitioners in Medieval England: A Biographical Register
(Wellcome Historical Medical Library, London, 1965), pp. 123-4; Strickland and Hardy, pp. 284-5. Thomas Morstede, the royal servant at Agincourt (see below, pp. 138-40), must have witnessed the operation or read Bradmore’s account of it. For his version of it see R. Theodore Beck,
The Cutting Edge: Early History of the Surgeons of London
(Lund Humphries, London and Bradford, 1974), pp. 75-6, 117, 13.
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21 See plate 1. I owe this observation to Dr Ingrid Roscoe.
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22
Original Letters Illustrative of English History
, 2nd series, ed. with notes and illustrations by Henry Ellis (Harding and Lepard, London, 1827), i, pp. 11-13, 39-40.
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23
ODNB
; McFarlane,
Lancastrian Kings and Lollard Knights
, pp. 68, 108, 125;
The Beauchamp Pageant
, ed. and introduced by Alexandra Sinclair (Richard III and Yorkist History Trust in association with Paul Watkins, Donington, 2003), pp. 25-30.
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24 Griffiths, “Patronage, Politics, and the Principality of Wales 1413-1461,” pp. 76-8; Ralph Griffiths, “‘Ffor the Myght off the Lande . . .’: the English Crown, Provinces and Dominions in the Fifteenth Century,” in Anne Curry and Elizabeth Matthew (eds),
Concepts and Patterns of Service in the Later Middle Ages
(Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 2000), p. 93 and n. 48.
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25
ELMA
, pp. 308, 315-16; Margaret Wade Labarge,
Henry V: The Cautious Conqueror
(Secker and Warburg, London, 1975), pp. 19, 23, 25.
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26 G. L. Harriss, “Financial Policy,”
HVPK
, pp. 168-9, 169 n. 10.
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27
ELMA
, pp. 316-18, 338-40; G. L. Harriss, “The Management of Parliament,”
HVPK
, p. 139.
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28
ELMA
, pp. 124, 130.
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29 Harriss, “The Management of Parliament,” pp. 140-1.
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30
ODNB
. Chaucer was the son of Catherine Swynford’s sister, Philippa Roet.
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31 Harriss,
Cardinal Beaufort
, pp. 1-2, 4, 7-8, 16, 18, 24-5, 29-31, 33, 45, 47-8, 58, 68-9. A cardinal a latere was appointed temporarily and with a specific brief, at the end of which his title and powers lapsed.
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32 Harriss, “The Management of Parliament,” p. 143.
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CHAPTER THREE: A MOST CHRISTIAN KING

1 Usk, p. 243. For differing interpretations of the omen, see Capgrave, p. 125;
St Albans
, p. 69.
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2 Trokelowe, “Annales Ricardi Secundi et Henrici Quarti,” pp. 297-300. The myth of Becket’s holy oil was created in imitation of the Valois dynasty’s claim that French kings were anointed with the heaven-sent oil of Clovis at their coronations: John W. McKenna, “How God Became an Englishman,”
Tudor Rule and Revolution: Essays for G. R. Elton from his American Friends
, ed. by Delloyd J. Guth and John W. McKenna (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1982), p. 28.
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3 Powell, pp. 129-30; Harriss, “The Management of Parliament,” pp. 139-40.
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4 Powell, p. 57; Monstrelet, iii, p. 94;
GHQ
, pp. 52-3; le Févre, i, pp. 228-9. See also below, pp. 195-7.
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5
St-Denys
, vi, p. 380.
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6 See, for example, A. J. P. Taylor,
A Personal History
(Hamish Hamilton, London, 1983), p. 180; Vaughan, p. 205 and Seward,
Henry V
,
passim
.
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7 W&W, i, p. 200 and n. 8.
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8 Powell, p. 130.
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9 W&W, i, p. 3;
ODNB
. The four other sons of rebels knighted at the coronation were the earl of March’s brother, Roger Mortimer; Richard, lord le Despenser; John Holland, the future earl of Huntingdon; and his brother.
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10 W&W, ii, p. 21;
ODNB
;
ELMA
, p. 353.
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11 W&W, i, pp. 1, 13-14;
The Beauchamp Pageant
, pp. 30-1.
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12
Register of Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1414-1443
, ed. by E. F. Jacob (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1943) i, pp. xvi-clxx; Peter Heath,
Church and Realm 1272-1461
(Fontana, London, 1988), pp. 291-2, 294-5.
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13 W&W, i, pp. 119-20.
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14 Ibid., i, pp. 119-20, 324-5.
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15 D’A. J. D. Boulton,
The Knights of the Crown: The Monarchical Orders of Knighthood in Later Medieval Europe 1325-1520
(Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1987), p. 15. For brotherhood-in-arms, see below, pp. 153-4, 177.
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16 W&W, i, pp. 507-8. The manner of Clarence’s death in 1421 mournfully demonstrated that he could not be trusted to act in the best interests of either the king or the kingdom. In his anxiety to outdo his brother’s success at Agincourt, he over-ruled wiser and more experienced soldiers to attack a much larger French army without waiting for his archers to arrive. The resulting battle of Baugé was the greatest military disaster of Henry’s reign: Clarence himself, Lord Roos, Lord Grey of Heton and Gilbert Umfraville were killed and the earls of Huntingdon and Somerset, the latter’s brother, Edmund Beaufort, and Lord Fitzwalter were all captured: ibid., iii, pp. 301-6.
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17 Ibid., pp. 134-5 and n. 88;
CPR
, p. 331.
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18 Powell, pp. 197-9.
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19 Ibid., pp. 199-200; W&W, i, pp. 109-10.
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20 It should be noted that legal actions were often concocted as a means of pressurising an opponent, for instance in a land dispute, to settle quickly. For the following discussion on law and order I have relied entirely on the magisterial study by Edward Powell,
Kingship, Law, and Society: Criminal Justice in the Reign of Henry V
(Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989) and his article which preceded it, “The Restoration of Law and Order,” in
HVPK
, pp. 53-74.
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