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King Henry V 1387-1422; reigned 1413-1422 "Take a soldier, take a king."
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Regement of Princes | St. Winifred's Well | Wales | God's House Tower | Pyx | Agincourt Carol | Chasuble | Helm |
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Henry V accomplished a lot in his short reign. He took an active interest in fiscal management, personally going over the books, and ushered in a new era of responsible spending and relative prosperity for the crown. A master of public propaganda, he consciously cultivated his public image in all parts of the country and united it under his leadership. Most significantly, he renewed England's role as an aggressor in the Hundred Years' War, bringing most of France under his control and becoming heir to its crown. Shakespeare's play mostly takes place during the second half of 1415, covering the buildup to Henry's first French campaign, his victory at Harfleur, and his army's tide-turning win at Agincourt. He ends the play with Henry signing the Treaty of Troyes, in 1420, which formalized his marriage agreement to the French king's daughter Katherine of Valois and named Henry the next king of France. Henry V was the last history play Shakespeare would write alone (though he later collaborated with John Fletcher on Henry VIII). It was one of the first plays to be performed in the Globe Theater, in 1599, and features a narrator who references current events as well as the art of acting in his frequent soliloquies. The play closes with a reminder that, as glorious and hopeful as Henry's triumph may seem, it will all be lost in the coming decades under his son, Henry VI, whose reign would result in civil war and the end of the Lancastrian dynasty.
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British Library, London Thomas Hoccleve wrote the Regement of Princes for Henry V in 1411, when he was still the Prince of Wales. Hoccleve's words are drawn from classical sources of advice to rulers (which Hoccleve says he is sure the Prince has already read), supported by Biblical citations and illustrated with narratives. The text purports to lay out moral guidelines for the behavior of a prince or king. At this time, Henry was playing a major role on the king's council while his father was ill - some historians believe the Prince was practically running the country. Known to be his father's heir, he was already considered the ruler with whom the future of the country lay - indeed, some of the Prince's allies had already suggested his father abdicate in his favor. But in November 1411 the king recovered enough to reassert himself, Henry left the council, and the Prince's friends were dismissed from their positions of leadership. Pearsall argues that the Regement deliberately presents a public image of the Prince of Wales as wise, orthodox, willing to listen to good council, and "the hope of England in troublous times." Since Henry was not yet officially king and therefore not yet leading policy on many of the issues mentioned in the text (such as livery and the war with France), Hoccleve's suggestions can be seen as propaganda for Henry's own ideas. The text also eulogizes Henry's ancestors in order to demonstrate his legitimacy as inheritor of the crown. This image shows the book's presentation to the Prince by its author or possibly John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. Some scholars think this copy of the book (Arundel 38) was intended for Mowbray (the son of a former enemy of Henry IV) because his arms appear on this copy. If so, this shows clearly the book's function as both a work of literature and also a work of propaganda, distributed to publicize a certain image of the next king as well as solidify ties with "possibly doubtful friends." Sources
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Holywell, Wales In June 1415, as Henry was preparing to invade France, he made a pilgrimage to this holy site in Wales. That year, he also proclaimed the formal celebration of St. Winifred's feast day in England. The well is said to have sprung from the earth at the spot where Winifred, a prince's daughter in the 7th century, was beheaded by a jealous chieftan while he was attempting to abduct her. The water appeared where her severed head came to rest. Her uncle Beuno, a priest, placed her head back on her neck, and Winifred miraculously came back to life. She became a nun and later an abbess.
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Henry's birthplace and the seat of his inheritance as Prince, Wales was an important place for this king. He made pilgrimages to its holy sites and honored its saints, such as St. Winifred (discussed above). He was born on its western border, in the Great Tower at Monmouth Castle (shown at the right). The exact date of his birth was not recorded, however, because, at that time, there was no reason to believe he would ever become king. It was also in Wales that Henry got his first experience in military leadership during his father's reign, fighting the region's national rebellion led by Owain Glyn Dwr in the early 1400s (Glyn Dwr named himself prince of Wales around the same time that Henry's father bestowed this title on the Prince). Henry's Welsh archers at Agincourt were recruited at Tretower, a castle built in the late 11th century with a 13th century manor house (the four-storey tower in this photo dates from the 1230s). Shakespeare makes much of the participation of Welshmen in the battle, embodied in the loyal and good-natured officer Fluellen. In IV.vii, after the battle, Henry and his officer discuss the bravery of the Welsh during the French wars of the 1340s and their mutual attachment to the badge of the Welsh leek. "For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman," Henry says, and Fluellen replies, "All the water in Wye cannot wash your Majesty's Welsh plod out of your pody, I can tell you that." Sources
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God's House Tower, 1414-15
Before the Agincourt campaign in 1415, Henry V led a massive buildup of English defensive infrastructure on both sides of the channel, which included construction of the God's House Tower in Southampton. This project linked an existing 13th century gate along the southern perimeter of the city walls a new three-storey tower perched on the end of the quay leading to Portsmouth and the Channel. A two-storey gallery was also built to link the two structures. Henry spent several months in Southampton before launching the Agincourt campaign from there; Southampton is located almost directly across the Channel from Henry's secret destination - the French port city of Harfleur, which fell to his army after a 5-week siege in late summer, 1415. Shakespeare shows its capitulation in Act III, scene iii. The tower now houses Southampton's Museum of Archaeology. Sources
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Engraved silver Musée du Moyen Age, Cluny, France In III.vi of Henry V, Bardolph, a man-at-arms on the march to Agincourt, is hung for stealing a pyx from a French village church. A contemporary account of the incident says the soldier had hidden the pyx in his sleeve, and Henry ordered him to be hung in full view of the army. Shakespeare does not specify that Bardolph's execution take place on stage, but Kenneth Branagh filmed the scene this way in his 1989 adaptation of the play. A pyx was a small box used to hold the consecrated host, often as it was being transported by a priest on his way to deliver the sacrament to the sick. A lovely example of the type can be seen in this 15th century engraved silver pyx from southern France or Spain, but the one stolen by the soldier was recorded as being copper-gilt, which he likely mistook for gold. Perhaps, therefore, it was more like this 12th century pyx owned by the Louvre, an example of an enameled copper pyx manufactured in Limoges and a type very common in the 13th and 14th centuries. Sources
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Agincourt Carol, ca. 1425-50
On November 23, 1415, about a week after his return from France, Henry V entered London to a vast public celebration organized in honor of his victory at Agincourt. The procession began in Blackheath, four miles outside of town, where the mayor and aldermen of London, along with many citizens, met the king. A growing entourage made its way to the city, where a series of increasingly dazzling spectacles had been prepared along the route to St. Paul's. Giant statues, angel choirs singing psalms, fountains running with wine, temporary castles, and virgins blowing roundels of gold leaf onto the king's head all were features of this magnificent event. Henry passed through it solemnly, with neither crown nor scepter, and only a small retinue of French prisoners. The Agincourt Carol, though not composed for this procession, belongs to the artistic and literary production that focused on the king and his victory immediately after the historic battle. English verses follow a Latin chorus, and both praise the king and attribute his success to God. The first verse begins: "Our king went forth to Normandy, with grace and might of chivalry
This copy of the ballad, with its musical notation, was produced in the 2nd quarter of the 15th century, but bound, along with various manuscripts dated between the 8th and 17th centuries, around 1660. Sources
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Silk with silk and silver-gilt embroidery Victoria & Albert Museum, London Sir Thomas Erpingham was an important supporter of both Henry IV and Henry V. He accompanied Henry IV (then Bolingbroke) into exile in Paris in 1397, and was present at the Battle of Agincourt with Henry V in 1415. Shakespeare's Erpingham lends his cloak to Henry in Act IV, scene i of Henry V, allowing the king to converse anonymously with his men in the camp the night before the battle. A chasuble is the outer vestment worn by the priest while performing mass. This garment features Italian silk brocade patterned with camels; the silk and silver-gilt embroidery decorating its front was made in England during the first quarter of the 15th century. Two shields associate this garment with Erpingham - his arms, and a badge of an eagle wearing the red rose of Lancaster. This item may have belonged to his personal chaplain or a church to which he was a patron. The arms of secular lords are frequently found on the ecclesiastical objects and buildings they commissioned or funded. Sources
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Westminster Abbey, London This helm (helmet), shield and sword believed to have been carried during Henry's funeral procession in 1422 were for centuries mounted on a beam above the chantry chapel built to house the king's tomb. The helm is probably from the early 15th century and reinforced for jousting, so was probably not worn in battle. Its lower edge is trimmed with engraved copper and has buckles in the front and back that were used to strap it on. The horizontal protrusion in its front masks the slit cut for the wearer's eyes. The shield, which retains traces of crimson velvet as well as its blue silk backing, would have originally been painted with the king's arms (such a shield is mentioned in accounts of the funeral). Though a sword would have been carried as well, it may or may not have been this one, which was found in the Abbey in 1869. Sources
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