19Morgan, “The Household Retinue of Henry V and the Ethos of English Public Life,” p. 74; W&W, ii, pp. 17 n. 2, 88, 119; Wylie, “Notes on the Agincourt Roll,” p. 109 n. 1. (back to text)
20Rudolf Simek, Heaven and Earth in the Middle Ages: the Physical World Before Columbus, trans. by Angela Hill (Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1996), pp. 41-4, 51-5, 20-1, 29-31, 37-8. See plate 15. (back to text)
21Ibid., pp. 42-3. For facsimile examples of medieval navigational maps, see Gabriel Marcel, Choix de Cartes et de Mappemondes des XIV et XV Siècles (Ernest Leroux, Paris, 1896), esp. the Cartes de Dulcert (1330), de Mecia de Viladestes (1413) and de Saleri (1385). (back to text)
22St-Denys, v, pp. 532-3; GHQ, pp. 24-5. (back to text)
23Ibid., p. 25. (back to text)
24http://membres.lycos.fr/valsoleil/hellandes/histoire_du_fief_de_hellande. htm; Monstrelet, iii, pp. 70-1, 117; W&W, i, p. 447 n. 1. (back to text)
25Bacquet, pp. 109, 110; Bouvier, p. 64. (back to text)
26Bacquet, p. 109. (back to text)
27W&W, i, p. 447 n. 1; St-Denys, v, pp. 532-4. (back to text)
28W&W, ii, pp. 17, 19 and n. 9; Monstrelet, iii, pp. 82-3; GHQ, pp. 22-5, 22 n. 1. (back to text)
29Ibid., p. 27. (back to text)
30Keen, “Richard II’s Ordinances of War of 1385,” pp. 33-43; Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, III.i.273. For Henry V’s Mantes ordinances, see F. Grose, Military Antiquities Respecting the History of the English Army (London, 1801), ii, pp. 65-79. (back to text)
31Keen, “Richard II’s Ordinances of War of 1385,” pp. 44-5. See below, p. 291. (back to text)
32GHQ, pp. 68-9; St-Denys, v, pp. 556-7; Pizan, BDAC, p. 41. The story of the soldier stealing the pyx (see below, p. 239) was used by Shakespeare, who, applying poetic licence, made the thief Bardolph, one of the king’s former associates: Shakespeare, Henry V, III.vi. (back to text)
33W&W, ii, pp. 25-9 and n. 28; i, pp. 508-10. (back to text)
34GHQ, pp. 26-7. (back to text)
CHAPTER TEN: HARFLEUR
1Despite several visits in the summer of 2004, I was unable to gain access to the interior of the church: the best efforts of the very helpful ladies at the tourist information office and the mairie were unable to locate a keyholder or key. (back to text)
2St-Denys, v, p. 532; Monstrelet, iii, p. 225. (back to text)
3Allmand (ed), Society at War, p. 130; W&W, ii, p. 10; Allmand, Henry V, pp. xii, 67. (back to text)
4Most of my ensuing description of medieval Harfleur, including the clos-aux-galées, is drawn from the very useful information boards supplied by Parcours du Patrimonie on site, and an article by Bernard Perrot in Le Havre Livre, Sunday, 4 January 2004, p. 6. (back to text)
5GHQ, pp. 32-4. The paving stones lifted from the Montivilliers road were taken to Harfleur to be used as ammunition in the event of attack: Monstrelet, iii, p. 83; Waurin, i, pp. 181-2. (back to text)
6GHQ, pp. 26-31; W&W, ii, pp. 13-16; Jones, “Fortifications and Sieges in Western Europe c.800-1450,” p. 175. (back to text)
7Bouvier, pp. 64, 35 and n. 3, 38-9, 46, 52; Denis Lalande, Jean II le Meingre, dit Boucicaut (1366-1421): Étude d’une Biographie Héroïque (Librairie Droz, Geneva, 1988), p. 94; McLeod, pp. 84-5, 121. See also Aubert de la Chenaye-Desbois et Badier, Dictionnaire de la Noblesse (Paris, 1866, repr. Kraus-Thomson Organisation, Liechtenstein, 1969), ix, pp. 33-5 and Dictionnaire de Biographie Française, ed. by M. Prevost, Roman d’Arnot and H. Tribout de Morembert (Libraire Letouzey et Ané, Paris, 1982), xv, p. 689. Both Dictionnaires contain glaringly obvious errors of fact and it is difficult to disentangle references to Raoul VI de Gaucourt and his father, Raoul V, in the chronicles. Some of the earlier references may relate to Raoul V, who also led an active military career until he was assassinated by Burgundian sympathisers at Rouen in 1417. (back to text)
8Allmand (ed), Society at War, pp. 25-7. (back to text)
9Bouvier, p. 64; GHQ, pp. 32-3. Monstrelet, iii, p. 83 and le Févre, i, p. 225 both place de Gaucourt in the garrison, which they number at four hundred men-at-arms (that is, including his contingent), though they do not mention how he, and they, got there. (back to text)
10GHQ, pp. 32-5. (back to text)
11Jean de Bordiu, writing on 3 September 1415, notes that the king’s great army “increases every day”: Curry, p. 445; Registres de la Jurade, p. 257. (back to text)
12Forhan, The Political Theory of Christine de Pizan, p. 136; GHQ, p. 35. For Henry’s letter to Charles VI, quoting Deuteronomy, see above, p. 143. (back to text)
13Deuteronomy, ch. 20, vv. 13-14; GHQ, pp. 34-7. (back to text)
14St-Denys, v, pp. 536-7; GHQ, pp. 36-7; Curry, p. 445; Registres de la Jurade, p. 257. (back to text)
15GHQ, pp. 38-9; St-Denys, v, p. 536. (back to text)
16Original Letters Illustrative of English History, i, p. 95. Hostell is usually described as an archer, but Curry, p. 435, identifies him as a man-at-arms in the company of Sir John Lumley; he went on to fight at the battle of Agincourt. (back to text)
17GHQ, p. 39. (back to text)
18Ibid. (back to text)
19Pizan, BDAC, pp. 116, 136. (back to text)
20First English Life, p. 38; Barber, The Knight and Chivalry, p. 209; Seward, Henry V as Warlord, pp. 149-51. (back to text)
21GHQ, pp. 40-1. When Henry V invaded Normandy a second time, he hired miners from Liège, suggesting that lack of military experience had been a problem for the Welsh. (back to text)
22Ibid., pp. 42-3. (back to text)
23Curry, p. 445; Registres de la Jurade, p. 257. (back to text)
24First English Life, p. 38; Waurin, i, p. 182. (back to text)
25Curry, p. 445; Registres de la Jurade, p. 257. (back to text)
26Curry, p. 444; Registres de la Jurade, p. 256. (back to text)
27All the clinical information on dysentery which follows has been extracted from Healthlink Worldwide’s online newsletter on the control of diarrhoeal diseases, Dialogue on Diarrhoea, which can be found at www.rehydrate.org/dd/su55.htm. Handwashing with soap is the only proven method of preventing transmission, but dysentery can be cured with anti-microbial drugs. (back to text)
28Henry lost thirty-three of his own horses to murrain during the campaign: W&W, ii, p. 186 n. 2. (back to text)
29Talbot and Hammond (eds), The Medical Practitioners in Medieval England: A Biographical Register, p. 222; First English Life, p. 36. (back to text)
30Monstrelet, iii, pp. 84-5; le Févre, i, p. 226; Waurin, i, p. 183. (back to text)
31Foedera, ix, pp. 288, 310, 312, 314; MS Mowbray, fos 22-4; William Beamont, Annals of the Lords of Warrington (Chetham Society, 1872), i, p. 239. Harington’s account was debited for this amount, plus two extra pitchers of wine. (back to text)
32Calendar of Signet Letters of Henry IV and Henry V (1399-1422), p. 196 no. 964; Curry, pp. 444-5; Registres de la Jurade, pp. 256-7; Foedera, ix, pp. 310-11. (back to text)
33ODNB; Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, xx, 1-5 Henry V (1413- 1418), ed. by J. L. Kirby (HMSO, London, 1995), nos 460-1; GHQ, p. 45. (back to text)
34ODNB; Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, nos 441-51, 452-9; Wylie, “Notes on the Agincourt Roll,” p. 130. The earl himself had brought a retinue of 40 men-at-arms and 120 archers: MS E101/45/5, TNA. For further victims of dysentery, see below, pp. 204-7. (back to text)
35GHQ, pp. 44-5, 47 n. 1. (back to text)
36Ibid., pp. 48-9. (back to text)
37St-Denys, v, p. 538; GHQ, pp. 48-9. (back to text)
38W&W, ii, pp. 52, 49 n. 1; Perceval de Cagny, Chroniques, ed. by H. Moranvillé (Société de l’Histoire de France, Paris, 1902), p. 95 n. 4. Jehan La Guette, otherwise known as Lescot (was he also a Scot?), was given the boat, which is described as a “galiotte” (a term usually used for a pirate vessel), and paid a salary, but ran the enterprise “at his own peril and fortune.” (back to text)
39Monstrelet, i
ii, p. 84; le Févre, i, pp. 230-1. Both de Lille Adam and Brimeu would become founder members of the Burgundian order of the Toison d’Or in 1430; le Févre, who is the only chronicler to report this story, was the order’s herald, so he must have heard this story from them. They evidently took some small comfort from the fact that their captor, Sir Lewis Robsart, a long-standing member of Henry V’s household, was from Hainault. (back to text)
40W&W, ii, p. 53 n. 1; Monstrelet, iii, p. 93. (back to text)
41W&W, ii, pp. 52-3; St-Denys, v, pp. 538-41; Bourgeois, p. 77. (back to text)
42St-Denys, v, p. 540. There are some extant musters of the troops gathering at Rouen in September and October 1415; most are for very small companies of fewer than fifteen and do not give any indication of the size of the whole army. A number are summarised in René de Belleval, Azincourt (Paris, 1865), pp. 300-36. (back to text)
CHAPTER ELEVEN: “OUR TOWN OF HARFLEUR”
1GHQ, p. 49. (back to text)
2Brut, ii, p. 376; St Albans, pp. 90-1; W&W, ii, p. 49. (back to text)
3GHQ, pp. 48-51; St Albans, p. 90; St-Denys, v, p. 540. (back to text)
4Bacquet, p. 91. The rumours also reached Venice: see Morosini, Chronique, p. 62 and n. 6. (back to text)
5St-Denys, v, pp. 540-3. The monk places this three-hour assault on the morning of the actual handover of the town, 22 September, which is clearly impossible, as Henry would have executed the hostages if Harfleur had offered any resistance once the agreed time had elapsed. (back to text)
6Memorials of London and London Life, p. 619. The abbreviated version of this letter in Letter-Books, i, p. 131 and Calendar of Signet Letters of Henry IV and Henry V (1399-1422), p. 197 no. 965 is misleading; the latter also wrongly dates the surrender to 15 September. (back to text)
7GHQ, pp. 54-5; Nicolas, Appx vi, p. 24. (back to text)
8See above, pp. 59-60. (back to text)
9St Albans, pp. 90-1; W&W, ii, p. 50; GHQ, pp. 50-1; St-Denys, v, pp. 540-3. The names of the hostages are given in Chronicles of London, ed. by Charles Lethbridge Kingsford (Alan Sutton, Gloucester, 1977), pp. 116-17. (back to text)
10Monstrelet, iii, p. 85; First English Life, p. 39. (back to text)
11St-Denys, v, p. 538. (back to text)
12GHQ, pp. 52-3; Usk, p. 255. (back to text)
13First English Life, p. 40; GHQ, pp. 52-3; Elmham, “Liber Metricus,” p. 112. The First English Life attributes the words of surrender to Sir Lionell Braquemont, “the governor of the town,” but the chaplain, who was an eyewitness, says that de Gaucourt handed over the keys. (back to text)
14Curry, p. 445; Registres de la Jurade, p. 257; GHQ, pp. 54-5; Monstrelet, iii, p. 94; First English Life, p. 40. (back to text)
15GHQ, p. 55; Brut, ii, pp. 377, 554; St-Denys, v, p. 544; le Févre, i, p. 229; W&W, ii, pp. 58-60. The unreliable Chronique de Ruisseauville claims that many of the refugees were robbed and raped by their fellow countrymen once their English escort had left them: Bacquet, p. 91. (back to text)
16Nicolas, Appx vi, p. 24; GHQ, pp. 54-7. (back to text)
17Ibid., pp. 56-9; Elmham, “Liber Metricus,” p. 113; Foedera, ix, p. 313. Foedera wrongly dates the letter to 16 September (it was actually written on 26 September, the day before de Gaucourt’s release) and mistranscribes “Guienne” as “Vienne.” (back to text)
18Barker, The Tournament in England 1100-1400, pp. 158-61; Francis Henry Cripps-Day, The History of the Tournament in England and in France (Bernard Quaritch, London, 1918), p. 67 n. 4. (back to text)
19The chaplain, writing the “official” version of the campaign, had clearly been provided with a copy of the challenge, which he closely paraphrases in his text: GHQ, pp. 56-9. (back to text)
20The chaplain says that Henry released the French men-at-arms “with the intention and in the hope that by their instigation and good offices the peace which he so much desired might be the sooner restored”: ibid., pp. 54-5. For de Gaucourt’s later mission, see below, pp. 353-4. (back to text)
21GHQ, pp. 58-9. (back to text)
22Ibid.; Capgrave, p. 131; Elmham, “Liber Metricus,” p. 113. (back to text)
23Memorials of London and London Life, p. 619; Letter-Books, i, p. 159; Forty-Fourth Annual Report, p. 576. (back to text)
24Devon, pp. 341-2; Foedera, ix, p. 314; CPR, p. 364; CCR, p. 236. (back to text)
25W&W, ii, pp. 64, 65 n. 3. For Curteys, see above, p. 97. For wages paid to masters of ships from Hull, King’s Lynn, Winchelsea and London, for service from 1 August see Foedera, ix, pp. 315-17. (back to text)
26GHQ, pp. 58-9. Curry, Agincourt: A New History, p. 131, rightly observes that one cannot simply count names to ascertain the reduction in fighting strength of the army as some of those sent home were non-combatants, but the incomplete nature of the records of the sick and the identifiable losses to some companies do not support her conclusion that Henry V still had “at least” 8680 soldiers (“a minimum” 8732, p. 187) with him on his march to Calais. (back to text)
27W&W, ii, p. 66 n. 5, 67-8; ODNB; Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, nos 654-71; MS Mowbray fo. 23. The medicines were all supplied in October 1415. For Arundel, see above, pp. 20, 33-4, 45. (back to text)
28W&W, ii, pp. 45-6; Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, nos 302-5, 359-69, 441-51, 452-9, 460-1, 654-71. William Botiller, lord of Warrington, died on 26 September; Sir John Southworth on 5 October: Abstracts of Inquisitions Post Mortem, made by Christopher Towneley and Roger Dodsworth, ed. by William Langton (Chetham Society, Manchester, 1875), pp. 112-14, 117. (back to text)
29Wylie, “Notes on the Agincourt Roll,” p. 136; W&W, i, p. 3 n. 10; ii, p. 46 n. 6; Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, nos 359-69. Ken Mourin, “Norwich, Norfolk and Sir Thomas Erpingham,” in Curry, Agincourt 1415, pp. 80-1. (back to text)
30Monstrelet, iii, p. 85. (back to text)
31W&W, ii, p. 67 and n. 7; Wylie, “Notes on the Agincourt Roll,” pp. 131-2, 139; MS E101/47/29, TNA. (back to text)
32Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem: 1413-1418, no. 343; GHQ, pp. 58-9. (back to text)
33Wylie, “Notes on the Agincourt Roll,” pp. 128, 130; Allmand, Henry V, p. 212. (back to text)
34Wylie, “Notes on the Agincourt Roll,” p. 112 n. 1; Forty-Fourth Annual Report, p. 577; Anthony Smith, “‘The Greatest Man of That Age’: The Acquisition of Sir John Fastolf’s East Anglian Estates,” in Archer and Walker (eds), Rulers and Ruled, pp. 137-8. (back to text)
35GHQ, pp. 58-9; W&W, ii, p. 62 n. 8; Devon, pp. 345, 349. (back to text)
36Curry, p. 445; Registres de la Jurade, p. 257. (back to text)
37GHQ, pp. 58-9. Some of the ships had been released after six weeks’ service: that is, on 12 September, ten days before the capitulation of Harfleur. See, for example, Foedera, ix, p. 315. (back to text)
CHAPTER TWELVE: THE MARCH TO CALAIS
1GHQ, p. 60. (back to text)
2GHQ, p. 58 n. 5; le Févre, i, p. 229; First English Life, pp. 42-3; Curry, pp. 429-30; Bacquet, p. 110. (back to text)
3GHQ, p. 61. For Fusoris, see above, pp. 122-3, 164-5. (back to text)
4See above, p. 33. (back to text)
5Pizan, BDAC, pp. 37-8. (back to text)
6Ibid., p. 38 n. 50. (back to text)
7Norbert Ohler, The Medieval Traveller, trans. by Caroline Hillier (Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1989), p. 98; Pizan, BDAC, p. 50 n. 72. The English chaplain (GHQ, pp. 60-1) believed that Calais was only 100 miles away (it was actually 150 miles away), but his mistake was not shared by the king. (back to text)
8GHQ, p. 61. (back to text)
9W&W, ii, p. 88 n. 3; St Albans, p. 93; Elmham, “Liber Metricus,” p. 114; GHQ, pp. 60-1. Those French chroniclers who attempted to give a date generally referred to “the first week in October”: see, for example, Cagny, Chroniques, p. 97. (back to text)
10C. R. Cheney (ed), Handbook of Dates for Students of English History (Royal Historical Society, London, 1978), pp
. 1-2. The Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar throughout Christendom in 1582. (back to text)
11Ibid., pp. 3-6. (back to text)
12Ibid., pp. 12-13, 65-9. An added complication of using regnal years was that sometimes a moveable feast, such as Easter, either dropped out of a regnal year altogether, or occurred twice. (back to text)
13Monstrelet, iii, p. 103. (back to text)
14Cheney (ed), Handbook of Dates for Students of English History, p. 9; Harvey, Living and Dying in England 1100-1540: the Medieval Experience, pp. 154-5. (back to text)
15Ibid., pp. 155-6; Cheney (ed), Handbook of Dates for Students of English History, p. 9; Geddes, “Iron,” in Blair and Ramsay (eds), English Medieval Industries: Craftsmen, Techniques, Products, pp. 178-9. (back to text)
16GHQ, p. 61; Cheney (ed), Handbook of Dates for Students of English History, p. 80. (back to text)
17W&W, ii, pp. 88ff. prefer the alternative dating, starting on 6 October, but for confirmation of 8 October, see below, n. 26. (back to text)
18W&W, ii, pp. 88-9. The fact that the English army was able to take the Montivilliers road indicates that the floods in the Lézarde valley had now disappeared completely: Henry must have breached his own dam and opened the sluices in Harfleur because he needed to re-establish the water supply on taking the town. (back to text)
19Beamont, Annals of the Lords of Warrington, p. 245. Curry, pp. 430-1, argues convincingly that reassignment to new retinues explains the difference in personnel that sometimes occurs between muster rolls and retinue lists. This is a more credible explanation than that the retinues were brought up to full strength by the recruitment of new men, as she suggests in Curry, Agincourt: A New History, pp. 130-1. (back to text)
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