by Teresa Cole
Salisbury – Thomas Montacute (b. 1388, d. 1428) was the son of John, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, who was a staunch supporter of Richard II. John was imprisoned when Henry IV came to the throne and when released joined in the plot of January 1400 and was beheaded by a mob in Cirencester. Although titles and lands were lost, Thomas was being referred to as Earl of Salisbury as early as 1409, and his marriage to Eleanor Holland restored his fortunes. He was one of the seven peers to try Richard of Cambridge for treason after the Southampton plot was uncovered. He spent most of his life as a soldier, serving as a commander at Harfleur and Agincourt and in the later campaigns. He led the reinforcements at the Battle of Baugé and recovered the body of Clarence. After the death of Henry V he became Bedford’s chief lieutenant in France. He was killed by a cannonball at the siege of Orleans in 1428 leaving an only daughter, Alice. She was married to Richard Neville, son of Ralph Neville and Joan Beaufort (above), and he claimed the title Earl of Salisbury through her. He fought for his brother-in-law Richard, Duke of York, in the Wars of the Roses and was beheaded after the Battle of Wakefield in 1460.
The French
Charles VI (b. 1368, d. 1422) inherited the throne of France in 1380 at the age of eleven. A regency council was appointed to rule in his name until he took power personally in 1388. Before then he had married Isabeau of Bavaria, apparently falling in love with her at first sight. His first bout of madness took place in 1392 and it would recur regularly from then until his death in October 1422, changing his title from Charles the Good to Charles the Mad. He and Isabeau had twelve children. Among them were:
Isabelle (b. 1389, d. 1409), who married Richard II in 1396. Following his death she was allowed to return to France and married Charles of Orleans in 1406. She died in childbirth in 1409, leaving one daughter.
Louis (b. 1397, d. 1415), who became Dauphin in 1401. He married Margaret of Burgundy, daughter of John the Fearless, in 1412 and is credited with sending a gift of tennis balls to Henry V, a story which might be purely propaganda. He did not go to Agincourt but died, possibly from dysentery, shortly after.
John (b. 1398, d. 1417), who was Dauphin from 1415 to 1417. He was married to Jacqueline of Hainault in 1406 when he was eight and she was five, and was then brought up in Hainault. Following his death Jacqueline married (as her third husband) Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (see above).
Katherine (b. 1401, d. 1437), who married Henry V in 1420. She was the mother of Henry VI and after the death of her husband married Owen Tudor. She was the mother of Edmund and Jasper Tudor and the grandmother of Henry VII.
Charles (b. 1403, d. 1461) became Dauphin in 1417. He had been betrothed for many years to Marie of Anjou and brought up in the household of Louis of Anjou and his wife Yolande. He was present at the death of John the Fearless but may not have planned it. Afterwards disinherited by the Treaty of Troyes, he was supported by the House of Anjou, in particular by Yolande. Proclaimed King Charles VII in some parts of France in 1422, he was eventually crowned at Rheims in 1429 after the intervention of Joan of Arc. In 1435 Philippe of Burgundy gave him his support and he gradually recovered all of France except Calais.
Charles of Orleans (b. 1394, d. 1465) was the son of Louis of Orleans, and therefore the nephew of Charles VI. He was thirteen years old when his father was assassinated by John the Fearless. He had married Isabelle of Valois in 1406 (see above) and following her death married Bonne, daughter of Bernard of Armagnac, in 1410. His father-in-law took up his cause as leader of the Armagnacs. Charles was captured at Agincourt and spent the next twenty-four years as a prisoner in England, during which time his wife died. Following his release in 1440 he retired to his estates with his third wife, Marie of Cleeves, and continued with the writing and reading he had pursued while a prisoner. He was a notable patron of the arts.
Louis of Anjou (b. 1377, d. 1417) was a cousin of Charles VI and became Duke of Anjou in 1384. He married Yolande of Aragon in 1400. Their son Louis was betrothed to the daughter of John the Fearless but the engagement was called off when they changed allegiance to the Armagnacs following mob violence in Paris instigated by John. Their daughter Marie married Charles of Valois, who became Dauphin in 1417 and later King Charles VII. Their son Renée was the father of Margaret of Anjou, who married Henry VI (see above). Louis of Anjou was not at Agincourt, apparently due to illness. Afterwards he returned to Anjou and died there in 1417.
John, Duke of Berry (b. 1340, d. 1416), was an uncle of Charles VI. He was present at the Battle of Poitiers and saw his father taken prisoner by the English. He served on the regency council of Charles VI and later tried to act as a peacemaker between the different factions. He prevented the king and Dauphin from attending the Battle of Agincourt and died the following year.
Charles d’Albret (b. c. 1369, d. 1415) was born into a Gascon family and spent most of his life in the service of France. He became Constable of France in 1402, a post he held until his death, with the exception of the time of the Burgundian occupation from 1411 to 1413. In the early 1400s he campaigned in Aquitaine with Louis of Orleans and Bernard of Armagnac, and later strongly supported them against the Burgundians. He was part of the group negotiating with Henry V prior to his invasion of France. In 1415 he was appointed the king’s lieutenant for the defence of France, but was unable to prevent the royal princes insisting on a battle with the forces of Henry V. He was accused of treason by some for not preventing the landing of Henry and for not relieving Harfleur. He fought and was killed in the vanguard at Agincourt, and despite this some again suggested he had deserted the French cause. He was buried before the grand altar in a church in Hesdin near Agincourt.
Marshal Boucicaut (b. 1366, d. 1421) was originally Jean Le Maigre. He began as a page in the court of Charles VI, was knighted at the age of sixteen and travelled and fought all over Europe including in Prussia and Spain. He fought the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Nicopolis and was taken prisoner, eventually being ransomed. He was named Marshal of France in 1391 and later became Governor of Genoa when that was subject to French rule. In 1415 he was named captain-general of the French forces, fought in the vanguard at Agincourt and was taken prisoner. Never ransomed, he died in 1421 in Yorkshire.
Bernard of Armagnac (b. 1360, d. 1418) became Count of Armagnac on the death of his elder brother in 1391. He married Bonne, daughter of the Duke of Berry, and their daughter, also Bonne, married Charles, Duke of Orleans, whose cause he then took up against John of Burgundy. He became Constable of France and head of the Dauphin’s government in 1415 and held the post until he was killed during the Burgundian insurrection in Paris in 1418.
Raoul de Gaucort (b. 1371, d. 1462) was a long-time servant of the French Crown whose family came originally from Picardy. Much of his early fighting was done in the company of Marshal Boucicaut, including at Nicopolis where he was knighted, and where he was also captured and ransomed. Both held strong chivalric ideas. He was sent to the defence of Harfleur and became a prisoner of the English when it surrendered. He took Henry’s challenge to the Dauphin, and then surrendered himself in Calais and was transported to England. His ransom was set to include not only money but the recovery of jewels belonging to Henry which had been lost at Agincourt and the freedom of certain English prisoners. De Gaucort himself was sent to obtain these, and though he thought he had fulfilled the demands, Henry disagreed. On his deathbed Henry instructed that de Gaucort should not be freed until Henry VI came of age, but he finally gained his liberty in 1425 as part of a deal to secure the release of John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon, who had been captured at Baugé. On returning to France de Gaucort immediately took up arms again against the English and fought in every campaign to drive them from France. He was Captain of Orleans during the siege in 1428, championed Joan of Arc and was present to see Charles VII crowned in Rheims in 1429. By the time of his death all that was left to the English in France was Calais.
Rebels and Traitors
The Percys were major landowners and magnates in the no
rth-east of England whose ancestors had come over with William the Conqueror.
The 1st Earl of Northumberland was Henry Percy (b. 1341, d. 1408). He had been a follower of Edward III, particularly active in keeping the Scottish border, and was a long-time Warden of the Scottish Marches. He was created earl in 1377 at the coronation of Richard II. Ten years later his brother Thomas was created Earl of Worcester.
Henry’s son, also Henry Percy (b. 1364, d. 1403) was one of the most famous figures of his day. Nicknamed ‘Hotspur’ by the Scots for his speed in rushing to battle, he fought for Richard II in Scotland and France. At the Battle of Otterburn in Scotland in 1388 he had been taken prisoner and ransomed, and had then undertaken further diplomatic and military missions for the Crown, including acting as deputy to John of Gaunt in Aquitaine.
Both Percys supported Henry Bolingbroke when he landed in 1399 supposedly to claim his inheritance. Both had further supported his claim to the throne and served him for a number of years in Wales and on the Scottish borders. By 1403, however, both father and son had a long list of grievances against him, not least of which was his failure to pay wages due for defending the Scottish borders.
At the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 Hotspur was killed and his uncle the Earl of Worcester beheaded. The Earl of Northumberland, who had not taken part in the battle, was pardoned for his share in the rebellion, but then joined in Scrope’s rebellion in 1405. When that failed he fled to Scotland, taking with him Hotspur’s son, also Henry Percy (b. 1393, d. 1455). The Percy lands and castles in the north-east were confiscated and distributed between the Earl of Westmoreland and Henry IV’s son, John of Lancaster, who also took over as Warden of the East March on the Scottish border.
The Earl of Northumberland finally lost his life at the Battle of Bramham Moor in 1408, a further attack on Henry IV. Hotspur’s widow married Lord Camoys, who commanded with great distinction the rearguard of the English forces at Agincourt and was afterwards made a Knight of the Garter.
Young Henry Percy was released as part of a prisoner swap with Scotland in 1416. As part of that deal he was required to marry Eleanor Neville, daughter of the Earl of Westmoreland. With estates restored, and created 2nd Earl of Northumberland, he then supported the Lancastrian kings until his death in the First Battle of St Albans in 1455.
Owen Glendower (b. c. 1350, d. probably 1415) was a descendant of the Welsh princes of Wales. Very well educated, he studied law in London in his youth, and married the daughter of a judge of the King’s Bench. He returned to Wales in 1383 as a landowner with estates at Sycarth and Glyndyfrdwy in the north. He gave military service to Richard II and was knighted by him. At different times he served under John of Gaunt and the Earl of Arundel, and it is claimed he was present as squire to Henry Bolingbroke at the Battle of Radcot Bridge. The 1390s saw the beginning of the land dispute that escalated into a full-scale Welsh rebellion. On 16 September 1400 he declared himself Prince of Wales and thereafter, aided by his cousins the Tudors of Anglesey, used guerrilla tactics to spread the revolt and avoid confrontation with the forces of Henry IV. His diplomatic efforts involved both France and the Pope. In 1404 he called a Welsh parliament at Machynlleth, was crowned as Prince of Wales and issued a manifesto of policies for an independent Wales. The coastal fortresses of Harlech and Aberystwyth were taken, and early the following year the ‘Tripartite Indenture’ was apparently agreed with his fellow rebels, Mortimer and Northumberland. This was the summit of his success, followed by a slow but steady decline. The end came with the fall of Harlech in 1409. Though Glendower and at least one of his sons escaped and rewards were offered for his capture, no one betrayed him. He was rarely seen in public again and never after 1412. A story which may be merely legend claims he spent some years in the household of one of his surviving daughters, passed off as a Franciscan friar acting as tutor to the family. According to one chronicle he died in 1415 and was buried on the estate of another daughter, though the whereabouts of his grave has never been definitively established. One son, Maredudd, accepted a pardon from Henry V in 1421.
Sir John Oldcastle (b. c. 1370, d. 1417) came from an old Herefordshire family. He held various positions in the Welsh campaigns of the 1400s, including as captain of Builth Castle and then Hay Castle. In 1408 he was at the siege of Aberystwyth. It was in this way that he first became acquainted with Henry, Prince of Wales. In 1404 he entered Parliament as a knight representing Herefordshire, but his status advanced on his marriage to Joan, the heiress to Baron Cobham. As Lord Cobham he inherited not only land and money but also a seat among the lords in Parliament. It is suggested he had been a confirmed Lollard for some time and his hand is seen behind attempts in 1410 to reduce the effect of the statute De Heretico Comburendo. He is known to have been writing to followers of Jan Hus in Bohemia about this time too. He held a command on the expedition sent by Prince Henry to aid the Burgundians in 1411 and was still firmly in favour when denounced as a heretic on the basis of a book of his found at a booksellers in London in 1413. Condemned in 1413, Oldcastle escaped from the Tower to lead a rebellion against Henry V and, when this failed, he returned to hide out in his home territory on the Welsh borders. He has been linked to the Southampton plot of 1415 and some stirrings of Lollardy in 1416 before finally being captured in a violent encounter in 1417. Brought back to London, he was condemned again as a traitor and heretic and executed on 14 December 1417.
In the Shakespeare play, Henry IV, Part 1, the character Sir John Falstaff was originally called Sir John Oldcastle, though there seems no similarity between the two except that both are friends of Henry when Prince of Wales. When the play was published in 1598 the name was changed at the insistence of a descendant of the Cobham family, one of whose members had recently been Lord Chamberlain to Elizabeth I. In Henry IV, Part 2 an epilogue specifically declares, ‘For Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man.’
Appendix II
NOTE ON SOURCES
The life and times of Henry V are unusually well chronicled, with both English and French sources giving eyewitness accounts of some of the major events. These need to be used with care, however. Both the king and his chancellor were adept at presenting a positive image to the country as a whole, and while it would probably be unfair to label Bishop Henry as a spin doctor, he could be powerfully persuasive in producing the correct response to events as they unfolded. Patriotism too played a part, the ‘hateful swarms of Frenchmen’ in one account being mirrored by the ‘proud, pompous, deceitful’ English in another. Bearing this in mind, however, we have a rich stream of chronology, anecdote and detail from which to produce a history of Henry V.
Adam of Usk was a canon lawyer who worked for both Henry IV and Archbishop Arundel. He helped establish the legal grounds for ousting Richard II and saw him a prisoner in the Tower of London. Later he worked in France and Flanders while his suspected sympathies for Glendower kept him out of England. His writings cover the period 1397 to 1419, being particularly good on the time around the turn of the century. While initially he is very supportive of Henry V, by the end he is complaining of high taxes and is full of foreboding for the future.
Another English chronicle of the time was compiled at St Albans Abbey, an important stopping place on the road to and from London, and which had a reputation for its historical writing. One major chronicle covered the three reigns of Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V, ending at 1420, while a shorter version had an additional section extending to 1422. Much of this has been attributed to a monk at the abbey called Thomas Walsingham, who for many years was head of the scriptorium. Certainly by him is another piece chronicling the history of Normandy, including the conquest by Henry V, which was written between 1419 and 1422. These works are very detailed, very contemporary and seem to be well informed, no doubt gleaning facts from all the important people who would have stayed at the abbey. As might be expected they are also pro-Lancastrian, anti-Lollard and anti-French, while the history of Normandy, which was dedicated to Henry, un
surprisingly invests him with every Christian virtue, describing him in glowing terms as ‘everywhere and always victorious’.
Among eyewitness accounts we have two lives of Henry written during or very soon after his lifetime. The earliest, the Gesta Henrici Quinti (Deeds of Henry V) was anonymous, but various clues in the text establish that it was probably written by an English priest attached to the royal chapel, who was familiar with diplomacy, had access to the texts of treaties and probably was closer to Archbishop Arundel than to his successor. He is in fact our royal chaplain, who sat in the rear at Agincourt and recorded what he saw. His story gives outstanding details not just of the whole Agincourt campaign, but also other events he witnessed such as the Lollard uprising in 1413 where he seems to have been present with the king at St Giles’s Fields.