1414.]

HENRY'S DEMANDS UPON FRANCE.

55

him and his brothers, to divide the realm into districts, and to elect Sir John Oldcastle president. These allegations appear too extravagant not to lead us to the belief that the conspiracy, if conspiracy there were, had for its sole object the mitigation of the penal laws against the preachers and receivers of Wycliffe's doctrines. Within a few months a pardon was proclaimed to all the Lollards for the conspiracy, excepting Oldcastle and eleven others. Still prosecutions went on; and it is remarkable that the king pardoned many so prosecuted, after they had been convicted. The general body of Lollards were grievously punished for the indiscretion of some of their number. A new Statute was passed, giving all judges and magistrates power to arrest all persons suspected of Lollardism; binding them by oath to do their utmost to root up the heresy; and enacting that in addition to capital punishment the lands and goods of such convicted heretics should be forfeited to the king. It was three years before the vengeance of the Church fell on Oldcastle. He was taken in 1418, while Henry was in France; and was burnt, under the declaration of the archbishop and his provincial synod that he was an incorrigible heretic.

The factions of the Burgundians and Armagnacs were carrying on their desolating contests in France, when Henry V. came to the throne. Henry IV. had endeavoured to avail himself of their distractions by siding with one or the other party as best suited his policy. His son adopted a bolder course. When the treaty of Bretigny was violated by the French, Edward III. re-assumed the title of king of France, and went to war again to assert his pretended right. There had been several renewed truces between the two kingdoms, but no pacification, and no decided settlement of the contested claims. The unhappy condition of the French nation was an encouragement to the ambition of the young king of England, who had been trained from his earliest years in war and policy. An embassy was sent to Paris to negotiate for a prolongation of the truce. Then was suggested a pacification, by the marriage of Henry of England with Catherine, the youngest daughter of the insane Charles VI. It was also proposed to the duke of Burgundy that his daughter should be queen of England. But the Orleanists were now supreme. Within a year from his accession Henry suddenly put in a claim to the crown of France, in renewal of the old claim of Edward III. Upon the rejection of this claim the king of England made demands far more unreasonable than were agreed to by his great-grandfather, when the peace of Bretigny was concluded. The French government consented to give up all the ancient territories of the duchy of Aquitaine, and to marry the daughter of Charles VI. to Henry, with a dowry of six hundred thousand crowns. An embassy was sent to France, when the amount of the proposed dowry was increased to eight hundred thousand crowns; and the demand of Henry for the cession of Normandy, Maine, and Anjou was rejected. The French then sent an embassy to England, when Henry demanded Normandy and all the territories ceded by the peace of Bretigny, under the threat that

he would otherwise take arms to enforce his claim to the crown of France. On the 16th of April, 1415, he announced at a great council his determination to recover "his inheritance." He had previously obtained a supply from parliament "for the defence of the kingdom of England and the safety of the seas;" and the supply was thus limited, although the king had avowed his

56

HENRY CLAIMS THE FRENCH CROWN-CONSPIRACY.

[1415. intention to that parliament of making a claim to the kingdom of France. Historians are of opinion that the lords spiritual, with the new archbishop, Chicheley, as their organ, had urged the king to this decision, to divert the attention of the people from those questions of the doctrine and discipline of the Church which had become so formidable. The probability is, that Henry having become an instrument in their hands for putting down by terror those new doctrines which had spread from England to the continent, they were ready in return to gratify his personal ambition by advocating his designs upon France. Whatever admiration we may feel for the bravery, fortitude, and self-reliance of Henry, we must rank him amongst the guilty possessors of kingly power; and make a large abatement from the vaunted generosity of one "who lay in wait for the best opportunity of aggrandising himself at the expense of his distracted neighbours; as if nations were only more numerous gangs of banditti, instead of being communities formed only for the observance and enforcement of justice."

At a council on the 17th of April the king appointed his brother, the duke of Bedford, to be lieutenant of the kingdom during his absence. The next day he declared what should be the payment for the lords and knights who should be retained for his voyage to France, with the daily payment of each man-at-arms and each archer. The rate of pay was, for a duke, 13s. 4d. per day; for an earl, 6s. 8d.; for a baron, 4s.; for a knight, 2s.; for every other man-at-arms, 1s.; and for an archer, 6d. Great nobles and others contracted to furnish large bodies of troops at this rate, well and sufficiently mounted, armed, and arrayed. But the first quarter's wages were required to be paid in advance, and pledges were given for the payment of the second quarter. Contracts were made for carpenters and other artisans, for wagons, and bows and arrows. The king pledged jewels for the performance of some of these contracts, and he raised large sums as loans upon jewels and plate. Ships and sailors were impressed. Surgeons were provided. Many officers of the royal household were to attend upon the king, with no fewer than fifteen minstrels. On the 18th of June Henry set out from Westminster, going in procession to St. Paul's, accompanied by the mayor, and citizens in their guilds. At Winchester he waited the arrival of an embassy from France. According to one French historian, Laboureur, Henry haggled about terms in the spirit of an usurer. The archbishop of Bourges, who was of the embassy, is accused by our chroniclers of having

replied to the king with improper boldness. Neither concession nor plain-speaking would avail. The ambassadors returned to Paris on the 26th of July, and reported that all Henry's peaceable professions covered malice and dissimulation. On the 24th of July the king made his will, concluding with these words in his own autograph: "This is my last will, subscribed with my own hand, R. H. Jesu mercy and gremercy Ladie Marie help." Within a day or two a conspiracy against Mackintosh, "History of England," vol. i. p. 362.

Signature of Henry V.

1415.]

HENRY AND HIS ARMY SAIL TO HARFLEUR.

57

him was discovered, which, according to some accounts, was instigated by the French court. The conspirators were, the king's cousin, Richard, earl of Cambridge, brother to the duke of York (Rutland); lord Scrope, who was Henry's familiar friend; and Sir Thomas Grey of Heton. Α jury was summoned for their trial by the sheriff of Southampton, who found Cambridge and Grey guilty of treason, and Scrope of having concealed the knowledge of their purposes. Cambridge and Scrope claimed to be tried by their peers. By the lords then at Southampton, who formed a court for their trial, they were convicted; and they suffered death on the 5th of August. Grey had been previously executed.

The truce with France expired on the 2nd of August. On the beach of Southamption are collected men at arms, mounted archers, foot-archers, miners, gunners, armourers, and all the various attendants of a feudal army. There, under the walls of the old castle, shallow vessels float up to the river's banks, and with little preparation horses and men step on to the crowded decks. Fifteen hundred of such vessels are gathered together, and drift with the tide to the broader Solent. Fifteen hundred sails to bear an army, slowly and insecurely to Normandy, that would have been carried with far greater speed and safety by thirty of such vessels as now steam from that Southampton river. The king is at Porchester Castle. On the 10th of August, being Saturday, he goes on board his own ship, The Trinity, lying between Southampton and Portsmouth. His sail is set; the little craft, varying from three hundred tons to twenty tons, collect around The Trinity; and on Sunday they put to sea. On Tuesday, about noon, the royal ship enters the mouth of the Seine; and the fleet casts anchor about three miles from Harfleur.

The "Roll of the Men-at-arms that were at the Battle of Agincourt," and "The Retinue of Henry V. in his first Voyage," exhibit very clearly the nature of the force that was landed near Harfleur on the 14th of August.* The duke of Clarence, the duke of Gloucester, and the duke of York, had, together, 540 men-at-arms, bannerets, knights, and esquires; and 1720 horsearchers. The earl of Dorset, and the earl of Arundel had each 100 men-atarms, and 300 horse-archers. The earl of March was there, with 60 men-at-arms, and 160 horse-archers. There is little doubt that the conspiracy, which was discovered at Southampton, was for the purpose of placing him, the legitimate heir of the crown, upon the throne; but the king, merciless as he was to the chief movers of the plot, granted a pardon to the earl of March, and gave him the honour of fighting by his side in this perilous warfare. The unhappy earl of Cambridge was to have been in that expedition, with 60 men-at-arms and 160 horse-archers. Of his men, 3 lances and 6 archers fought at Agincourt. Other great earls were there,— Suffolk, Oxford, Huntingdon, and the Earl-Marshal, with men-at-arms and archers, horse and foot, in due proportion. Bannerets were there,-names memorable amongst England's chivalry, each leading 20 or 30 men-at-arms,

These lists are published in "The History of the Battle of Agincourt," by Sir N. H. Nicolas, 1827. In this volume are collected all the documents which have relation to this event, as well as the contemporary narratives; the most valuable of which is that of a priest who accompanied the expedition, being a Latin MS. in the Cottonian MSS. of the British Museum, first translated and published by Sir N. H. Nicolas.

58

SIEGE OF HARFLEUR-SICKNESS OF THE ENGLISH.

[1415. and a larger number of archers. Then came an honoured roll of the knights and esquires of the land, the worthy companions of Cornwall, and Erpingham, and Hungerford, and Umfreville,-some three hundred in number, each with his little band of lancers and archers; the yeomen of their manors; picked men, who went forth with stout limbs and resolved spirit, caring little for the abstract justice of the cause for which they were to fight, but knowing that they would have a due proportion of the "gaignes de guerres."* This army, then, landed in small boats, and took up a position on the hill nearest Harfleur. No resistance was offered to the landing. The constable of France, d'Albret, was at Rouen, with a large number of troops. But he stirred not. The hardy people of the coast suffered the English to leap on their shores, as if they came in peace and friendship. The landing-place was rough with large stones; and there was a dyke and wall between the shore and the marsh towards the town. The entrance into the marsh was very difficult; and "the resistance of the smallest number of people would have sufficed to drive back many thousands." The army rested in its position till.Saturday, the 17th, and then moved to the siege of Harfleur, in three battalions. The town was surrounded with embattled walls, and with ditches, filled to a great depth and breadth by the waters of the Seine. There were three gates, strongly defended by bulwarks. After the landing of Henry, the garrison was reinforced on the side which the English had not then invested. But the town was very quickly encompassed on all sides; the duke of Clarence having made a circuitous march, and taken a position on the hill opposite to that which the king occupied. The port was strictly blockaded towards the sea. After a demand for the surrender of the place, which was stoutly refused, the siege commenced. We now hear of guns as well as engines in an English siege. There is a belief that cannon had been employed at Cressy; and some sort of ordnance had certainly been occasionally in use in the middle of the fourteenth century. At Harfleur the king battered the bulwarks, and the walls and towers on every side, by the stones which his guns and engines cast. Two attempts were made to undermine the town; but there were counter-mines; and the miners met and fought underground. The siege went on with various fortune; but the besieged showed no symptom of surrender. Disease now began to make frightful ravages in the English camp. On the 15th of September died Richard Courtenay, bishop of Norwich; and on the 18th the earl of Suffolk. Henry's men were perishing around him by dysentery; and he resolved to storm the town. The garrison, however, agreed to surrender on the 22nd of September, if they were not previously relieved. No relief came. The civil distractions of France had at first deprived the government of all energy. There was no preparation for resistance. There was no money in the royal treasury. Suddenly a tax was imposed; and the impost was collected from the clergy and the people by armed men. "What can the English do more to us ?" exclaimed the unhappy victims of misrule. Harfleur was yielded up on that 22nd of September, with great ceremony. Henry sat upon a throne under a pavilion of silk, erected on the hill opposite the town. From the pavilion to Harfleur a line of English soldiers was formed; and through their ranks came the governor with a deputation, and he laid the keys of the town at the *The produce of pillage or ransom. From "the Priest's" narrative.

1415.]

MARCH FROM HARFLEUR.

59

feet of the king. The siege had lasted thirty-six days. On the 23rd, Henry entered the town, and went barefoot to the church of St. Martin, to offer a solemn thanksgiving for his success. The bulk of the inhabitants,-women, children, and poor-were compelled to depart, but without any indignity; and the principal burghers, with many knights and gentlemen, were allowed to leave the place, making oath to surrender themselves at Calais in the following November. Henry now sent a challenge to the Dauphin of France to meet him in single combat-the old, unmeaning defiance of chivalry. On the 5th of October, the king held a council. The success at Harfleur had been bought at a terrible cost. Besides a large number killed in the siege, a much greater number of the army had died of dysentery in that district of overflowing marshes. Five thousand more were so sick that they were unable to proceed. Many had deserted. Comparing the various accounts of contemporary chroniclers, it is "morally impossible to form any other conclusion than that the English army which quitted Harfleur did not exceed nine thousand fighting men.” * At the Council of the 5th of October, Henry was strongly urged to return, with the remnant of his force, to England by sea. He was told that "the multitude of the French were continually increasing, and very likely might hem them in on every side, as sheep in pens." So writes the priest; and he adds that the king determined to march to Calais, "relying upon the divine grace and the righteousness of his cause, piously considering that victory consists not in multitudes." It is easy to blame Henry for this determination; to call it "rashness, and total recklessness of consequences; "+ but it must not be forgotten that if the king had returned to England with the loss of two-thirds of his army, and with no success but the capture of a town that could not long be held, he risked the loss of that popular support which the general belief of his intrepidity had won for him from his early years. He had set his life upon a cast; and he must play out the game. On the 8th of October he commenced his extraordinary march. With eight days' provisions the little army went forth from Harfleur, in three battalions, on the road to Calais. Henry's policy was an honourable exception to the devastation which accompanied the marches of the great Edward and the Black Prince. He published a proclamation, " that no one, under pain of death, should burn, lay waste, or take anything, excepting victuals and necessaries." The line of march was, at no great distance from the coast, towards the Somme. Passing by Fécamp, the army reached Arques, near Dieppe, on the 11th. A few shots were fired from the castle, but the passage through the town was not contested. The English began to believe that they should reach Calais without molestation. "For some firmly asserted," says the observant priest, "that considering the civil discord and deadly hatred subsisting between the French princes and the duke of Burgundy, the French would not draw themselves out from the interior parts of the country and their strongholds, lest, while thus drawing themselves out, the forces of the duke of Burgundy should either follow them, or against their will usurp the possession of their estates." At Eu, the English army was attacked, but the assailants were repulsed without difficulty. On Sunday, the 13th, they reached Abbeville. Now the imminent danger that was before this daring band was too manifest

* Narrative of Sir N. H. Nicolas, p. ccxcix., ed. 1827.

+ Nicolas.