Tidbits for Henry V

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F1) Nobody knows when he was born
Henry V was born at Monmouth castle, perched high above the River Monnow,
but there is no record of his birth, and even the year is uncertain. Some say his
birthday was 9 August 1387, but an alternative date is 16 September 1386. The
latter comes from a horoscope drawn up for the king and apparently
commissioned by him just before the Agincourt campaign.
2) He was in Ireland with Richard II when his father seized the throne
When his father, Henry Bolingbroke, seized the throne, the young Henry was in
the custody of King Richard II as a hostage for his fathers good behaviour. Had it
been a few centuries earlier he could have expected, at the least, to be blinded if
not put to death.
Richard, however, was made of different stuff. He had treated the boy well, spent
time with him, took him with him on the expedition to Ireland, and even knighted
him on the way. Even when he heard of the attack on his crown, he made no
threats against him.
It seems that, in return, Henry saw Richard as something of a father figure.
According to one account, when his own father now secure in the palace of
Westminster sent for him, Henry went instead to Richard in the Tower, and only
at his insistence went on to his father. When Henry himself became king he had
Richards body exhumed from its obscure grave and reburied in Westminster
Abbey.
3) His first battle was nearly his last
Henrys first battle [before he was king] was not against the French, but the
English. At Shrewsbury on 21 July 1403 the 16-year-old Henry, Prince of Wales,
lined up alongside his father to face the forces of the rebel lord, Henry Percy.
At Shrewsbury Henry led his forces well, and made a major contribution to the
victory. In the course of the battle, however, he was shot in the face by an arrow
that entered below his eye, missed both brain and spinal cord and stuck in the
bone at the back of the skull. To remove the embedded arrowhead, special tongs
had to be designed, made and carefully inserted nearly six inches into the wound
to grip and extract the metal.
It took a further three weeks to cleanse and close up the hole and all this in the
days before anaesthetics.
4) He learnt his military tactics in Wales
The tactics used by Henry V in his French wars were first tried out in Wales. At
about the same time that he became Prince of Wales (aged 13), Owain Glyndwr
began a violent rebellion against the English. The kings policy of attack and
withdraw was unsuccessful, and Glyndwr rapidly spread his influence from north
Wales to almost the whole country.
When, however, in his late teens, Henry was given a freer hand, he changed
tactics. Now he concentrated on taking strategic castles which were then
garrisoned and held securely, cutting off supply routes and enabling further
advances. Gradually Glendower was forced back to two strongholds on the west
coast Aberystwyth and Harlech. Each was besieged and battered by traditional

Tidbits for Henry V

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siege weapons, and, for what is thought to have been the first time in Britain,
cannon were used.
Eventually Glyndwrs supporters were starved into submission, and though
Glyndwr himself was never captured, the war was ended. A few years after this,
using the same tactics, Henry conquered first Normandy, and then a large part of
northern France.
5) Legend has it his claim to France resulted from a Templars curse
In 1307, Philippe IV of France seized the property of the wealthy Order of Knights
Templar, and tortured and put to death its members. The story is told that, as the
last Grand Master died, he laid a curse on Philippe and his descendants, saying
the king would die within a year. Eight months later Philippe died in a hunting
accident.
Two years after that his son, Louis X died, aged 26, after a strenuous game of
tennis. His son, John I, born five months later, lived only five days, and in the
next 12 years the last direct male descendants of Philippe also died.
Those closest in line to the empty throne were Jeanne, daughter of Louis and
Jeanne of Navarre, and Edward III of England, whose mother was Philippes
daughter. Navarre and England, however, were equally unacceptable, and
Philippe de Valois, a cousin of the last king [Charles IV], was crowned instead.
Edward challenged this starting the so-called Hundred Years War, and it was his
claim that was later revived by Henry V.
6) Dick Whittington contributed to Henrys wars
A large slice of the money needed to pay for the French campaigns was raised by
loans rather than taxes. In May 1415 Henry sent letters appealing for money to
individuals, and to towns. Typically a town would decide on the amount of the
loan, and then every citizen would be assessed to contribute even a few pennies
to the sum agreed.
Royal jewels, plate and regalia were handed out as security for repayment. Not
only did this raise a large amount of money, but it meant almost everyone had
an interest in the outcome of the French wars.
One individual in London who lent money to Henry was Sir Richard Whittington, a
rich cloth merchant who was indeed the same Dick Whittington as in the
childrens story. He was lord mayor of London three times.
7) The Dauphin was three different people
With the French king subject to fits of madness, his son the dauphin plays a
prominent role in the accounts of Henrys campaigns. The impression is often
given that the dauphin, who, if Shakespeare is to be believed, insulted Henry
with a gift of tennis balls [a sign of mockery], was the same dauphin who would
later be crowned Charles VII by Joan of Arc at Rheims cathedral.
In fact there were three different dauphins over this period. The first was Louis of
tennis ball fame, who, though kept away from the battle of Agincourt, died soon
after, possibly of dysentery or pneumonia. Louis was followed by his brother
John, who was the son-in-law of the Burgundian leader, John the Fearless.

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This dauphin died suddenly in April 1417, some said by poison, and he was
succeeded by his last remaining brother, Charles, who after the death of Henry
V, and with a great deal of help from his mother-in-law, Yolande of Aragon, finally
became Charles VII in 1429.
8) A French commander told Henry how to win at Agincourt
The French plan at Agincourt was to use massed cavalry to charge down the
English archers. Henry V learnt of this from a French prisoner some days before
the battle, and immediately took steps to counter it: every archer was to drive a
sharpened stake into the ground in front of him on the battlefield to stop a
charging horse.
The plan worked very well but was probably not Henrys own plan. The French
commander, Marshal Boucicaut, had earlier fought against the Turks at the battle
of Nicopolis, and had seen a cavalry charge halted by a similar mass of
sharpened stakes. He had written an account of this and it is possible that either
Henry himself, or perhaps one of his commanders, Edward Duke of York, had
read it and remembered the effectiveness of the tactic.
9) A number of those who died at Agincourt were suffocated
There are no reliable figures for the size of the French army at Agincourt, but
they numbered many thousands, and in their eagerness to get at the English
most of the leading figures were crammed into the front ranks.
When the action was triggered by a flight of arrows from the English side, the
French charged forward in accordance with their battle plan. Funnelled into a
narrower part of the field where Henry had taken up his position, the French were
crammed together, and though many did not reach the English ranks, many
more did. As these were cut down, those pressing behind climbed over them,
and anyone who slipped or fell in the muddy ground had little chance of getting
up again.
As the battle progressed the pile of bodies rose higher, and any who were
wounded or simply knocked over were crushed beneath the weight of those
coming behind. Very few were found alive when the heaps of bodies were at last
unpicked after the battle.
10) Henry V died of dysentery and is buried in Westminster Abbey
Sieges were dangerous places for both those inside and out: insanitary
conditions and a shortage of fresh water frequently led to outbreaks of dysentery
among the besieged and the besiegers, and it is likely that Henry contracted his
final illness at the siege of Meaux though it took some time to weaken him and
claim his life.
His body was brought back to England for burial, and after considerable
ceremony he was laid to rest behind the altar in Westminster Abbey, close to his
hero Edward the Confessor, and within yards of the tomb of Richard II. A
magnificent chapel was erected around him, and a life-sized effigy placed on the
tomb with a head of solid silver.

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Sadly the silver was stolen in the 16th century, and the later Tudor building
dwarfs his resting place. Thousands of tourists pass the spot without realising he
is there, and all that can be seen of the effigy is the soles of its feet.
From: Teresa Cole Henry V: The Life of the Warrior King & the Battle of
Agincourt 1415
Really interesting recording on what happened after the battle, and on how long
the battle lasted.
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/agincourt/3/steps/109365
Animated diagram of the battle tactics at Agincourt
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/agincourt/3/steps/109364
Churchill and Larry
https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/churchill-shakespeare-and-agincourt/

The tennis balls

France didnt pay tribute to England at all, and the tennis ball episode is mainly
mentioned in the popular ballad King Henry Fifths Conquest of France.
However, the origins of the story may be in a similar one about Alexander and
Darius, with Darius refusing to pay Alexander tribute after he came to the throne
as a young man after his father the King of Macedon. Instead, he sent him a ball
and sceptre of sesame seed and encouraged him to play with them. He also said
his soldiers were as numerous as sesame seed. Alexander send back mustard
seed and said his soldiers were as numerous as that, and as fiery and hot. And
ended up destroying Darius and his empire. Added to this, is there another layer
of historical hindsight that Francis III, Duke of Brittany and then Dauphin, died
after a game of tennis at the age of 18, in 1536. VERY oddly, in 1315 Louis X of
France ALSO died after playing tennis, which death was said to have resulted
from a tortured Templars curse (see above). Something fishy going on all round.
The Alexander parallel continues when Fluellen compares Alexanders rejection
of Cleitus to Harry Monmouths rejection of Falstaff. He spouts on about this
right after the victory at Agincourt, suggesting the parallel is of more overall
importance to the play than one would suppose.
Next time you watch the Branagh version consider this: Henry was described as
having been "very tall (6ft 3 in), slim, with dark hair cropped in a ring above the
ears, and clean-shaven". His complexion was ruddy, the face lean with a
prominent and pointed nose. Depending on his mood, his eyes "flashed from the
mildness of a dove's to the brilliance of a lion's".