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Henry The Fifth

Henry the Fifth is traditionally one of the great national heroes of English history. Shakespeare's play based on his life has contributed to this image. But the play actually questions what heroism and national identity are all about. We live in an age when national identity has become much more important, than it was in Henry's own time, and in Shakespeare's time. These themes perhaps are more relevant now than they were even to the audiences of the Globe.

Little is known of the first third of Henry's life. His exact birth date is unknown. The date was not recorded because Henry's birth was not seen as all that important. His father Henry Bolingbroke was merely a powerful noble when young Henry was born, and it would take a few twists of fate before Henry Bolingbroke found himself on the throne of England. So historians date Henry the Fifth's birth vaguely to the summer of 1387, and more confidently give his place of birth as the Great Tower at Monmouth Castle. His childhood was spent in the household of his father travelling from castle to castle, supervising large land holdings. The boy seems to have loved hunting. One little glimmer of detail is provided by the fact that he was praised by a Benedictine monk close to the household for his punctuality in attending mass.

Early in 1399 Henry Bolingbroke was exiled to France by Richard the Second, nervous of the power of England's nobles. Other prominent figures were imprisoned or executed. King Richard required young Henry of Monmouth to remain behind in his court, which left the boy to tread carefully between loyalty to his father and to the king. He spent a year here, completing his short education. Chaucer, nearing the end of his life, probably performed his poetry. There was music, dancing, luxurious food, and no doubt for Henry, constant worry.

In 1399 Henry's grandfather John of Gaunt died, and Richard responded by seizing all his lands. Henry Bolingbroke who remained in France had now been disinherited. This infuriated the nobles of England who now all felt vulnerable to Richard. It was just at this critical moment that Richard decided to head off to Ireland with virtually all his supporters to put down rebellion there. A few weeks later, in July 1399, Bolingbroke sailed for England to fight for his inheritance. Once he arrived in England his struggle gained its own momentum as disaffected nobles rallied round Henry as a symbol of their grievances. By September, without even seeming to have a plan for such an eventuality, Richard was a prisoner at Pontefract castle and Henry Bolingbroke was made king. Thirteen year old Henry of Monmouth was knighted, and was now heir to the throne.

Westminster Abbey

From the beginning of his father's reign Prince Henry was employed fighting constant rebellion, in Wales led by Owen Glendower, and amongst the nobles who had originally given Henry the Fourth his throne. The prince took easily to a soldier's life, and by 1408 the threat from the nobles had subsided, and Gledower had been starved out of his last stronghold at Harlech Castle. It was during the time between the end of the Welsh rebellion and his succession that Henry gained his reputation as someone who liked to have fun. Soon, however, Henry the Fourth was ill, and his son was preparing to be king himself. The final scenes of Henry the Fourth's life are vividly portrayed by Shakespeare. He is described as having fainted while making an offering at the shrine of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. The ailing king was then carried to the Jerusalem Chamber in the Abbot's Lodging. The crown was placed on a pillow beside the king's head. Thinking Henry had died, his eldest son Henry, Prince of Wales, picked up the crown and took it away. But then the king revived, and is supposed to have asked his son what right he had to the crown when his father had none. Prince Henry is reputed to have replied: "As you have kept it by the sword,so I will keep it while my life lasts." The king is then supposed to have given a last speech of advice to his son, to be cautious in prosperity, patient in adversity, to ignore evil councillors and love his brothers. Then King Henry died. It was the 20th of March 1413.

The Globe Theatre

Henry the Fifth quickly set about the aggressive expansionist plans that were to make him famous. He put down an attempted rebellion by the lollards, a religious group which was really a forerunner of the protestants. He then set about preparing to invade France. The war was legitimised with some trumped up legal nonsense, the sort of opaque rubbish that the Archbishop of Canterbury spouts so self-importantly at the beginning of Shakespeare's Henry the Fifth. I remember reading this when I was at school thinking I had to understand it. Thankfully it's not meant to be understood. National identity, and the history of European royal families are so closely intertwined, that lines can be drawn anywhere. Henry then played the old trick of asking for concessions that could not possibly be met - the crown of France, the king's daughter in marriage - and then declared war when these demands were not met.

Preparations for an invasion of France went quickly ahead. Another attempted rebellion, led by Richard Earl of Cambridge, failed miserably, and with an army of about 10 000 men Henry left for France. First the English besieged Harfluer, now a suburb of Le Havre. The town fell, but many English soldiers died of dysentery, leaving only around 6000. Henry now had a choice between going back home, or doing some highly risky marching about in northern France. Remarkably he ignored sensible advice to go home and decided to march one hundred and sixty miles to Calais. On the 8th of October 1415 Henry left the safety of Harfleur and set off towards Calais. Reaching the river Somme he found his path blocked by wrecked bridges and guarded fords. Marching down the Somme looking for somewhere to cross, Henry was moving his small army further and further into enemy territory. On the opposite bank Marshal Boucicaut's much larger force was shadowing their march. Food was short, the weather was getting cold. Henry escaped this desperate situation by cutting across a loop in the course of the Somme while Boucicaut followed the course of the river. The English managed to pull two day's march ahead of the French, and cross the Somme virtually unopposed. There was still the problem, however, of a huge French army between Henry and Calais. By now even Henry's confidence was faltering.

The armies met near the village of Maisoncelles on the 24th of October, the French army taking up a position across the road to Calais. From a nearby hill the English could see the field where the enemy intended to fight. About halfway down the field and towards the left, was the village of Agincourt. It was at this point that the field was narrowed by woods. Henry realised his army was outnumbered by three to one and offered terms to return to England and pay for the damage inflicted on Harfleur. The French thinking they had the English cornered, refused. Battle was to take place the following day, Friday the 25th of October 1415. The portrayal of the long hours that followed is one of the most unforgettable scenes in Shakespeare's play. Priests heard confessions, wills were written, and soldiers were reassured by a "touch of Harry in the night."

In the morning Henry rose at dawn and put on his stately regalia. He decided to fight at the point where the trees narrowed the battlefield. This would prevent the French getting behind his small army. The English took up position with men at arms in the centre, and the archers on the flanks. Then they waited, for three hours. Finally Henry advanced to within bowshot range of the French. After the archers had driven a line of pointed wooden stakes into the ground pointing towards the enemy, the battle began with a barrage of arrows from the English longbows. When the French charge came the trees in the centre of the battlefield, and the bowman on the flanks, caused bunching of the huge mass of advancing men and horses. Such was the press the French could hardly move to defend themselves. The English moved in and simply butchered the French. It was all over in half an hour.

Henry followed his victory with two further campaigns, spreading his influence in Normandy via Caen, which was attacked and sacked. Then from late July 1418 until 1419 Rouen was besieged. The French were hopelessly divided between the Armagnac and Burgundian factions, so no relief came to Rouen. The story of Rouen's defeat is a very sad one. As supplies dwindled, the poor, the women, the children and the old people were pushed out of the city in the middle of winter. These people starved to death between the English lines and the walls of the city. Priests leant over the walls and exorted the dying to die well. At least when Rouen finally gave up Henry refrained from sacking the city and fed the starving survivors.

With the English threatening Paris, the Burgandian and Armagnac factions had a meeting at the bridge at Montereau, south east of Paris. The plan was to unite against Henry. Seemingly the only thing that holds a country together is a threat from outside it, a theme which is made much of by Shakespeare in Henry the Fifth. In the case of the Burgundians and the Armagnacs not even the English threat was not enough to bring unity: Duke John of Burgandy was killed on the bridge by the Armagnacs. Duke John's son, Philip swore to avenge his death no matter what the consequences to France. It was against this background that the Treaty of Troyes in 1420 conceded that on the death of the French king, the mad Charles the Sixth, Henry would become king of France. Henry was also to marry Katherine, the French king's daughter. Henry's future as king of England and France seemed assured, and he returned as a hero to England in January 1421.

 

 

But the French king had one surviving son, the Dauphin Charles, who had thrown in his lot with the Armagnacs. The Armagnacs and their Dauphin were not about to quietly accept an English king. So after a brief period in England with his new wife Henry returned to France for his third campaign. Endless castles remained to be captured, and all it seemed depended on him. Even while he was in England, his brother Clarence had blundered foolishly into military disaster at Bauge. Clarence's desire for military glory meant he faced the Dauphin's forces without waiting for his archers, the basis of English military superiority. Clarence's and some of Henry's best soldiers were killed. Back Henry had to go. He set sail on the 10th of June 1421, and set about capturing a few towns, Chartres, Dreux, Meaux. But there was still hundreds of miles of Dauphinist territory to conquer.

By late 1421 Henry was ill, probably with dysentery. With his condition deteriorating the king made plans for the future. His brother the Earl of Gloucester was to be regent while his infant son was growing up. No place in the upbringing of his son was given to his wife Katherine. But she got her revenge. She was to marry Henry Tudor, a Welsh gentleman in her household. Their son Henry would go on to usurp the throne of England as Henry the Seventh, the first Tudor king. But all that lay in the future, as Henry finally died at Vincennes.

All Souls College, Oxford , built to commemorate those who died at Agincourt

Henry enjoyed a wonderful reputation during his reign and this continued afterwards. He was an English hero, and yet all his claims in France were based on the fact that countries do not have these clear dividing lines. His war caused much misery in France, not least for the population of Rouen; but such things were not so unusual for the time. He was credited with huge military ability, and while this was to an extent true, the Agincourt campaign on which his reputation rested could easily have been a disaster. But remarkably it wasn't, and as Henry the Fourth says in Henry the Fourth Part 1 " Nothing can seem foul to those that win." If Henry had been defeated everything that was judged as daring and heroic about the campaign would have been seen as reckless. A hero isn't far from a villian. Shakespeare shows this clearly in Henry the Fifth , when the king in his more noble, principled moments is at his most ruthless. In Act 3 a soldier named Bardolph has stolen a crucifix from a French church. Henry has demanded that:

 

... there be nothing compell'd from the

villages, nothing taken but paid for, none

of the French upbraided or abused in

disdainful language, for when leniety and

cruelty play for a kingdom the gentler

gamster is the soonest winner (3. 6)

 

In pursuit of this gentle policy Henry then demands Bardolph's execution, an extreme reaction to what seems like a minor offence. Henry himself, contravening his own orders, uses disdainful language to the French herald, Mountjoy who enters directly after this speech, showing how difficult it is to measure up to heroic standards. Sometimes trying to meet them can bring about the loss of the qualities we are trying to find. In fact Henry is most truly heroic when he is at his most ordinary. Compare Henry on the eve of the battle, talking with his men, claiming that all men are equal, with the unedifying vision of the foot soldier Pistol lording it over a terrified French prisoner. Henry is more special in claiming not to be special, not to be a hero. Heroes are always going to be trouble.

 

Henry the Fifth was buried in Westminster Abbey on the 7th of November 1422. Henry the Fifth's Chantry Chapel can still be visited today. His funeral helm sits between two octagonal turrets.

In 1438 All Souls College in Oxford was founded by Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury to "pray for the soul of Henry the Fifth and all those who fell in the war for the crown in France.