Currently browsing category

History, Page 6

New Romney and the Cinque Ports

The church tower of St Nicholas Church, New Romney, Kent In 1415 the federation of the Cinque Ports were called upon to supply ships for Henry V’s expedition to France.  This was a confederation of ports in East Sussex and Kent, which since the twelfth century had been granted special privileges in return for supplying fifty-seven ships each year for fifteenth days at their own expense. Continue reading →

Henry V’s ships at Southampton

Godshouse Tower In the summer of 1415 all ships over 20 tons at London were ordered to assemble at Southampton to transport Henry V’s army to France. But Southampton had also been chosen by Henry as a location where some of his ships would be constructed. These works were carried out by William Soper, a wealthy burgess of the town (who later served as an MP and had an affair with the niece of his fellow MP!). Continue reading →

Henry V’s hard line from Southampton

From the beginning of July 1415 Henry V’s army began to gather in Southampton. On 28 July the king wrote a letter to King Charles VI of France, ‘our cousin and adversary’, from the castle of Southampton. This contains one of the first known invocations of the law of Deuteronomy: if one prepares to attack a town then one must first offer it peace. But if this is refused, the town can be put the sword. Continue reading →

Calais remembers Agincourt

In a text written in the 1530s or 40s Henry VIII was urged to stage annual triumphs as anti-papal propaganda. One of the examples of good practice which the author mentioned was the yearly celebration at Calais of the English victory at Agincourt. Commemoration of battles is nothing new. But Calais, the last part of the English conquests of the Hundred Years War, was lost within the next twenty years. Continue reading →

Early battlefield tourism

In 1475 King Edward IV visited the site of the battle of Agincourt fought sixty years earlier. We know this thanks to a letter written by a John Albon to Thomas Palmer, esquire, of Holt in Leicestershire. We even know the exact day Edward and his lords, including the king’s friend and chamberlain William, Lord Hastings, were at the battle site – 27 July. Three days earlier a group of French captains had been at Agincourt. Continue reading →

Without Calais, no Agincourt

In 1414, Richard de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, was appointed captain of Calais. His indenture specified that the garrison of the town in peacetime should consist of 40 mounted men-at-arms and 40 mounted archers, together with 200 men-at-arms and 200 archers on foot. In wartime these numbers were expected to expand to 160 mounted men-at-arms and 160 mounted archers, with 100 men-at-arms and 184 archers on foot. Continue reading →

Indenture between Henry V and Sir Thomas Tunstall, 29 April 1415

Indentures were a standard form of medieval contract. Two copies of the agreement were made and were cut into pieces with indented, irregular lines which look a little like rows of teeth. The name comes from the Latin for teeth, dentes. Each part had the seal of the parties to the contract applied, the king retaining one, and the copies could be brought together at a later date should disagreements arise. Continue reading →