The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Epochs #210

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome back to Epochs and after the brief hiatus talking about the history of steam

00:00:04.740 with Alex Masters we're going to go back to keep on talking about Henry V and his famous 1415

00:00:10.660 campaign if you remember last time we left off right in the middle of the siege of Harfleur so

00:00:16.240 I should continue talking all about that in almost day-to-day detail not quite day-to-day detail but

00:00:22.120 in quite a lot of detail I should be reading largely quite a lot from a book 1415 Henry V's

00:00:28.600 Year of Glory by Ian Mortimer famous historian Ian Mortimer so let's continue straight back into

00:00:34.200 the story Mortimer says quote and we're talking about Saturday the 31st of August 1415 quote

00:00:40.820 at Harfleur the bombardment continued the siege was now two weeks old and still there were a few signs

00:00:47.260 that the inhabitants were prepared to give up that's interesting isn't it because we're told

00:00:50.740 that Henry had his cannons blasting away day and night literally 24 7 and yet still the walls aren't

00:00:56.860 pounded down or there's not a significant breach in the wall and the townspeople aren't prepared

00:01:01.240 to give up yet how does that how do you square that circle well there's there's a bombardment a 24

00:01:07.200 7 bombardment and then there's a early 15th century 24 7 bombardment it's just not what you might think

00:01:15.100 you know you might have in mind a world war one sort of bombardment well it's just not that you'd have

00:01:19.820 one cannon firing every now and again so it's just it's very very low intensity relatively low

00:01:27.320 intensity you probably wouldn't like being on the receiving end of it but it's yeah it's not like a

00:01:31.500 modern bombard some chronicles suggest that Raul de Gaucourt had held negotiations with the English

00:01:37.860 offering to surrender the town but these are equally likely to have been malicious rumors

00:01:42.760 circulated in the wake of the defeat when the various noble families in France all sought to blame each

00:01:48.620 other for the failure to resist the English invasion just as likely to be true are the references to

00:01:54.360 sorties from half lure as the inhabitants sought to carry the threat to the English what is certain

00:02:00.600 is that a third mine was commenced about this time in the hope of bringing the siege to a speedy end

00:02:06.340 with no further destruction to the fabric of the town it too was bound to fail like the others the

00:02:12.060 approach to the center of town from the port glue were now a broken mess of stone and timber and yet

00:02:18.240 still the inhabitants were determined to hold on no matter what Henry threw at them Raul de Gaucourt

00:02:23.340 and his fellow defenders held out and they were in turn inflicting serious injuries on Henry's men

00:02:28.420 Thomas Hostel a man at arms in Sir John Lumley's company later recalled how at our fleur he had been

00:02:35.040 hit by a crossbow bolt which had entered his head destroying one eye and his cheek incredibly he went on to

00:02:41.920 fight at Agincourt just to let you know the time the time frames in this Agincourt is in October that's a

00:02:48.500 terrible injury that though to lose an eye to have your sort of facial bones broken or shattered and

00:02:53.680 to lose an eye and to not die in the early 15th century it is remarkable to not die from that wound

00:03:00.060 and of course there were no real painkillers so remarkable okay Mortimer goes on one cannot fault

00:03:06.460 Henry's personal resolution in all this nor that his brother Thomas in commanding the second army on

00:03:12.040 the eastern side of the town the king continued to make nightly inspections of his lines encouraging

00:03:17.480 his men and making sure that watches were in place and the shift pattern for firing the guns was

00:03:23.320 maintained but several strategic miscalculations were now obvious one had already been mentioned

00:03:28.520 that in order to bring about a swift end to the siege using guns Henry was having to destroy the

00:03:34.000 defenses he hoped to gain so he had miscalculated the determination of the townsmen but another

00:03:40.440 worst problem was becoming apparent his army was too big for its purpose an army suitable for fighting

00:03:46.380 a battle was far larger than the size of force one needed for a successful siege he could not risk a

00:03:52.740 full-scale attack as he would lose too many men whom he would need later to fight the French army

00:03:58.020 but all the men with him needed food they needed wine and ale they needed money and they needed

00:04:03.420 clean accommodation and although that last aspect might seem a minor one it was actually very

00:04:08.300 important for now another obstacle in Henry's path emerged not from the defenders but recognizable from

00:04:14.280 the fetid hot air of the drying flooded valley north of the town and the ever-present effluent of

00:04:20.260 15,000 men kept in a small area with no sanitary provision dysentery and so disease whenever you have

00:04:28.640 I mean dysentery is a bacterial thing but still any sort of disease all the way up to the 19th century

00:04:36.180 all the way up to sort of the American civil war the the Crimean war men are more likely to die of

00:04:43.260 disease than in enemy fire in a war and of course that's the case back in the 15th century when they

00:04:50.160 had no real concept of the germ theory of disease or no concept at all of it you know dysentery will be the

00:04:56.080 if there's bodies lying around you'll end up with much worse diseases in long sieges sometimes even

00:05:03.220 things like plague can break out but you might expect things like typhus typhus fever typhoid

00:05:08.680 various diseases like dysentery is somehow so amazingly somehow not even the worst of it but okay dysentery is

00:05:17.240 no joke it's obviously extremely unpleasant but it's also a killer can be a killer in pre-modern times

00:05:23.600 like now you shouldn't really die of it you can of course but you shouldn't really if you get the

00:05:29.860 right fluids and the right medicines you should survive but once again in the 15th century easily

00:05:35.380 die of it okay in multiple continues now we're on the we're on sunday the 1st of september and we're

00:05:40.920 told this quote explanations of how and why people fell ill were confused in 1415 sometimes astrological

00:05:47.620 predictions were put forward for contagious diseases planetary alignment leading to a miasma or a

00:05:54.040 polluted environment which in turn led to pollutants entering the body through the pores of the skin and

00:06:00.420 upsetting the balance of the four humors sometimes a miasma was associated with a particularly noxious

00:06:06.440 smell they often thought even up to like the 18th century that bad smells caused disease and this

00:06:12.960 whole medieval idea of the four humors need to be in balance alternatively diseases were attributed to

00:06:18.860 god's will either as punishment for a sinful act as in the diseases heaped upon henry iv for ordering

00:06:25.060 the judicial murder of the archbishop of york or as a means of attaining redemption from such sins

00:06:30.860 in the latter case god was supposed to have visited sufferings on people so that they might atone for their

00:06:36.620 behavior and though dying an agonizing death repent by bearing it well and thereby enter paradise

00:06:42.900 in the case of dysentery people realized that large camps of soldiers attracted diseases and that men

00:06:48.520 chose to assemble large armies so therefore the astrological explanation did not apply obviously

00:06:54.120 god's will did apply and it could be understood that through disease god sought to demonstrate to men

00:07:00.000 that he did not approve of some sieges in that sense however much henry claimed to be fighting a just

00:07:05.960 war and acting as an agent of god's will the appearance of dysentery in the camp could be seen as a sign

00:07:12.060 that god did not after all approve of henry's war or his cause those who were loyal to henry therefore

00:07:18.120 looked for other explanations and hit on other polluting factors one contemporary chronicler john

00:07:24.600 stretch presumably writing on the basis of information sent back by combatants pointed to the eating of

00:07:30.620 unripe grapes and bad shellfish as the cause another writer thomas walsingham gave a vivid explanation of

00:07:37.200 the causes of the stomach diseases and dysentery he claimed these deaths were caused by eating fruit

00:07:43.240 the cold nights and the fetid smell from the bodies of different animals that had been killed

00:07:48.080 throughout the english lions but which they had not covered with turf or soil or had thrown into the

00:07:53.440 waters of the river so they were forced to endure their decaying stench end quote i mean because in a

00:07:58.340 sense they're not wrong there lots of the diseases it is dangerous and wrong to have rotting bodies and

00:08:04.540 flesh around even if they're animal bodies and flesh uh they they got it slightly wrong thinking

00:08:09.020 that it was the smell itself which was the dangerous thing but you know they're not actually

00:08:13.180 wrong little tip if you are ever in some sort of survival situation and there are bodies human or

00:08:18.240 animal around do try to bury them or do something with them don't just leave them there that would be

00:08:23.440 quite dangerous ultimately okay ian mortimer continues saying this certainly the presence of rotting animals

00:08:29.120 cannot have helped especially considering it was an uncommonly hot summer the 16 year old lord

00:08:35.380 fitzwalter serving in the company of the duke of clarence became one of the first casualties of the

00:08:40.420 siege dying on this day another factor contributing to the hardship of the besiegers was that they were

00:08:46.300 beginning to run short of food although henry had ordered that each man bring sufficient food for

00:08:51.140 three months in reality supplies had only lasted three weeks in london today one richard

00:08:57.180 boakland was ordered to provide two ships to convey victuals food basically including fish to the

00:09:04.720 army of harfleur and over the next two days 700 marks was assigned to richard whittingham to repay him

00:09:11.960 for his expenses in maintaining the siege of harfleur the two men from henry were ordered to provide

00:09:17.340 100 quarters of wheat for the king's household at the siege so basically we're beginning to see

00:09:23.080 henry v's tactic strategy of taking harfleur quickly a key tenet of his plan it's not happening

00:09:31.080 it's not falling quickly that's a problem mortimer again quote for those in the town things were even

00:09:37.000 harder they had even less food could not sleep for the fear and the noise of the incessant destruction

00:09:42.920 and the waterborne diseases were beginning to spread within the town too knowing this henry set a herald

00:09:49.220 about this time to invite raul de gocor and the other leaders in harfleur to discuss terms

00:09:54.600 they came under safe conduct to meet the king henry attempted with sweet words to persuade them to

00:10:00.840 surrender the town he had his title to the throne of france repeated to them too and his claim to the

00:10:06.320 duchy of normandy but henry had understood the town's men's resolve de gocor insisted that the king of

00:10:12.700 france would not leave the town to fend for itself for long but would soon arrive with an army

00:10:17.680 so he refused henry's invitation instead of surrendering he sent a messenger to the dauphin

00:10:22.940 urging that he send an army as soon as possible to relieve the town the dauphin left paris this

00:10:28.380 morning and journeyed to saint denis the royal abbey just north of the city here he prayed for victory

00:10:34.120 he also sent out letters to the duke of orleans and burgundy and the count of nevers brother of john

00:10:40.240 the fearless duke of burgundy requiring each of them to send 500 men at arms and 300 archers

00:10:46.620 john the fearless was requested not to come in person but to send his son philip count of chalois

00:10:52.800 in his place this was no doubt intended to avoid the risk of the duke leading an army that might

00:10:58.580 suddenly turn and fight against the dauphin on the side of the english nevertheless john was bound

00:11:03.620 to take offense so the french beginning to muster in earnest okay on to tuesday the third henry wrote

00:11:09.520 a letter to the mayor and durat of bordeaux telling them that he and his company were in the best of health

00:11:15.880 for which in all humility we give thanks to our lord god the almighty hoping that by his grace he

00:11:22.160 will give us in pursuit of our right the fulfillment of our desire and undertaking to his pleasure and

00:11:28.220 for the honor and comfort of us and you with god's help he said the enemy would be less capable of doing

00:11:33.660 harm to his gascon subjects in future alluding to the danger of norman ships attacking the gascon wine

00:11:39.420 trade he asked them to assist sir john tiptoff in guarding against any french assault in gascony

00:11:45.980 as for himself he stated he was in need of wine and other victuals which he asked them to send

00:11:51.820 straight away promising payment in full on delivery at the same time dr jean bourdieu archdeacon of

00:11:58.660 medoc who was with the king at harfleur wrote a more detailed letter to the jurid he noted that the king

00:12:04.660 himself had just written and gave much more detail regarding the real state of affairs at harfleur

00:12:09.880 he stated that although the fields were still providing the army with sufficient corn they could

00:12:15.040 not be expected to meet the future requirements of the army especially as more men were coming from

00:12:20.260 england every day this alerts us to the fact that reinforcements were arriving a fact that is supported

00:12:26.100 by careful analysis of the accounts relating to some of the companies with henry bourdieu mentioned

00:12:31.960 that henry had asked for more wine to be sent in this respect he specified that the king required

00:12:38.060 between 500 and 700 tons and he urged the townsmen to look to this with diligence stating that henry

00:12:45.460 wished to come in person to bordeaux before he returned to england bourdieu went on to say that

00:12:50.720 with the help of the holy spirit he expected the town to fall within eight days this was because the

00:12:56.540 defences on the landward side and on two flanks had now been well and truly breached the town within

00:13:02.480 the walls was totally destroyed the english had now managed to cut off the water supplier below

00:13:07.760 montevilliers thereby diverting the river lazard draining the flooded area and cutting off the town's

00:13:13.700 water supply when the town finally fell the king was not going to enter it but stay in the fields meaning

00:13:20.020 he meant to continue his planned march through france on this bordeaux was quite specific he intends to go to

00:13:26.040 montevilliers and from there to dieppe afterwards to rouen and then to paris much of this was wishful

00:13:32.500 thinking regardless of how long the town held out it was now surrounded by thick stinking mud suffused

00:13:38.900 within edible fish and animal entrails bones and excrement it could only grow more dangerous especially as

00:13:45.220 the english troops had to trudge through it to get closer to the breach in the walls the dysentery was not

00:13:50.220 going to go away and the town would require a substantial workforce to rebuild it as well as to

00:13:56.000 maintain it and the food was running out about this time henry issued an order via his brother the

00:14:01.820 regent in england to the constable of dover castle and the warden of the sink ports to send each and

00:14:07.880 every fisherman with his boat and tackle to half floor there to provide fish for the king's army the

00:14:13.720 chances of henry marching on paris in the near future were non-existent the messenger who had left half floor

00:14:19.720 two days earlier had traveled through the night to paris and then on to saint denis to convey to go court's

00:14:25.780 plea for help to the dover at first the dover was reluctant to receive him having other business to

00:14:31.860 attend to but after the urgency of the situation had been established the messenger was granted an

00:14:37.460 audience he had left the dover in no doubt as to the conditions in the town and pleaded for a relieving

00:14:43.600 army if none was forthcoming then the town would soon have to surrender to the detriment of the

00:14:49.040 throne of france the dauphin was able to say that a large army was already gathering the summons of the

00:14:54.420 28th of august and the letters to the royal dukes of the 1st of september would result in a large false

00:15:00.600 assembling at rouen if the town could hold out for a little while longer the french would drive the

00:15:05.720 english into the sea there was just one problem henry had declared that after he had taken half floor

00:15:11.140 he would march on to rouen we do not know if this news was publicly being circulated it only appears

00:15:17.140 in the letters sent to bordeaux but if the french did not know then it would have soon become apparent

00:15:22.040 that both sides were going to converge on the same town okay saturday the 7th of september the letter

00:15:27.940 from richard courtenay to jean foursoir carried by a raoul le gay and confiscated in montevilliers

00:15:34.420 arrived in paris yesterday on receipt foursoir was arrested and thrown into the prison known as the

00:15:40.580 little chatelet he was taken out today and led before the president of the parliament jean de

00:15:45.960 valier and charged with high treason poor foursoir had been duped by courtenay his presence in england

00:15:52.580 that summer coupled with the incriminating evidence supplied by raoul le gay did not help his case the

00:15:58.420 old astrologer clockmaker must have been in fear of his life from the moment the men at arms knocked on

00:16:04.060 the door tuesday the 10th in paris the old king attended a solemn procession and mass in the

00:16:09.620 cathedral of notre dame praying for victory with the help of god and the intercession of the saints

00:16:15.060 when this had finished he traveled to the abbey of saint denis and there heard another mass the relics of

00:16:21.020 the patron saint were exhibited and the king was handed the sacred war banner of france the oriflame

00:16:26.840 which he then passed to the similarly aged guillem martel seigneur de bacquaville with that symbolic

00:16:33.400 gesture france was now at war if the banner was unfurled on a battlefield it was an instruction to

00:16:39.060 the french to take no prisoners friday the 13th another messenger from de gocourt reached the dauphin

00:16:45.020 this man was called joven lescourt and he had originally been smuggled out of the town in order to

00:16:51.200 solicit aid from the constable charles d'albret who was then at rouen d'albret had sent him with the

00:16:57.940 montjoy herald to the dauphin who was at vernon sur seine the message he delivered was similar to

00:17:03.500 that of the early messenger only more desperate again the dauphin promised that his father the king

00:17:08.800 would soon be riding at the head of an army but that is all he seems to have done directly to respond

00:17:13.900 to the appeal for help sunday the 15th a month and a day after the army landed in france bishop

00:17:19.620 courtenay died of dysentery dehydrated and feverish excreting bloody diarrhea henry was with him in his

00:17:26.480 tent when he passed away and closed his friend's eyes with his own hands so this was god's judgment

00:17:32.280 on him his ambitions and his expedition henry knew that many people in the outside world would see it

00:17:38.700 that way and he had lost a great friend which must have affected his thinking his judgment was so askew

00:17:44.680 that wiping the feet of the dead man he ordered that the bishop be taken to westminster

00:17:49.420 abbey to be buried among the kings of england it was not an appropriate resting place for a bishop

00:17:54.800 of norwich but henry could not see that grief worry and pressure were clouding his mind the monks of

00:18:00.560 westminster did as they were asked of course but they could hardly refuse their king and patron

00:18:05.080 so the body of bishop richard courtenay was taken to the royal sanctuary at westminster abbey and laid to

00:18:11.420 rest there it remains to this day in the same grave and in the same coffin as henry v himself

00:18:17.400 just when the king was at this low ebb the men of harfleur rallied to drag him down further

00:18:22.640 the watchmen and guards on the main barbican outside the port lueur made a sally against the

00:18:27.960 english guard and set fire to the english defenses from his position at greville henry could have left

00:18:33.720 courtenay's tent to see the smoke of the burning faggots drifting down the valley and the enemy troops

00:18:39.080 attacking his own soldiers later inspecting the lines he would perhaps have heard how the frenchmen

00:18:44.260 were shouting insults at english for being so half awake and lazy at about the same time there were

00:18:50.720 barges and galleys in the seine attempting to break through the english maritime blockade of the town

00:18:55.900 there seems to have been an attempt to break out from the town time to coincide with an attack from

00:19:01.360 the river the gocourt's messengers to the dauphin and albrecht were not only getting information out of

00:19:06.860 the town but somehow they were getting information back in so henry's siege lines are far from secure

00:19:13.000 although henry had sent the ships from flanders home long ago he had also sent back many english

00:19:18.380 ships those that remained with him held their defenses and when the sortie from harfleur retreated

00:19:24.000 so too did the barges and galleys at southampton in the wake of the earl of cambridge's plot when henry

00:19:30.340 had been urged to cancel his expedition which he obviously didn't do he had shown the necessary

00:19:35.040 resolve of a great leader others might have seen the death of a close friend and a bishop at that

00:19:40.240 as a sign that god was against him henry seems to have seen it rather as a personal test through

00:19:46.240 such sacrifices he was being tempted to seek terms or shelter or retreat but of course this was henry

00:19:53.200 the fifth and this is one part of the popular legend that is true he would never give in tenacious in the

00:19:58.900 extreme this setback simply caused him to order an all-out attack on the barbican of the port lueur

00:20:04.980 the following day in preparation for the assault henry ordered that faggots be prepared to fill in

00:20:10.400 the defensive ditches in front of the barbican this was done through the night from references to his

00:20:16.100 watchfulness at night one gets the impression that as the man moves silently through the darkness

00:20:20.940 carrying the bundles of sticks the king was watching surveying calculating and praying

00:20:26.180 so it's all or nothing for henry henry this is not going to give up he's he's gabbled everything

00:20:31.780 you know as we said in the last episodes the legitimacy of his reign the legitimacy of his

00:20:37.500 entire family to rule the honor of england everything's on the line so even though he's

00:20:43.160 had setbacks and it doesn't look good and his plan has kind of been well pretty much definitely been

00:20:48.180 derailed he's not going to paris this year whatever happens really he's not going to be able to claim

00:20:53.980 the actual crown of france and be crowned at rheim this year none of that's happening but he's not

00:21:01.300 given in you know nothing is over he's not just going to run away with his tail between his legs

00:21:05.480 that is just not on the cards so well you've got you've got to give him that if nothing else he's

00:21:10.680 got he's got resolve he's got trousers he's a man with a chest okay going on now to monday the 16th

00:21:17.120 of september quote it was henry's 29th birthday no celebrations were likely all he wanted was revenge

00:21:24.200 for the previous day's torments the onslaught on the barbican in front of the port lueur were led by the

00:21:29.680 young and highly spirited john holland earl of huntingdon supported by his father-in-law sir john

00:21:36.080 cornwale and the newly knighted sir william porter as well as sir gilbert umphreville john steward and

00:21:42.580 sir william bouchier these were the same men who had commanded the first reconnaissance of the shore

00:21:47.880 at harfleur on landing and so may have formed a recognized crack squadron within the english army

00:21:53.980 in the afternoon a contingent of frenchmen sallied out trying to build on their success of the

00:21:59.300 previous day but holland and his men met them head on

00:22:02.380 work work your thoughts and in them see a siege behold the ordinance on their carriages

00:22:09.000 with fatal mouths gaping on girded half-leur suppose the ambassador from the french comes back tells

00:22:16.200 harry that the king does offer him catherine his daughter and with her to dowry some petty and

00:22:20.680 unprofitable dukedoms the offer likes him not and the nimble gunner with linstock now the devilish

00:22:26.360 cannon touches and down goes all before them

00:22:29.900 then by shooting burning arrows flinging torches and laying incendiary powders they managed to set

00:22:43.740 enough of the barbican on fire to force the defenders back into the main gate amid the burning parts of

00:22:49.460 the barbican shattered by cannon the first english troops entered and torched the rest of the defensive

00:22:54.980 enclosure some frenchmen were still there in smoke trying to beat down the flames they were set upon

00:23:00.720 by the english most realized their dire situation and fled inside the walls blocking the entrance

00:23:06.220 behind them with timber stones earth and dung the english having taken the barbican now worked to put

00:23:12.040 the fires out it was a struggle it took two days to extinguish the blaze the smoke rose in thick

00:23:17.740 pungent wafts from the dung for another two weeks so finally some sort of battlefield success there

00:23:23.700 for the english finally taking that very important outwork the barbican the defensive position

00:23:29.380 right near one of the main gates or the main gate that henry's attacking so finally something to

00:23:34.420 actually show for you can actually point to saying oh well we we have done this now we have taken this

00:23:38.560 sometimes it's something like that a bit of momentum a slight momentum shift a slight boost in morale for

00:23:43.740 your side and a slight reduction in morale in the enemy's side those these kinds of things can make

00:23:49.160 differences in a siege any sort of long siege if you would like to see the full version of this

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The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - May 11, 2025

PREVIEW： Epochs #210 ｜ Henry V： Part V

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