The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Epochs #208 ｜ Henry V： Part IV

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome back to Epochs where I shall be continuing my story of the life and career of

00:00:05.020 King Henry V of England. If you remember last time we left off he was just about to embark

00:00:10.260 for the great campaign of 1415 and he'd just thwarted the Southampton plot. So I'll pick up

00:00:17.660 the story straight from there. Today I'll be largely reading or entirely reading from a book

00:00:22.980 by Ian Mortimer just called 1415. It was a book that came out in about 2010 and I read it back

00:00:29.900 then and thought it was excellent and what this particular book does is it goes through in crazy

00:00:35.600 detail granular detail brilliant detail if you're interested in it. It's almost day by day it's all

00:00:41.380 done chronologically and not every single day has got an entry but most of the days he's saying

00:00:46.480 something about it so it's really drilling down into it and when I read this like god best part

00:00:53.020 15 years ago now I loved it so much and I've been rereading it for this bit because I want to go

00:00:57.700 into the campaign of 1415 in tons and tons of detail and there's no better book that I've ever

00:01:03.080 read about it than than Ian Mortimer so I'm going to read quite a lot today from this one. Okay so

00:01:08.720 before I start a few words then about the numbers involved so basically he's got about 15,000 fighting

00:01:16.380 men but there's a lot more people involved than that maybe twice as many because he's got lots of

00:01:22.920 mariners sailors and then lots of non-combatants so lots of people that are like carpenters miners 0.96

00:01:29.840 sappers cooks pages servants lots of prostitutes lots and lots of people that come along for the 1.00

00:01:38.280 ride even though they weren't supposed to be any prostitutes Henry had specifically said not to have

00:01:44.100 any of those but they say there'll be something in the order of 30,000 people were crossing the channel

00:01:50.020 but only about half of those are actual soldiers or combatants still that's quite a lot for this

00:01:57.080 day and age the very very early 15th century remember the the black death isn't all that long 0.99

00:02:02.200 ago it's only sort of 60 years ago so the whole world's population is much smaller than it used to

00:02:09.060 be and anyway just in the sort of higher middle ages early middle ages ish time an army of 15,000 is

00:02:15.980 absolutely not to be sniffed sniffed at it seems like a small number to conquer all of France it

00:02:20.480 seems like a disastrously small number but it's actually quite big like the fleet to carry them

00:02:27.400 across the channel to Harfleur is either 1,500 or 1,600 ships they'll be quite small ships they'll be

00:02:36.000 one or two big ships but most of them be pretty small you know they'll hold 10 men and 10 horses

00:02:41.140 oh that's the other thing there'll be almost as many horses as there are combatants so it's actually

00:02:45.800 logistically physically speaking quite an undertaking it takes a long time for Henry to assemble this

00:02:52.680 fleet even though everything's ready on the south coast of England it still takes a couple of days

00:02:56.560 to get them all in one spot more or less one harbour basically or two harbours to jump across the

00:03:03.020 channel to Harfleur even that mustering them together in one place takes two or three days

00:03:09.680 then when they do cross the channel luckily there's no big storms it's August it's early

00:03:14.480 August 1415 there's no there's no big storm not many ships or no real ships I think are lost to

00:03:21.660 the weather but a couple of them do burn down just by accident burn down to the waterline so okay so

00:03:27.620 I'll let Ian Mortimer pick up the story for when they sort of first appear this fleet this giant war

00:03:32.940 fleet appears to the French on Tuesday the 13th of August 1415 Mortimer says this quote it was the

00:03:41.920 fishermen off the coast of Boulogne who first noticed the fleet approaching the French coast

00:03:46.100 the region around their town had been ransacked over recent days by the English of Calais because the

00:03:51.700 English still controlled Calais so they were able to chevalier across from Calais to Harfleur

00:03:58.760 or Boulogne anyway and start doing damage so they the people of Boulogne were alert to the danger

00:04:04.900 but one imagines that they looked at the huge fleet in the channel with considerable alarm

00:04:09.920 especially if they believed that it was heading to their own town the men of Boulogne were lucky

00:04:14.780 Henry was heading elsewhere it's about five o'clock in the afternoon Trinity Royal that's the biggest

00:04:20.520 Royal Navy ship the one Henry himself is on there's kind of two really big ships when I say big

00:04:27.140 they're still only got a crew of like about 100 men 100 plus men so you know it's quite it's big for

00:04:36.000 those days really big but you know compared to modern standards it's still really small you know

00:04:41.200 when you look at things like the the golden hind or the the Mary Rose compared to modern standards

00:04:47.480 they're still tiny but anyway Trinity Royal is the flagship the Royal flagship of the Navy so about

00:04:53.380 five o'clock in the afternoon on Tuesday the 13th August 1415 Trinity Royal sailed into the mouth of

00:04:58.100 the Seine because another thing to say is that Harfleur is at the mouth of a couple of rivers

00:05:03.080 particularly the Seine which is the river that runs through Paris so if you want to eventually take

00:05:08.340 Paris which ultimately is the goal then tactically strategically the thing to do is to secure

00:05:15.020 the Seine and the mouth of the Seine where the Seine empties into the into the Atlantic or the

00:05:21.180 channel you're going to want you're going to want to hold that you don't want the enemy to be holding

00:05:26.860 that so you've got no means of retreat by water if needs be so that's why Harfleur that's why he

00:05:31.780 picked Harfleur it's not just random also Harfleur had been a site of lots of piracy from the French 0.64

00:05:38.240 point of view so in order to stop that in order to secure the channel 100% it was just sort of

00:05:44.760 obvious sort of a no-brainer that he has to take Harfleur we'll put a map up so you can see sort

00:05:49.860 of exactly what I'm talking about there so the Trinity Royal sailed into the mouth of the Seine

00:05:53.640 and dropped to anchor near a small hamlet called Chef de Coe about three miles from the walls of

00:05:58.800 Harfleur on the north bank of the Seine estuary the banner of the council was unfurled on the Trinity

00:06:04.620 Royal calling all the councillors to a meeting it was decided that a royal proclamation would be

00:06:10.220 issued to all the ships forbidding anyone on pain of death from landing on French soil before the

00:06:15.520 king himself unless they had the king's express permission everyone was to prepare to land early

00:06:21.320 on the following morning if the men dispersed in search of plunder or women the captains of the army

00:06:27.280 were liable to lose control there was also the heavy risk of men in small groups being picked off by

00:06:32.780 French defenders Henry had no need to take such risks at this stage of the campaign a group of men

00:06:38.600 was selected to go ashore that night and to reconnoiter the immediate vicinity Henry chose the

00:06:43.940 hugely experienced Sir John Cornwell and Cornwell's brother in arms William Porter King's Esquire the

00:06:51.720 Cornwell's stepson the young and talented Earl of Huntingdon with them went Sir Gilbert Umphreville

00:06:57.980 and John Stewart and a number of mounted men at arms prior information from the men who had traveled

00:07:03.500 through Harfleur over the preceding year led Henry to believe that there was a hill nearby Mont-le-Comte

00:07:09.980 on which it would be suitable to make a first camp the expedition was to explore the area and establish

00:07:15.980 first whether there were Frenchmen guarding this hill second they were to find a suitable place for

00:07:21.680 quartering the royal household they went to shore in the early hours and were basically unopposed it was

00:07:27.600 something of a surprise not a complete surprise because the French had spires in England both sides

00:07:32.480 had spires all over the place Henry had spires in Paris so they were aware that something was happening

00:07:38.840 they just didn't know exactly the size of it they didn't know exactly where it was going to land

00:07:43.200 um and they there were no sort of Atlantic wall defenses up and down all of north northern France so

00:07:50.220 basically Henry Henry's landing was completely uncontested okay Wednesday the 14th the next morning

00:07:58.540 when they all come ashore Henry's attitude to the landing suggests a high state of anxiety this is

00:08:04.960 entirely understandable he had 15,000 men and probably twice as many mariners in an extremely vulnerable

00:08:11.460 position years of planning preparation and reconnaissance were being put to the test cautious

00:08:17.920 all the way through he waited until Cornwell, Porter and Huntingdon had returned before he began to plan

00:08:24.260 his own landing those in the ships around him looked at the beach where they were expected to land

00:08:29.960 they felt uneasy as the author of the guest of Henry Quinty noted so now we get words literally 500 year old

00:08:37.940 what 600 year old words now of what happened from a history written more or less at the time we're told

00:08:44.520 the shore was very stony with large boulders against which the ships were liable to be dashed

00:08:49.600 and with other smaller stones pebbles handy for throwing with which the enemy had they wished to oppose our

00:08:56.000 landing could have attacked us and defended themselves and at the back of the shore between us and the land

00:09:01.660 deep ditches had been dug that were full of water and behind these earth walls of great thickness furnished

00:09:08.120 with ramparts and angles in the manner of a tower or castle and between every two ditches the ground was left

00:09:14.560 intact for the breadth of a cubit permitted only one man at a time to enter or leave Ian Mortimer continues

00:09:21.320 the site had been chosen because it was thought to be left unguarded but there was a good reason why

00:09:27.200 it was very difficult to land a large force here a few ships could unload quickly maybe but 1500 the

00:09:33.720 whole process would take such a long time about a mile away to the south of our floor there were fewer

00:09:39.340 stones but that was no easier a landing place as there was a marsh there that led far inland with

00:09:45.180 ditches and gullies the narrow tracks through that marsh would have allowed a few men to hold up several

00:09:50.800 thousand Henry and his men took to the barges quote between the sixth and seventh hour which in this

00:09:56.840 case probably means six to seven a.m. reckoning from midnight when Henry landed he fell to his knees

00:10:02.220 and prayed that he might do justice on his enemies this gesture may have been a spontaneous act or it

00:10:07.980 may have been a deliberate emulation of his predecessors if you remember a lot of the earlier epochs

00:10:13.440 I would have mentioned exactly this happening I happen to think that Henry V was doing it deliberately

00:10:19.420 but Ian Mortimer tells us about all the all the predecessors where this happened it is worth

00:10:23.860 remembering that Edward III had fallen on landing in Normandy on the Cressy campaign and declared it

00:10:29.880 a welcome embrace from the kingdom of France this in turn was probably a deliberate emulation of

00:10:34.520 William the Conqueror who had fallen on landing in England in 1066 and got up with his hands full of

00:10:40.420 sand declaring he held the kingdom of England in his hands also in emulation of past practice Henry knighted a

00:10:46.920 number of men there on the beach among them William Porter Thomas Guiney John Calthrop and John Radcliffe

00:10:53.860 just as Edward III had knighted his son and other men on landing in 1346 following these ceremonies he was

00:11:01.720 quickly led to the Mont-le-Conte where his priests were able to celebrate mass and where the army would

00:11:07.180 camp for the French in the vicinity there was no question of resisting such a large army although the

00:11:13.560 English feared attack and knew they were hugely vulnerable as they stepped ashore to stop them

00:11:19.100 would have required a large force of men to be ready to intercept them which they just simply didn't

00:11:24.240 have the nearest such force as the crow flyers was one of 1500 men commanded by Charles de Albrecht

00:11:31.480 at Honfleur which is pretty close to Harfleur but a different place Honfleur on the south side of the

00:11:37.060 Seine Bukikur that's a man Bukikur was on the north side of the river but at Corderbeck about 25 miles

00:11:43.500 to the east he also had about 1500 men too few to tackle the English after they had become to come ashore

00:11:49.920 in large numbers as for Harfleur itself there were at most only two small forces present 100 men at arms

00:11:56.600 under Jean Seigneur d'Esteville and 34 men at arms in the town under the command of Lionette de Bracquemont

00:12:05.040 Olivier de Bracquemont and John Bouffriel together with a small number of crossbowmen under Roland de Guerreau

00:12:12.300 I may be butchering a lot of these French names in fact I am butchering a lot of these French names

00:12:17.260 these forces could hardly take on an army of more than 11,000 fighting men 300 more men at arms were

00:12:24.140 mustering on this very day commanded by the redoubtable knight Raoul de Gokor this Raoul de Gokor

00:12:30.600 becomes important in the siege of Harfleur so remember that name but they were still more than

00:12:34.460 three days march away from Harfleur what defensive precautions had already been undertaken

00:12:38.840 were due to the townsmen themselves apart from the possibility that de Gokor might yet reach the

00:12:44.640 town before the blockade started the people of Harfleur and the small garrison were on their own

00:12:49.200 Thursday the 15th which was the feast of the Assumption the problems posed by the landing site

00:12:54.780 meant that it would take several days for all the men horses equipment and provisions to be taken off the

00:13:00.300 ships as thousands of men moved in and around the beach and up the hill to the tents Henry probably

00:13:06.220 relocated himself to the priory of Graville perhaps it was in the church here that he celebrated the

00:13:12.520 feast of the Assumption outside the burning and looting had already started pigs geese and hens were

00:13:18.540 taken granaries and houses robbed and burnt the Englishmen all with the red cross of Saint George 0.99

00:13:24.180 painted on their surcoats scattered quickly searching for plunder after a week of being restricted within

00:13:30.280 small ships they reveled in being on dry land and able to take what they wanted from the country

00:13:35.340 that they had come to destroy Friday the 16th of August Henry had been gathering information on

00:13:41.200 Harfleur for months members of his first embassy in 1414 had traveled to France via Harfleur including

00:13:47.940 Bishop Courtenay also another quite important figure to remember Bishop Courtenay the Earl of Salisbury

00:13:54.540 and Lord Grey as we have seen certain members of the recent embassy had also traveled that way

00:14:00.100 namely Sir William Borshire Sir John Philip and William Poulter and these were just the ambassadors

00:14:05.660 who had passed through Harfleur there must have been many other member sides so Henry knew more or

00:14:11.020 less what to expect when he looked down over the town and port from the hill to the west Harfleur was

00:14:16.400 a medium-sized town with a population of about 5,000 people a higher two and a half mile stone wall

00:14:22.820 punctuated by two dozen watchtowers and surrounded by ditches encircled the church of Saint Martin the

00:14:29.740 public buildings and houses of the citizens the wall also enclosed Le Clos de Glacis an inner fortified

00:14:37.720 naval port whose walls were higher even than those of the town itself the river Lazard ran down from

00:14:44.060 the north so two rivers converge at Harfleur the Seine itself and another one the Lazard the river Lazard

00:14:50.520 ran down from the south and divided into two I mean it's part is kind of an estuary region really

00:14:56.460 one part ran around the western wall of the town like a deep moat the other ran through sluices in

00:15:02.500 the town walls through the center of the town itself and into the Clos de Glacis this guaranteed a water

00:15:08.140 supply in a siege and gave power to two mills just inside the walls there were three gates the Port Lure on

00:15:16.040 the west the Port Montevilliers on the north and the Port Rouen on the southeast two large towers guarded the

00:15:23.960 water gate leading to the Clos de Glacis these could raise a great chain between them preventing the entry

00:15:29.900 of any ships to the south on either side of the Lazard the town was protected by the marshes that ran down

00:15:37.400 to the sea these were the same marshes that the English attackers had noticed while waiting to disembark

00:15:42.860 on the rocky shore further to the west not everything was familiar to Henry some changes had recently taken

00:15:48.120 place around each of the three gates substantial barbicans or ball walks had been built these were

00:15:54.820 circular enclosures of tree trunks lashed together and part buried in the ground strengthened with earth

00:16:01.140 mounds and surrounded by water-filled moats so sort of strong points really these barbicans they had 1.00

00:16:07.300 spaces in them for small cannon and crossbows to fire at approaching attackers the road to Montevilliers

00:16:13.720 had been in part taken up ripped up and the stones taken into the town to use in the town's catapults

00:16:20.680 the river approach to the town had been blocked with sharpened stakes below the water line most

00:16:26.160 worrying of all the sluice gates had been closed on the north flooding the entire valley to go around

00:16:31.840 in order to attack the town on the east side now required a journey of nine or ten miles but Henry had

00:16:37.640 set himself upon a path since April he had described the expedition's first aim as seizing Harfleur

00:16:42.920 it was a matter of pride that he would do what he set out to do he ordered the houses in the suburbs

00:16:48.360 to be burnt and the whole area to be cleared ready for his siege engines and cannon the attack would

00:16:53.920 begin the following day so that's one thing to mention sort of perhaps strategically it might have

00:16:58.980 been worth when you when they actually turned up there and realized that Harfleur although not infested

00:17:04.040 with a giant garrison was very well defended I mean Shakespeare calls it strongly girded Harfleur you know

00:17:10.300 well defended Harfleur its wall was no joke its various defenses everything from flooding the area

00:17:16.480 deliberately to building extra barricades and extra earthworks and extra strong points barbicans 0.68

00:17:22.480 everything there it looked like what it was a difficult town to take really quite difficult

00:17:27.360 strategically it might have been worth reconsidering it might have been worth forget kind of basically

00:17:33.420 forgetting about Harfleur and to start chevalchaying through northern France Edward III style or heading

00:17:40.180 towards straight towards Rouen or straight towards Paris or straight towards the French army wherever it

00:17:45.840 was whenever it would muster in force it might have been worth you know giving up on the idea of

00:17:50.880 Harfleur entirely but as Mortimer mentioned there Henry was kind of stubborn or prideful he said he was going to do

00:17:59.420 this and he wasn't going to be put off at the first hurdle so he decides to start the siege and you know

00:18:07.060 spoiler alert it's not a particularly quick one it's not a crazily long one some sieges last years

00:18:11.860 years and years and years particularly in the ancient world well even in the in the modern world

00:18:16.140 pre-modern world medieval world sometimes sieges could last years if you realize you couldn't break in

00:18:22.580 and you have to sort of starve the town or the city out it could take years so you know this siege of

00:18:28.720 Harfleur we're talking about here it doesn't take years and years but it's not over within days Henry

00:18:33.360 needed it to be over quickly he needed it to be over within days or you know a few weeks at most well

00:18:39.660 it doesn't it's not as smooth as that okay Ian Mortimer continues it's now Saturday the 17th of August

00:18:45.000 the final provisions horses and equipment were unloaded from the ships and the siege began

00:18:49.540 Henry divided his army into three battles or battalions in order to facilitate organization

00:18:55.300 his own battle was centrally positioned facing the port lure the other two were established on his

00:19:01.480 flanks probably commanded by the dukes of Clarence and York the actual order of events thereafter is not

00:19:07.060 easy to determine in all likelihood Henry set a higher priority in bringing up the cannon and the siege

00:19:13.320 engines from the coast at least one great gun good grace and one siege engine was positioned directly

00:19:20.340 opposite the port lure and its barbican he held a council to determine the best way of attacking the

00:19:26.640 town and of supplying the soldiers who were now encamped in the fields to the west groups of men were

00:19:33.260 sent out to find food in the villages and farms nearby they quickly covered a huge area a 28 year old

00:19:40.080 priest from half lure Raoul the gay was captured by an English foraging party on the road seven miles 0.67

00:19:47.220 east of half lure he was taken back to Santivic three miles from the main army and told by a French

00:19:54.140 speaking English knight that he would be ransomed for 100 crowns unfortunately for him he could not pay

00:20:00.760 the English decided to take him to the main camp at Graville it appears likely that it was today that

00:20:07.120 Henry issued his military ordinances the set of codes and conduct for the campaign these had been

00:20:12.740 issued to armies since at least Edward III's campaign in 1346 when an edict had stated that

00:20:19.420 and here's the original wording no town or manor was to be burnt no church or holy place sacked and no

00:20:26.240 old people children or women in this kingdom of France were to be harmed or molested nor were the

00:20:32.260 soldiers to threaten people or to do any kind of wrong on pain of life and limb whether all the

00:20:37.840 soldiers abided by that is another another story of course not all of them did but there you go that

00:20:43.860 was the ordinance well that was an Edward III era ordinance but Henry V's were similar

00:20:49.280 Ian Mortimer continues for Henry to attack in France and yet to be seen as the leader of a moral war

00:20:54.800 he needed to do his best to control the more violent and less humane tendencies of his soldiers

00:20:59.680 the military ordinances were proclaimed by the captains of the army and copies were to be given

00:21:05.300 to the captains to ensure that they were obeyed various versions of the ordinances issued by Henry V

00:21:10.820 over the years between 1415 and 1421 are extant in meaning they still survive we've still got them

00:21:17.600 the set most likely to have been issued in August 1415 is known by historians as Upton's ordinances

00:21:23.800 there were 14 sections the first being to protect churches and religious buildings

00:21:28.480 and not to steal from them and to protect the Eucharist and the Picts and the second not to

00:21:34.720 capture or harm any clergymen or women or to take prisoner any clergymen unless they were armed and

00:21:40.380 hostile and not to rape any women on pain of death the third section stipulated that everyone in the

00:21:46.260 army including merchants and other non-combatants riding with the army should obey without question any

00:21:51.740 order from the king and constable and the marshal of the army the fourth section specified how the

00:21:58.200 nighttime watch was to be maintained with the constable and marshal again in charge the fifth

00:22:03.520 ordered captains to be ready to muster their men at arms and archers whenever the king or his officers

00:22:09.160 required on pain of arrest and forfeiture of arms and horse and the sixth was designed to prevent

00:22:15.520 insurrection and loss of control within the army for instance no one was to quote cry havoc havoc being the

00:22:22.800 order by which men on the battlefield could break ranks and steal whatever they wanted and no one was

00:22:28.000 to quote cry montez or horse or other cries that might bring danger to the whole host no one was to

00:22:34.580 let old feuds and jewels govern their conduct in the camp i.e between themselves and no matter what news

00:22:40.860 came to the army no one was to break ranks so discipline was sort of the order of the day the remainder

00:22:46.640 of the ordinances were similarly intended to strengthen the army through discipline no one was

00:22:52.100 to ride out from the host without permission or to go foraging ahead on their own no one was to raise

00:22:57.380 a banner or pennant of saint george to lead a group of men away from the main army nor to go ahead of the

00:23:03.280 host under a banner unless he was a messenger no one was to burn any buildings without special command

00:23:08.800 of the king if anyone found vituals or food basically or wine he should take only enough for himself

00:23:15.060 and not destroy the remainder but leave it for the army men were not to rob each other of any

00:23:20.140 vituals they found or otherwise receive no one except the king constable or marshal was to give

00:23:26.580 safe conduct to anyone from outside the army particular ordinances treated the problem of

00:23:31.700 prisoners for most soldiers the main lure of war was the attraction of wealth to be gained not by

00:23:37.820 looting or largely not by looting but by taking and ransoming important men so that's a massive part of

00:23:44.360 war in this period if you can take an important man prisoner you ransom him back to his own family

00:23:50.600 or his own household for quite a lot of money well as much money as you can extort out of them really

00:23:56.260 hence disputes often arose over who had taken whom prisoner it was now made clear that there were to be

00:24:02.080 no disputes over captives nor over weapons coats of arms or lodgings grooms and pages who got involved

00:24:09.160 in such arguments were to have their left ear cut off when a man took a prisoner he was to take his

00:24:14.860 helmet and gauntlets as a sign that his victim was already claimed two men who collectively defeated a

00:24:20.780 knight could share the rights and subsequent ransom it was clearly anticipated that in the heat of battle

00:24:26.760 rivalries between men could lead to one trying to kill the other's prisoner this was forbidden the killing

00:24:32.760 of a man who was trying to submit was similarly not allowed no man was to sell his prisoner or to ransom

00:24:39.200 him without the king's permission and everyone who took prisoners was liable to pay his lord one-third

00:24:44.480 of the eventual ransom there was one last moral ordinance in this sect and it is very revealing of

00:24:49.980 henry's attitude to women of easy virtue and his view of sex although earlier english kings had tolerated

00:24:56.420 prostitutes in the royal household henry had a much stricter moral view he prohibited any women from

00:25:02.540 staying in the camp at all or even being located nearer than three miles his ordinance laid down 0.79

00:25:08.320 that the first time a woman was found in the camp she was to be warned the second time she was to have

00:25:14.080 her left arm broken end quote oh okay it's often the way even right up to sort of the 18th 19th century

00:25:20.960 particularly in the navy that you couldn't really you know for example bring women aboard a ship

00:25:27.260 certain women you know old fish wives and cooks and washer maids are one thing but young pretty women 1.00

00:25:34.580 that are obviously sort of prostitutes that are going to be sort of passed around it's like a big

00:25:38.780 problem you really the senior brass really don't want that it's sort of in their mind anyway it sort

00:25:44.480 of ruins the men's fighting ability but often they just sneaked in anyway i mean very very often it's

00:25:52.040 like you know you're not supposed to have drugs or sort of grain alcohol in prison but it always gets

00:25:57.140 in anyway the prisoners will make their own anyway the soldiers will find a way to smuggle prostitutes 0.99

00:26:02.580 in anyway for example even on in the age of sort of nelson in the 18th century there's like a big ship

00:26:08.360 stowed away somewhere below decks will be a prostitute ian mortimer continues saying this quote

00:26:14.200 in his pavilion the duke of york sealed his last will and testament like henry the fourth and henry

00:26:19.340 the fifth himself he adopted the self-demeaning language of extreme abasement the document which

00:26:25.920 was in french began so now again we get the words from 600 years ago the duke of york's will read in

00:26:32.460 the name of god almighty and the son and the holy ghost and the holy trinity and the glorious virgin

00:26:38.640 our lady saint mary and saint thomas our glorious martyr and of saint thomas the holy confessor and of

00:26:45.000 all the holy saints in paradise i edward of york of all sinners the most wicked and blameworthy

00:26:51.100 mortimer interrupts here to say he desired to be buried in the chapel at fotheringay in the middle of

00:26:57.120 the choir near the steps under a flat marble slab he stipulated that his debts should be paid and the

00:27:03.000 expenses of his funeral should not exceed 100 pounds which is still loads of money in those days his first

00:27:09.040 bequest was to the king the best sword and the best dagger i have next was and then it goes back into

00:27:15.300 the actual words themselves to my wife philippa my bed of feathers and leopards with the furniture that

00:27:22.080 goes with it also my white and red tapestry of garters feather locks and falcons my green bed

00:27:28.460 embroidered with a compass my two large vessels of silver and covered basins in her keeping with the

00:27:35.420 falcons and fetal locks in the middle with a blue background mortimer says at this point those

00:27:40.820 servants of his who had been in his service for a whole year before sailing for harfleur were to be

00:27:46.580 paid their wages in full for the sixth month term after his death two pounds and ten pence to each

00:27:52.860 esquire one pound to each garçon and half a mark which was six shillings eight pence to each page

00:28:00.640 all his copelands which were full length long-sleeved and high collared gowns were to be

00:28:05.800 delivered among the servants of his chamber and wardrobe his saddles and harnesses were likewise to

00:28:11.800 be divided among his servants in all the masses that might be said for him he willed that richard

00:28:17.080 the second henry the fourth his father edmund of york and his mother isabella should also be mentioned

00:28:23.300 he continued i will that all my vestments crucifixes images tabernacles basins ewers censers sconces and

00:28:31.780 other jewels in my chapel except in the goods and jewels that i pledged to enable me to go in that

00:28:37.440 voyage to france in the company of my lord the king the after my decease given to the master and his

00:28:43.740 brethren of my said college of fatheringay to be perpetually kept by them and their successors

00:28:48.680 mortimer again now other personal bequests included 20 pounds to thomas placide in memory of the

00:28:54.500 kindness that he showed me when i was a prisoner at pevensey a sword a coat of mail and 10 pounds in

00:29:00.480 cash to philip beauchamp a suit of jointed armor covered in red velvet and 10 pounds in money to

00:29:06.680 thomas beauchamp and a new suit of jointed armor covered in velvet his helmet and his best horse to

00:29:12.520 sir john popham the reason why i bothered reading that bit out is just because one i find it very

00:29:17.020 interesting and two that to make the point again that we've got lots and lots of detail here really

00:29:22.420 considering it's the extremes the very beginning of the 15th century that all these documents survive

00:29:27.820 i think most historians think is you know quite remarkable and so you know let's take advantage

00:29:32.380 of them if we can i want to paint a lot of detail for this campaign of 1415 because i find it so

00:29:40.060 interesting lots of people that are interested in henry v and agincourt find it all quite fascinating so

00:29:46.140 yeah going to go into quite a lot of detail hopefully you'll enjoy it but the fact that

00:29:51.200 we've got the will and testament of the duke of york it's fascinating stuff if you would like to see

00:29:56.180 the full version of this premium video please head over to lotuseaters.com and subscribe to gain

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The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - April 27, 2025

PREVIEW： Epochs #208 ｜ Henry V： Part IV

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