The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Epochs #212 ｜ Henry V： Part VII

00:00:00.000 Saturday the 12th.

00:00:15.360 Acques had been a small town, only too ready to let the English pass by peacefully. 0.99

00:00:19.920 O was a different matter as the town of O.

00:00:22.640 It was well defended by high walls and steep slopes, standing above the river Bresol, with

00:00:27.680 a population of about a thousand.

00:00:29.760 Henry must have arrived in the evening.

00:00:31.840 There were bodies on the ground before the walls.

00:00:34.080 He heard that, as his outriders and scouts had approached, bearing the standards of the

00:00:38.360 English, the garrison of O had made a sortie on horseback and attacked them with much noise

00:00:43.640 and aggression.

00:00:44.640 There was loud battle on both sides, but the French did not restrain the Englishmen for 0.67

00:00:48.160 long, and being forced back to the gates, they defended themselves with arrows and missiles." 0.78

00:00:53.640 Both sides suffered fatalities.

00:00:55.960 One of the French dead was Lancelot Pierre, quote, a valiant and much renowned man of

00:01:00.280 war, quote, and a companion and count of O. An Englishman had driven his lance through

00:01:05.600 the plates of armour protecting Pierre's stomach, but Pierre's own lance had similarly gone

00:01:10.240 right through his assailant's body, killing him too.

00:01:13.040 But individual acts of valour like these, although they impressed the chroniclers, could not hold

00:01:18.000 up the approach of the English vanguard. Before long, the French had withdrawn to defend the town.

00:01:22.720 Although the temptation to storm the town must have been great after the hostile reception,

00:01:27.200 Henry decided to follow the same course of action as at Arcades. He sent heralds to the gates to offer

00:01:32.720 the inhabitants peace in return for food and drink. If they would supply bread and wine and send

00:01:37.440 hostages for the safe conduct of the garrison, Henry would not burn the town and the villages nearby.

00:01:42.400 If, on the other hand, they refused, he would destroy everything.

00:01:45.520 This is classic chevaliering. Classic stuff.

00:01:47.760 While the men of O were considering this offer, the English made camp at a little distance.

00:01:52.640 It was not an easy night. By this stage, they had heard that a great army had gathered ahead

00:01:57.520 at Blanchiquet, the very crossing point to which Henry was heading. Frenchmen who had been taken

00:02:02.480 captive were saying that there would be a battle the following day, or on Monday. We know it's still

00:02:07.440 quite a few days away. The author of the Guesta was unsure what to think. Some of those with him

00:02:12.560 thought that the French would be unlikely to come up from the interior of the country so quickly.

00:02:17.120 After all, the French could not be sure that the Duke of Burgundy would not attack Paris,

00:02:21.440 or even join Henry. On the other hand, there were those who pointed out that the noble kingdom of

00:02:26.160 France could not be expected to withstand the indignity and dishonour of an English army marching

00:02:31.440 through Normandy and into Ponthieu. They were bound to attack the French, is of honour bound to attack. 0.65

00:02:37.200 What Henry himself thought is not known. He was probably placing his hopes in getting to

00:02:42.000 Blanchiquet before the French. He knew the Dauphin and the Royal Dukes were still a very long

00:02:46.800 way behind him. If he had to face an army, it would be composed of men gathering with Bouchicourt and

00:02:52.880 Charles de Albrecht, the Marshal and Constable of France, on the north side of the river, and not

00:02:57.680 the full array of the Royal Dukes. As the sun went down over Eau, everything still seemed to be on course

00:03:03.120 for a relatively safe passage for the English through to Calais. The chances of this were further enhanced

00:03:08.720 when the men of Eau agreed to offer hostages and sustenance to the army. It was 18 miles to Blanchiquet.

00:03:14.720 The English would get there the following day. John the Fearless spent the early part of October

00:03:19.520 at Chalons. On the 10th, he had made his way to Guermel. From there, he dispatched an embassy

00:03:24.400 to the French king, supporting what his son, the Count of Charlois, had declared two days earlier,

00:03:29.680 that he intended to mobilise his forces and join the king very soon. Despite this, he did not set out.

00:03:35.600 He remained at Guermel for the next seven days. His vassals in Picardy, however, were responding

00:03:41.360 to his summons. They were not joining the army at Rouen, but the separate French army now gathering

00:03:46.560 north of the Somme under Bouchicourt and Albrecht. The French king might have been mad and the Dauphin

00:03:51.840 inexperienced, but Bouchicourt and Albrecht knew what they were doing. The English would soon find

00:03:57.280 themselves sandwiched between two armies and forced to fight. Other French magnates were riding to the age

00:04:02.960 of the French king. Today, the old Duke of Bury, the Dauphin's great-uncle, arrived at Rouen, where

00:04:08.960 he had mustered 1,000 men-at-arms and 500 archers. The king himself also arrived at Rouen today,

00:04:15.040 accompanied by the Dauphin. Other French lords were already there, so now the army had a direct

00:04:20.000 chain of command. This was important, for it was being rumoured today that the Duke of Clarence had

00:04:25.280 landed at Calais with another large army. Which way were the French in Normandy to turn their attention?

00:04:30.720 To Henry? To the defence of the towns? To the river crossings? To the marches of Calais? Or to the

00:04:36.720 defence of Boulogne? About this time, the newly gathered French royal family and the other members

00:04:41.680 of the council drew up a battle plan, probably with the intention of stopping Henry at Blanchequay.

00:04:47.120 The vanguard was to be commanded by Bouchicourt and Charles d'Albrecht. They would be followed by a

00:04:51.840 second battle under the Duke of Alencon, the Count of Eaux and other lords. On each wing of the army,

00:04:57.840 there would be a battle of foot soldiers, and one on the right commanded by the Count of Richemont,

00:05:03.360 and one on the left by the Count of Vendôme. David, Signor de Ramberez, would command a contingent

00:05:09.280 of heavily armoured cavalry, with the mission to charge into and break up the ranks of English archers.

00:05:14.640 And a separate squadron of several hundred mounted men-at-arms, under Louis de Bozredon,

00:05:19.200 was given charge of attacking the English baggage. The anticipated army would be composed of the troops

00:05:24.160 gathering at Rouen, as well as those waiting beyond the Somme, gathering at Abbeville and Pernon.

00:05:29.680 Wherever the English positioned themselves, whether their backs were against the Somme or otherwise,

00:05:34.400 the French were preparing to attack. Sunday the 13th, which is the feast of St. Edward the Confessor.

00:05:39.600 The feast of St. Edward the Confessor has special significance for the Lancastrian dynasty.

00:05:44.560 Not only was it the feast of the principal English royal saint, Henry's father had been sent into

00:05:49.440 exile on the same day in 1398 by his cousin, Richard II. Exactly one year later,

00:05:55.120 he had been crowned King of England in Richard's place. As a result, Henry IV had built a chapel in

00:06:00.560 Canterbury Cathedral, dedicated to St. Edward the Confessor. Henry V had shown himself to be no less

00:06:06.240 fond of the English king saint than his father. One of the banners he was carrying now bore the arms of

00:06:12.320 St. Edward. The English army must have set out for Blanchequay shortly after packing up their tents

00:06:17.520 at first light. Already there had been worrying reports from prisoners taken along the way that

00:06:22.880 there was a huge French army waiting to intercept the English at the Ford. These reports received

00:06:27.440 confirmation late this morning when the army was still six miles away from the crossing point.

00:06:31.920 According to Monstrullet, a Gascon gentleman serving in the company of Charles d'Albrat was arrested.

00:06:38.560 Wurin's chronicle describes him as being mounted and armed. Monstrullet's chronicle refers to him as a

00:06:44.080 devil. As a Gascon, it may be that he crossed the Somme and came to the English purposefully, 0.98

00:06:49.600 out of a greater loyalty to Henry as the Duke of Aquitaine than to his feudal lord, the d'Albrat family,

00:06:56.080 having been once subjects of the English kings. The man was taken before the Duke of York,

00:07:00.560 the leader of the vanguard, and questioned. He said that he had left Charles d'Albrat at Abbeville.

00:07:06.080 When asked about the fold at Blanchiquet, he told them that it was very heavily guarded.

00:07:11.200 Guillard Dauphin and Beauchiquet, that's not the Dauphin by the way, someone else, and Bouchicourt

00:07:16.560 were both there with 6,000 fighting men. If all this was true, it meant that the English were trapped

00:07:22.160 between two armies, one under d'Albrat and Beauchiquet between Abbeville and Blanchiquet,

00:07:27.920 and the Ducal retinues gathering at Rouen. The Duke of York realised the significance of this

00:07:32.640 information and sent the Gascon to the king. There he was questioned again. Henry heard everything

00:07:37.920 he had to say. Then he dismissed him, halted the advance, and called an immediate meeting of his

00:07:43.280 council. The meeting lasted two hours. We cannot know for certain what was said, but it proved to

00:07:48.640 be a turning point for Henry, a breaking point even. Everything he had done all year had been

00:07:53.680 carried out with the greatest resolution. There had been those who had said he should have cancelled

00:07:58.320 the campaign when the Earl of Cambridge's plot had been revealed. He had ignored them and pressed

00:08:03.360 on. The siege of Harfleur had hugely sapped the strength of his army, and there had been those

00:08:08.400 who had said he should not have started on this march. Nevertheless, he had ignored them and set

00:08:13.120 out, determined to make his way to Calais. He was equally determined to meet the French in battle,

00:08:18.480 even to the point of telling them exactly where he would be, and now he was being forced to

00:08:22.640 acknowledge that he had been outmanoeuvred. His resolution to march on regardless, and to test

00:08:28.320 his cause against God's will, had only succeeded in endangering the tired and hungry survivors of

00:08:33.920 the long siege. If at this point he tried to persuade his counsellors otherwise, he failed to win them

00:08:38.960 over. Their advice was that the army should find another crossing. No doubt Henry had already sent scouts

00:08:44.320 ahead to examine the conditions at the Fords, and they had probably come back with the information

00:08:49.360 that many French troops were stationed there. The number of 6,000 men was probably not a huge

00:08:53.920 exaggeration. If Boussicot and d'Albrecht and the Signor de Ramberez had been joined by the Duke

00:08:59.600 of Alençon, as was likely, then there would have been at least 4,000 fighting troops north of the Somme.

00:09:05.200 By now Henry may have learnt that the 300 men at arms who had left Calais to take control of the

00:09:10.320 crossing had been annihilated by a Picard army. Henry's strategy was falling apart. His council was

00:09:16.160 sensible to put their faith in avoiding battle rather than deliberately seeking it. It must

00:09:20.960 have been a depressing meeting. It was not possible to advance by way of Blanchiquet. Retreat was out

00:09:26.240 of the question, and if they marched inland along the Somme, there was a good chance that the enemy

00:09:31.120 troops north of the Somme and those gathering at Pernon would starve them in the field. It seemed that

00:09:36.560 the French had indeed, quote, enclosed them on every side like sheep in folds, quote, as several counsellors

00:09:42.720 had warned they would before they had set out, and the eight days' rations were almost all used up.

00:09:47.760 This was the seventh day of what was supposed to have been an eight-day march to Calais.

00:09:51.920 The bread and wine the men had received at Arques and O had not gone far, and most men had been

00:09:57.920 drinking unhealthy river water for the last week. Some of them were carrying festering wounds,

00:10:03.440 others were still suffering from dysentery. So it's looking dark. It's looking dark for Henry and

00:10:07.760 the English at this stage. Henry probably considered advancing his men to the fold and trying to fight

00:10:12.720 his way across. He knew that Edward III had done so in 1346 and, on that occasion, as if by a miracle,

00:10:19.920 the tide had come in after the last of the English were across and stopped the French from crossing.

00:10:24.960 Surely God would work some similar miracle for him. But if he suggested this, the counsellors would

00:10:30.240 have countered that Edward's army had fought a way across the Somme against no more than 3,000 men.

00:10:35.440 According to the Gascon informer, the fold was further defended now with sharpened stakes driven

00:10:41.200 into the bed of the river, allowing the French crossbowmen to rip the English apart in midstream.

00:10:46.720 Fighting against 6,000 in these conditions, including crossbowmen, would be very difficult.

00:10:51.920 Thus it was, at this point, six miles short of the fold, that Henry abandoned his original plan.

00:10:56.960 He ordered the army to head inland, following the banks of the Somme. As they made their way along the

00:11:01.920 river, looking for a crossing nearer Abbeville, the scouts reported that all the bridges had been

00:11:06.960 broken by the Constable and Marshal of France. So they proceeded until that night, cold, hungry and

00:11:12.640 weary, they came to the village of Muril, where they camped. At Arundel Castle, the Earl of Arundel died.

00:11:19.520 It was a sad end, considering his extraordinary career. After his father's execution in 1397,

00:11:26.000 he had been trusted as a servant and regularly humiliated by his guardian,

00:11:30.640 John Holland, Duke of Exeter. Locked up in Rygate Castle, he escaped, although still only 17,

00:11:36.880 and managed to get out to the continent where he joined his uncle, the Archbishop of Canterbury,

00:11:41.760 in exile. Together they went to meet Henry's father in Paris, and joined him in his attempt

00:11:48.800 to wrest the throne from Richard II. Thomas was thus the very first Lancastrian supporter,

00:11:54.400 and had remained loyal to the dynasty thereafter, taking part in putting down the Epiphany Rising

00:11:59.680 in 1400, fighting alongside Prince Henry in Wales after Glendower's revolt, and taking action against

00:12:06.000 Archbishop Scrope in 1405. By 1407, he was the prince's principal retainer, and served on the

00:12:12.560 prince's council during the regency of 1409-1411. He was sent by the prince to fight for John the

00:12:18.960 Fearless at St. Cloud in 1411, and proved himself efficient in battle. As his will shows, he shared

00:12:26.080 the prince's devotion to the Holy Trinity and to the cult of St. John of Bridlington, and very soon

00:12:31.280 after Henry's accession, he was loaded with titles and honours, Warden of the Sinkports, Constable of

00:12:37.040 Dover Castle, and most important of all, Treasurer of England. Apart from Henry's uncles and brothers,

00:12:42.960 only Richard Beauchamp, the late Richard Courtenay, and the Duke of York were as close to the king.

00:12:48.320 Thomas now became the second of that number to die as a result of Henry's will to fight a war in

00:12:53.440 France. Monday the 14th. The bridge at Pont Remy was Henry's next target, about four miles east-north-east

00:13:00.160 of his camp. Seeing a large number of men drawing up on the opposite bank, he believed battle to be

00:13:05.040 imminent, and dubbed a number of knights. Among these were Lord Ferriers of Groby, Ralph Greystoke,

00:13:11.760 Peter Tempest, Christopher Moresby, Thomas Pickering, William Huddleston, John Hosbalton,

00:13:18.240 John Mortimer, James Ormond, and Philip and William Halley. Knighting men was a good way to inspire them 0.96

00:13:24.080 to feats of valour in the forthcoming battle, as they would seek to win glory and prove themselves

00:13:29.040 worthy. As he approached the bridge, however, he saw that it was broken. So too were the causeways

00:13:35.040 leading to it. The river here had been a broad marsh on either side, hence the causeways,

00:13:40.320 so no bridge building was possible, even though Henry had specifically brought carpenters who

00:13:45.200 were experienced in the craft. It was at this point that the hearts of the English fell,

00:13:49.440 they had run out of food, they had no way forward, no way back, and there were thousands of French 1.00

00:13:53.920 troops on all sides tracking their movements and hoping to kill them. The head of the Somme lay 60

00:13:59.120 miles away, they had no option but to march inland, deep into hostile territory. To desert at this stage would

00:14:05.440 be certain death for any Englishman, otherwise many men would have simply run away. The words

00:14:10.720 that the author of the Guesta used to describe the plight of the English at this moment were

00:14:14.960 clearly heartfelt. And this is from the near contemporaneous history, which says, quote,

00:14:19.520 at that time we thought of nothing else but that after the eight days assigned for the march had

00:14:24.320 expired and our provisions had run out, the enemy who had craftily hastened on ahead and were laying

00:14:30.080 waste to the countryside in advance would face us, we who were already hungry, to suffer a really dire

00:14:36.480 need of food. And at the head of the river, if God did not provide otherwise, they would with their

00:14:41.760 great and countless host and the engines of war and devices available to them overwhelm us. For we were few in

00:14:48.240 number, fainting with a great weariness and weak from lack of food. I, the author of this, and many

00:14:54.080 others in the army, looked up in bitterness to heaven, seeking the clemency of providence,

00:14:59.200 and called upon the glorious Virgin and Saint George, under whose protection the most invincible

00:15:04.160 crown of England has flourished from of old, to intercede between God and his people, that the Supreme

00:15:10.320 Judge, who foresees all things, might take pity on the grief all England would feel, at the price we

00:15:15.840 will pay with our blood. And in his infinite mercy, God's infinite mercy, deliver from the sword of the

00:15:21.600 French our king and us his people, who have sought not war but peace, yeah right, and bring us to the

00:15:27.760 honour and glory of his name, in triumph to Calais. Without any other hope but this, we hastened on

00:15:33.920 from there in the direction of the head of the river." End quote. Mortimer now. What the author of the

00:15:38.880 Guester does not say at this point, is that Henry's high-minded intentions, not to lay waste to his

00:15:44.320 kingdom of France, were starting to wear thin. It was all very well for him to declare that no burning,

00:15:50.640 raping or killing should take place, but the men were now hungry, and the scouts were taking matters

00:15:55.520 into their own hands. Henry may or may not have condoned their actions, but the English burned and looted 0.92

00:16:01.760 as they marched to Airenes, Tuesday the 15th. The issue rolls for this day record an interesting

00:16:07.280 payment. It reads, "...to master Robert Benham sent to Calais, with divers medicines ordered for the

00:16:13.040 health of the king's person and others in his army who went with him." This obviously postdates the

00:16:18.080 actual delivery of the medicines by some weeks, but it suggests that Henry had not escaped the siege of

00:16:23.120 Half-Lure totally unscathed. What he had been suffering from, or whether he was still afflicted,

00:16:28.240 we can only guess. But the knowledge that he was ill, and had not yet reached Calais to benefit from

00:16:33.280 the medicines in question, makes his leadership in the face of many adversities all the more striking.

00:16:38.640 The dejected English army approached the city of Amiens. Two days earlier in the same town,

00:16:43.760 the order for the defence of the Somme had been read out. Charles d'Albert had chosen to concentrate

00:16:49.200 the bulk of his forces at Abbeville in an attempt to trap Henry against the river. The people of Amiens

00:16:55.520 had been ordered to send reinforcements, large numbers of crossbowmen, and all their artillery.

00:17:00.800 This had been done, albeit very reluctantly, for it left them vulnerable. Now at Abbeville,

00:17:06.000 there were several thousand fighting men and twelve heavy cannon, more than two thousand cannon balls,

00:17:11.040 and large stocks of saltpeter, sulphur, gunpowder, and various other machines of war. At Amiens,

00:17:16.720 there were no stockpiled munitions. The people of Amiens were lucky. The English marched straight past, 1.00

00:17:22.720 at a distance of about three miles. It is likely that the soldiers from Abbeville,

00:17:27.040 who had been tracking them along the far bank, had bolstered the defences of the town. Also,

00:17:31.840 troops stationed upstream at Courbet and Pernon may have shifted to Amiens in response to the English

00:17:38.000 advance. D'Albert's plan was flexible enough to defend the inland towns. The dejected English had no 1.00

00:17:44.480 option but to press on into the dangerous interior of France. Wednesday the 16th. At first,

00:17:49.680 Henry's progress had been fast, 16 or 17 miles per day, as fast as one could reasonably go,

00:17:55.040 with 10,000 men and several hundred carts and wagons. But since the council meeting,

00:17:59.520 six miles short of Blanchiquet, that speed had fallen off. From that moment to the end of today,

00:18:05.520 the army had covered between 10 and 11 miles per day. There were several reasons for their slowness.

00:18:11.280 The main one was that they were desperate to find a way across the river. Though the army was

00:18:15.600 travelling along a line of hills nearby, frequent forays had to be made down to the water to

00:18:20.720 investigate every bridge and every possible ford, and every potential site for a new temporary bridge.

00:18:27.200 Of course the bridges were all broken and the fords guarded. No doubt the subsequent frustration

00:18:32.400 led to the burning and looting along the way, another delaying factor.

00:18:36.080 They had to find food as well. Their suppliers of dried beef and walnuts had all long since gone,

00:18:41.840 so they had to forage for everything that they ate and drank. The weather did not help. It rained hard

00:18:46.960 and was windy, and the nights were very cold. Riding or marching for hours in such miserable conditions

00:18:52.880 must have been difficult, especially when the men were starving, weak and frightened.

00:18:56.960 Beauvais was a town in the lordship of the Duke of Burgundy, being held for him by the Count of Vodemore,

00:19:03.040 brother of the Duke of Lorraine. Although the count was still with Beausicourt at the time,

00:19:07.440 the question remained. Would the townsmen fire on the English, or would they hold to John the

00:19:11.920 Fearless's promise not to impede Henry in his quarrel with the King of France? It is perhaps

00:19:17.600 significant that Thomas Elham, writing three years later, notes that Henry chose to stay at this town,

00:19:24.080 perhaps seeing his reception by the garrison of the castle there as a test of John the Fearless's

00:19:28.720 loyalty. The garrison, situated on a well-defended rocky outcroft, fired no cannon, nor did they make a

00:19:35.040 sortie and attack. Instead, they negotiated with Henry for the safe passage of the army.

00:19:40.080 They surrendered hostages, and under cover of night, they sent out eight massive baskets of bread,

00:19:45.840 each one carried by two men, to help sustain the army. Henry also asked the captain of the castle

00:19:51.760 to look after two very sick knights in the army, directing the men in question to give up their

00:19:56.560 horses as an advance payment of their ransoms. A number of low-status men, presumably archers,

00:20:02.640 today broke into the vineyards and presses in the region around Beauvais, looking for wine.

00:20:07.760 Not surprisingly, they found it, in large quantities. When this was reported to Henry,

00:20:12.000 he was very angry. Some men asked why he had forbidden them to drink wine, asking to fill up

00:20:17.760 their bottles with it. Now they were here. Henry replied that, quote, he was not troubled by the

00:20:23.040 idea of bottles, but that the problem was that many would have their stomachs as their bottles, 0.98

00:20:28.160 and that was what bothered him, for he was worried they would get too drunk, end quote.

00:20:32.400 No wine and no women. One does not imagine there was very much song either, apart from the pipes 1.00

00:20:37.520 and drums of war. What with the lack of food and lack of comfort, campaigning with Henry V was a

00:20:42.800 grim experience. One man did get his reward today. Henry promised his esquire, William Hargrove,

00:20:48.880 that when they returned to England, he would make him the usher of the Order of the Garter,

00:20:53.120 together with the house in Windsor Castle that went with the office, receiving the usual wages

00:20:57.920 as his predecessor. This position carried the right to bear the Black Rod before the King 0.86

00:21:02.880 and his heirs on feast days, and is today known after the symbol of the office, Black Rod. Anyone who's

00:21:08.720 watched the ceremonial opening of Parliament, today I mean, you'll see Black Rod banging on the doors of 1.00

00:21:15.280 the House of Commons. So that office still exists to this day, albeit in a bit of a different form.

00:21:21.280 We hope you enjoyed that video, and if you did, please head over to lotusseaters.com for the full unabridged video.

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - May 25, 2025

PREVIEW： Epochs #212 ｜ Henry V： Part VII

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