At the beginning of Act V of Shakespeare’s King Henry V, Chorus invites his audience to ‘brook abridgement’, in other words to tolerate omission of ‘all the occurrences, whatever chanced’ between the victory at Agincourt on 25 October 1415 and the agreement of the treaty of Troyes on 21 May 1420. Much is indeed omitted. Save for a passing reference by Chorus to the visit to England of the Emperor Sigismund which took place in the spring of 1416, there is no mention at all in the play of events between 1416 and 1419. Yet for the English and their king these years witnessed further substantial achievements in France. In the summer of 1416, an army of at least 7,300 men was raised which was initially intended to be led to France by the king in person but was re-directed, successfully, under the duke of Bedford, to end the French naval blockade of Harfleur. In the summer of 1417 an even larger army was recruited, with which Henry invaded Normandy with conquest his intention. By the summer of 1419 virtually all of the duchy was in his hands, allowing him to begin an advance towards Paris. Instead of the French uniting to resist him, their internal divisions intensified, culminating on 10 September 1419 in the assassination of John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, by the supporters of the Armagnac faction led by the Dauphin Charles. Nine months later Henry was recognised as heir to the French throne.

The road from Agincourt to Troyes was undoubtedly less direct than Shakespeare implied. While the victory made the French reluctant to face the English in battle again, it was Henry’s systematic conquest of Normandy which gave the French little choice but to negotiate both before and after Duke John’s assassination. It is important, therefore, to examine more closely the army with which Henry invaded in 1417. While this army has not been completely ignored by historians in the past, research linked to the project ‘The Soldier in Later Medieval England’ makes it possible to study the organisation, structure and personnel of the army in much greater depth.

Historiography and Sources

Any study of the objects as well as their historical and locational context must take account of the pioneering study on the funeral, tomb and chantry chapel published in The Antiquaries Journal in 1914 by William Henry St John Hope (1854–1919). Amongst other fascinating details, Hope noted that, in the chronicler Thomas Walsingham’s account of Henry V’s funeral, there was mention of three armoured horsemen, whose destriers were led to the High Altar of Westminster Abbey, ‘as is customary’, where the riders dismounted and were stripped of their armour. In an anonymous account of the king’s funeral which has been considered contemporary but which survives only in a sixteenth-century text, we read of four mounted men, one bearing a shield with the arms of England, another with the arms of France, with the other two bearing the helms and crest relating to the same. In addition, this account speaks of an ‘Erle armed complet’ but bare headed and carrying a battle axe with the point downwards, described as riding in the funeral procession behind another knight who bore the king’s standard, although there is no mention of the stripping of armour at the High Altar.

Even more significantly in terms of the study of any surviving objects, Hope discovered relevant expenditure in the records of Robert Rolleston, keeper of the Royal Wardrobe, which were preserved in the then Public Record Office, now The National Archives. Amongst various costs for the funeral can be found the purchase of four bastard saddles with harness (selle bastarde cum hernesio), the painting of a crest and helm for the king (pro pictura unius creste et unius helme pro Rege), the stamping of a shield with the arms of the king (pro vapulacione unius scuti de armis Regis), as well as the similar stamping of the saddles (pro vapulacione dictarum sellarum) and of a tunic with the arms of the king (pro vapulacione unius tunice de armis Regis). Here, as in the narrative accounts, we also find frequent reference to the recurrent use of coats of arms associated with the king, on horse trappers (also known as caparisons, cloth coverings for horses), banners, and on the garb of those involved in the funeral procession, indeed anywhere they might be placed.

The funeral of Henry V took place in Westminster Abbey on 7 November 1422. Its 600th anniversary offers a timely opportunity to recall this event, all the more so because vestiges of it still remain in the Abbey. Until 1972, a saddle, helm and shield considered to be linked to Henry’s funeral were displayed above the king’s chantry chapel. Subsequently exhibited in the Undercroft Museum, they were moved in 2018 to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries in the Triforium. Together, the three items are commonly known as the ‘funeral achievements’ of Henry V. A sword has also found its way into consideration as part of this assemblage (frontispiece).

Visitors to the Abbey can also admire the tomb of the king, albeit with a partially restored effigy, beneath his chantry chapel in the eastern part of the ambulatory. The quire screen of 1831 prevents today’s visitor from seeing Henry’s chantry chapel from the west door of the Abbey but, once through this screen, the two front turrets and the upper stages of the chapel are visible above the High Altar and reredos of 1867. The will which Henry made just before he departed for France in 1415, on the campaign which culminated in his great victory at Agincourt, provided a clear statement of his intentions in terms of both tomb and chapel: in terms of the chosen location, we see not only a deliberate linking to previous royal burials, including the shrine of Edward the Confessor, but also a desire for publicly visible liturgical practice.

This English translation of the will of Henry V, 10 June 1421, with codicils of 26 August 1422, is translated from the Latin text published by P. and F. Strong, ‘The Last Will and Codicils of Henry V’, English Historical Review, 102 (1980), pp. 89–102. The Latin text is a contemporary copy surviving in the records of Eton College.

The 1421 will restates much of what was in the first will made by Henry at Southampton on 24 July 1415 (also in Latin and printed in Foedera, ix, pp. 289–93). In this translation of the 1421 will, major differences from the first will are indicated but small variations in word order have not been noted.

Eton College Records 59

f. 1r

[i] In the name of the Most High and Indivisible Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We, Henry, by the grace of God king of England, heir and regent of the realm of France and lord of Ireland, being sound in both body and mind, thanks be to the Most High, shall proceed in this manner to make this our testament and final will. First, at my passing from this world, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. You have redeemed me, Lord God of Truth. And, if not by my own merits – for I am a sinful man –, I hope none the less that the bosom of Abraham may receive me through the redemption of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the merits and intercessions of the most exalted mother of God Mary, of the saints Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and all the angels and archangels, of the saints John the Baptist and all the patriarchs, of the saints Peter, Paul, Andrew, James, John and all the apostles, of the saints George, Denis, Thomas, Alban and all the holy martyrs, of the saints Edward, Remy, John of Bridlington and all the confessors, of the saints Anne, Magdalene, Bridget, matrons, of Winifred, Katherine, Barbara, Ethelreda, Ursula and the 11,000 and all the holy virgins, and of all the heavenly court.

[ii] Item, we devoutly commend to the most high mercy of the Most High Saviour the faith, hope and charity, strength, prosperity and peace of our successors as kings, and of our realm of England, that God in his goodness may protect, visit and defend them from divisions, dissensions and especially the fallacy of heretics. Amen.

There are plenty of similar Early English texts that cast a cold eye on life and death. Reading them, it is all too easy to assume that what we find here is a kind of fatalism, bred in the bone for people who expect life to be harsh and brief. There is much more than weary pessimism here, however. Passages like this, as well as prayers and liturgies, were written to take a long view of life and death; to set them in context. Death was not understood as the end of life; it was, rather, one more moment of crisis and determination in fashioning the existence of a Christian soul. Preachers and teachers wanted their audience to think about life and death and submit them both to the judgement of God. They knew that the manner of your death and the nature of your memorial was a fundamental element in fashioning your identity.

Henry V died and was buried, here in the Abbey, in a religious and material culture that thought that a funeral and burial was more than mere memorial. Here was an opportunity to say something about faith and hope. To say it in stone, metal and iconography in a place where liturgy would be sung and said. Here, in the chantry chapel above his tomb, prayer would be sustained. His burial, his effigy, the design of the chapel and the achievements that were on display were a commentary on monarchy, dynasty and belief. They were placed here to be read and understood. They were always intended to be an act of witness.

The deep learning that informs the scholarship in this book commands respect and tells a story that we must not lose. It is always the job of the Abbey to make faith and history speak. Philip Larkin, writing about the Arundel tomb, chose to see it as a closed book that could not be read in an ‘unarmorial age’. Here was, he thought, ‘a trough of smoke’. He wrote a wonderful poem, but we must not accept his pessimism. It is the wonder of this book to help us see and understand.

David Hoyle

Dean of Westminster

According to William Worcester's incipit, the M 9 chronicle was compiled in 1459, the year Sir John Fastolf died. The next firm date which we have for its existence is 1619 when the chronicle, bound together with a number of sixteenth-century texts, appears in Samson Lennard's handwritten catalogue of the College of Arms collections. The volume is described as ‘a book in fol. concerning the warres of H. 5. in France & also the ceremonies used at the creacion of the prince, with other speciall notes’. The inclusion in Lennard's catalogue indicates that it formed part of the foundation collection of the College. The L and M series are descendants of two pressmarks in the catalogue which represented ‘the collection of the working manuscripts of the Tudor heralds’.

In this chapter we shall consider when and how the chronicle might have come into the possession of the College of Arms. Helpful clues are provided by which later texts were chosen to be bound with it. Also relevant is evidence found in other texts of the sixteenth century of the use of the chronicle by heralds and others. First we shall turn to the immediate aftermath of Fastolf 's death to consider the possible fate of the original chronicle manuscript.

THE IMMEDIATE FATE OFTHE CHRONICLE

Sir John Fastolf died on 5 November 1459. The knight had appointed William Worcester as one of ten executors of his will, but disputes soon arose with John Paston I, who claimed that he had been chosen by Fastolf as his main executor. Worcester experienced repeated difficulties and high costs in not only trying to deal with Fastolf 's affairs but also putting forward his own claims for money due to him for past and present services. Matters dragged on until 1470 when the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Bourchier, transferred the administration of Fastolf 's will to William Waynflete, bishop of Winchester (1398–1486), who had also been one of the initial executors. On 7 December 1472 Waynflete came to an agreement with Worcester, who was thereby paid for handing over to the bishop relevant Fastolf muniments. Waynflete ended up in control of most of Fastolf 's landed interests, which he put to the endowment of Magdalen College Oxford, the college he had founded in 1458.