All For Naught
AGINCOURT
After Harfleur, Henry marched his diminished army toward the port city of Calais. He hoped to avoid a confrontation with a much larger French force. That was not to be; the French contingent intercepted Henry's troops at Agincourt (Azincourt) in Normandy. Against long odds, Henry outmaneuvered and outwitted the French commander with devastating results.
Historians have written much about Henry V’s campaign and success at Agincourt. Some of the material is laudatory, and some of it is factual, as far as can be determined centuries later. In a battle that some estimate lasted up to three hours, scholars set French losses at six thousand men, English losses, four hundred. (Estimates vary depending upon viewpoint and political alliance. A half-millennium later, the actual numbers are lost and not verifiable.) The 21 October 1415 victory at the Battle of Agincourt cemented Henry's reputation as the preeminent military man of the day. All England reveled in the afterglow of such a decisive victory against a much larger French force.
Henry continued his siege warfare on the Continent for another five long years until he realized his ambitions.
Henry believed in the legitimacy of his right to the French Throne. The English conflict with the French aristocracy was every bit as much a family dispute as were the Plantagenet family struggles in England. Since William of Normandy’s ascension to the English Crown after the 1066 Battle of Hastings, the Crown conducted its official business in French. For three hundred and fifty years, English Royalty was culturally and genetically French.
Henry's claim began with his great-grandfather, Edward III (1312-1377). When French King Philip VI (1293-1350) confiscated the duchy of Aquitaine in 1337, Edward reacted by asserting his claim to the French Throne.
Edward III, the child of Charles IV’s elder sister, Isabella of France (1295-1358) and Edward II, “Longshanks,” was Charles’s nephew and his closest male relative. Upon Charles' death in 1328, a cousin was chosen to succeed Charles as King Philip VI. When Philip confiscated Aquitaine in 1337, Edward decided to retake Aquitaine by force. The conflicts continued for over one hundred years until 1453 when the Plantagenets finally abandoned the mission.
TREATY OF TROYES
Before taking action against the French King Charles VI (1368-1422), Henry V presented the House of Valois with his requirements. He demanded the return of Aquitaine and Normandy to English control, Catherine of Valois's hand in marriage, and a significant endowment. Charles refused. Henry, always anxious to couch his motives in legitimacy, used the King's refusal to meet his demands as justification for the invasion of France.
Henry realized all of his ambitions on 21 May 1420 at the Treaty of Troyes (trwa). The treaty allowed Charles to remain as the titular King of France while Henry exercised the real power. Upon Charles's death, Henry and his line would ascend to the French Throne. The Dauphin and his successors were precluded from inheriting the Throne; and, on 1 December 1420, Henry married Catherine of Valois (1401-1437).
With Queen Catherine, Henry returned to England in early 1421 to secure funding for his continued military operations in France. By winter, Henry was back in France besieging the city of Meaux (Mo). While Henry was in France, Catherine gave birth to a son named Henry (1421-1471).
Siege warfare was a gruesome affair. It was more about enduring deprivation, fear, and disease than knights in shining armor in battle. After seven months, Meaux fell in the spring of 1422. The winner? Pestilence.
During the siege of Meaux, Henry contracted the bloody flux. He died suddenly and unexpectedly on 31 August 1422 at the age of thirty-six. He never laid eyes on his son, the future King of England.
In a bit of historical irony, Henry did not live to inherit the French Throne. He predeceased Charles by three weeks. Charles VI of France died on 21 October 1422.
CATHERINE OF VALOIS
Catherine of Valois outlived her husband by fifteen years. Her marriage to Henry was an arranged affair, and likely not a love match.
Catherine was born in Paris on 27 October 1401, the twelfth and last child of Isabeau of Bavaria (c. 1370-1435) and "Mad" King Charles VI of France. As did her elder sister before her, Isabella of Valois (1389-1409), who married Richard II, Catherine wed the reigning King of England; in this case, she brought a significant dowry.
Catherine's royal childhood was not the stuff of fairy-tale princesses. Her father, indeed, was mad. He believed he was made of glass. The story goes that during one of his episodes, Charles VI killed four of his knights. Charles withdrew from public life in 1403 or 1404 due to mental illness. Catherine was three years old. Catherine's mother, Isabeau, attempted unsuccessfully to gain control over the French government. Civil war broke out, making France vulnerable to England's aggression in the person of Henry V.
Catherine was crowned Queen of England on 23 February 1421. On 6 December 1421, she gave birth to Henry while her husband was in France. Catherine rejoined her husband in France in May 1422. In England, she left infant Henry under the care of Henry V's brother, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (1390-1447).
The widow Catherine was still in France when, on 1 September 1422, Parliament proclaimed the infant Henry King of England. Three weeks later, her father, Charles VI, died.
The widowed Catherine of Valois continued to be an active player in the Plantagenet family dramas. Catherine of Valois’s story continues when we explore the life and times of the infant king and beyond.
EPILOGUE
Henry V died at the age of thirty-six at Vincennes. During his eight-year reign, Henry unified the people behind his cause. He won a decisive military victory at Agincourt and secured the French Throne. The man was intelligent, educated, and decisive. He was an effective administrator and firm leader. He was a military hero, but he was a victim of the great equalizer, battlefield pathogens.
Henry’s vulnerable infant son, whom he never met, ascended to the throne as Henry VI before his first birthday.
Comments