Henry V as Warlord (22 page)

It is obvious from an edict issued by Henry the year before he died, sent to every
bailli
in Normandy, that he himself was convinced that all too many brigands were noblemen. He says ‘many nobles together with men of the common people’ (
plures nobiles et alii populares
) had either joined ‘Our enemies’ (the dauphinists) or were else living in woods and caverns as robbers – tacitly admitting that they were prepared to lead a miserable hunted life rather than take an oath of allegiance to him. Whether the brigands were
maquis
or bandits, Basin makes it plain that everyone thought they only existed in such numbers because of the English occupation – ‘as soon as the English were chased out of Normandy and made to go home, the country was delivered from this pest.’ Furthermore the bishop has no doubt that many ‘brigands’ were motivated primarily by dislike of the occupation:

There were a very large number of ruined and desperate men who, from idleness, hatred of the English, coveting other people’s goods or knowledge that the long arm of the law was seeking them for some crime, had left their fields and houses and, instead of living in towns or castles held by the French, inhabited the most inaccessible depths of the woods in the manner of wild beasts or wolves. Maddened and half-crazed by hunger they would go forth, usually by night when it was dark, to break into the houses of peasants, seizing their goods and dragging them off as prisoners into impenetrable forest fastnesses and there, by all kinds of ill treatment and torture, they would force them to bring great sums of money at an arranged time and place as ransom to purchase their liberty (together with goods indispensable for such a way of life). Failure to deliver meant that those whom the peasants had left as hostages would suffer the most inhuman tortures or the peasants themselves, if the robbers could catch them, would be murdered or else their houses be mysteriously set alight at night and burn down … above all they attacked the English, killing them without pity whenever they had the chance.
⁴

This picture is a little suspect since the author had once been the ‘collaborationist’ Bishop of Lisieux, a willing tool of the English, with good reason to detest such men. Undoubtedly a fair proportion of those hanged by the occupation as ‘brigands’ were dauphinist partisans who received food and shelter from the peasants. Writing about 1470, Basin was sure of one thing about the rebels, reiterating again and again that they had only been there because of the English presence – ‘the country could not be saved from or cleansed of this pest until the English domination was over and it was returned to the French, its natural masters.’

Emigration was ultimately a far more damaging form of resistance to the English than guerilla warfare in the woods. Some noblemen emigrated simply to protect their families but most did so to avoid taking the oath of allegiance. A substantial number of clergy refused to swear allegiance to Henry, including two archbishops of Rouen – only three Norman bishops would so so – and many emigrated, friends collecting their stipends for them since otherwise they might have starved. (Some clerics who stayed pretended they had taken the oath.)

However the vast majority of emigrants, those whom Normandy could least afford to lose, were peasants between the ages of twenty and thirty. They were driven away by war taxation and the brutalities of the army of occupation. Most went to Brittany though some went as far away as Flanders. Henry and his officials were so alarmed by the loss of labour that they made serious efforts to lure the men home.
⁵
This constant bleeding-away of the population was disastrous for Norman agriculture.

It was not just Frenchmen who left. As early as 1416 men were deserting from the Harfleur garrison, sneaking home across the Channel. By the autumn of the following year this trickle of deserters had grown to a flood from all over Normandy. In September 1418 the king wrote to the sheriffs of England complaining of soldiers who ‘without our licence have in great numbers falsely and traitorously withdrawn and returned to our kingdom of England’. By 1418 he was ordering the garrisons at Calais and Harfleur to hang any deserters they could catch. A system of passports was introduced, while Sir Richard Walkstede was given the task of searching every vessel which sailed from Rouen harbour. If such measures prevented men from crossing the Channel they did not stop them deserting. Those forced to stay in France went in fear of being hanged and like the ‘brigands’, many took to the woods and lived by robbery.

Deserters were not the only English to add to the misery of the French country people; the troops who remained with their garrisons were often almost as much of a pest. There was no authority, such as military police, to stand in their way. In February 1418 Henry ordered all garrison captains to punish soldiers who ‘oppressed and pillaged the people’. In theory discipline was enforced by the Constable of England, Clarence, and by the Earl Marshal, Lord Mowbray. Although they appointed commissioners, their control over garrisons was minimal. Every captain received a copy of the king’s regulations to read to his men. They were surprisingly specific, especially with regard to prostitutes – whose money must be confiscated and arms broken – and sanitation: troops had to ‘bury their carrion and bowels about their lodgings and within earth, that no stench be in their lodgings’. There must be no robbing, no seizing of food or livestock.
⁶

Inevitably the garrisons lived off the country. Their pay was usually in arrears; when a rudimentary commissariat was set up to feed them it proved inadequate. A fair proportion of troops were pardoned criminals and in any case there must have been that instinct for vandalism which often emerges among groups of ignorant and aggressive young men who find themselves in a foreign country. The best soldiers are prone to looting, even the British and Americans during World War II, not to mention the
Wehrmacht
. The occasional murder of a comrade did not incline the English to treat the population any more gently. Since the labour force had already been depleted by the plagues which followed the Black Death, the occupation made it still harder to till the soil – good farmland began to revert to forest. Landowners suffered a dramatic drop in their incomes. Moreover, trade was badly hit by the disruption of communications with the rest of France.

English historians express surprise that so few troops held down Normandy, arguing that it shows acceptance of English rule. The answer lies in the mobility of widely spaced but carefully sited garrisons, often consisting of no more than a dozen archers. Since these were mounted they could cover long distances swiftly along the excellent Norman roads – which compared very favourably to roads in England – to relieve each other or enforce obedience by nicely calculated atrocities.

In the meantime Henry never missed an opportunity of claiming he enjoyed divine favour and his merciless orthodoxy and puritanism impressed many churchmen. One such was the Spanish Dominican, Vincent Ferrer. A hell-fire preacher, Vincent travelled everywhere with an entourage of penitents which included flagellants with bleeding backs. His mission was the denunciation of vice and corruption. When he consecrated the Host at Mass he wept so infectiously that the whole church resounded with the congregation’s wailing. In May 1419 he came to Caen and preached before the king and his court, publicly rebuking him for killing so many Christian men and women who had never done him any harm. Henry listened impassively. Afterwards he had Vincent brought to him. His first words were, ‘I am the scourge of God sent to punish the people of God for their sins.’ When Vincent emerged after being closeted alone with him for three hours the simple friar told the waiting courtiers, ‘This morning, before I came hither, I believed that the king your master had been the greatest tyrant among other princes Christian; but now I perceive the contrary, for I assure you he is the most perfect and the most acceptable unto God of all them that be here present this day, and his quarrel is so just and so true that undoubtedly God is and shall be his aid in these wars.’ (One can only guess that Henry had been arguing his view that he had a mission to give good government to France.) This incident, dutifully and perhaps too imaginatively recorded by the Earl of Ormonde, illustrates both the sheer force of the king’s personality and his conviction that God was on his side.
⁷

He advertised the fact that he had come to stay through the medium which circulated most widely – the currency. Some time between January and September 1419 he issued gold
moutons
, and silver and base-metal
gros
, all modelled on French coins and probably struck at Rouen. The gold piece bore the letters
HFRX
, which stood for
Henricus Francorum Rex;
revealingly, the legend on the reverse was
Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat
(‘Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ is emperor’), the words of a popular and triumphantly aggressive plain chant motet. The
gros
were inscribed
Sit nomine Domini benedictum
(‘May the name of the Lord be blessed.’) Clearly, as in Wales and at Agincourt, the king ascribed his victories to divine favour.

Not everyone shared Henry’s belief that the English cause was just. A dialogue between France and Truth, written by an anonymous French moralist in about 1419, records another view. ‘The war they have waged and still wage is false, treacherous and damnable, but then they are an accursed race, opposed to all good and to all reason, ravening wolves, proud, arrogant hypocrites, tricksters without any conscience, tyrants and persecutors of Christians, men who drink and gorge on human blood, with natures like birds of prey, people who live only by plunder.’

From Monstrelet we learn that, ‘At this time the frontiers of Normandy as far as Pontoise, Clermont, Beauvais, Montdidier, Breteuil, Amiens, Abbeville and St Valéry were overrun by the English and laid waste with fire and sword; on their raids they carried off much booty … the poor people were left defenceless, with no other resource than to offer up their prayers and lamentations to God.’

At the Tower of London the captive Duke of Orleans wrote how in France kings, princes, dukes, counts, barons and knights, merchants and common folk must all pray for peace ‘because evil men overwhelm noble blood’ which can no longer protect its fellow countrymen:

‘
Priez, peuples qui souffrez tyrannie
,

Car vox seigneus sont en telle faiblesse

Qu’ils ne peuvent vous garder pour maistrie
,

Ni vous aider en votre grand destresse
.’

XII

The Murder of John the Fearless

‘… soldiers waged into France for to make much murder of blood’

Bishop Reginald Pecock

‘Enemies have struck deep into the heart of France and enriched themselves.’

Jean Juvénal des Ursins

H
enry was not going to be content with Normandy. He wanted all France. He knew that he did not have the resources to conquer the entire country by force of arms so he decided to see what diplomacy could do. During the first weeks of the siege of Rouen he had negotiated with the late Constable-Count of Armagnac, and had tried to play him off against the Duke of Burgundy. When the count was murdered the king foresaw that his party would survive its leader’s death, just as it had that of Orleans. However, after an attempt to meet the dauphin, the Armagnacs’ new leader, had failed in March 1419 Henry reverted to wooing the Burgundians.

There were several meetings between Henry and Duke John in the spring and early summer. At the first encounter ‘the duke saluted the king, bending his knee a little and inclining his head’, Monstrelet reports. ‘But the king took him by his hand, embraced him and showed him great respect.’
¹
There seemed to be a real chance of an alliance, even if Duke John was also negotiating secretly with the dauphin. Early in June there was a meeting at Meulan attended not only by Henry, Clarence, Gloucester and Burgundy, but also by Queen Isabeau and Princess Catherine. The king – presumably frustrated by his self-imposed celibacy – was enchanted by the girl. He regarded her as the only possible bride for him, if contemporaries are to be believed. He stated his terms: Catherine, with Normandy and Aquitaine in full sovereignty.

He had asked too much. If genuinely anxious for a settlement with Henry and clearly prepared to concede a great deal, Duke John and Queen Isabeau dared not yield on sovereignty; to break up the kingdom of France in this way would destroy their prestige and their credit. Henry would accept nothing less. Before leaving Meulan he told the duke, ‘Fair cousin, we wish you to know that we will have the daughter of your king or we will drive him and you out of his realm.’ ‘Sire,’ answered John, ‘you may be pleased to say so, but before you can drive my lord and myself out of this realm I make no doubt that you will be heartily tired.’
²
Henry had failed. He could not fight successfully an alliance of Burgundians and Armagnacs. And it quickly became obvious that Duke John had made up his mind to seek a reconciliation with the Armagnacs.

The name ‘
Jean sans Peur
’ bestowed on Duke John had a certain irony. In reality ‘Fearless John’ was a paranoiac who at Paris slept in a specially built tower which contained a single, easily defendable bedroom and a bathroom. (The Tour d’Artois, it still stands in the rue Etienne Marcel, a last fragment of the otherwise long-vanished palace of the dukes of Burgundy.) He would only go out with heavily armed bodyguards. He had reason to fear. Not only had he murdered the Duke of Orleans and others, but the Armagnacs blamed him for the massacres in Paris when some of their comrades had been made to jump from the Châtelet’s battlements on to the spears of the mob waiting below. He publicly admitted to having been persuaded by the Devil to kill Orleans and was suspected of being a warlock. A letter urging further evil deeds was widely circulated, addressed as follows: