Henry V: The Background, Strategies, Tactics and Battlefield Experiences of the Greatest Commanders of History Paperback (15 page)

of Troyes.

A meeting between the Duke of

Burgundy and the Dauphin at Montereau

on 10 September 1419 ended with the

assassination of the Duke by the Dauphin's

men, driving the Burgundian faction

headlong into the arms of Henry V, who

realized that his moment of opportunity

had come.

Following a series of complex

negotiations, Henry agreed to a full and

final settlement of the war between France

and England; he would marry Princess

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Katherine and be appointed heir to the throne of France, which Charles VI

would keep for the remainder of his life. Henry would also be regent of France

for his father-in-law while he was indisposed. The Dauphin would be

completely disinherited. This was all agreed on Christmas Day 1419 and

ratified in the Treaty of Troyes, signed on 21 May 1420, following which

Henry was married to Katherine and sought to consolidate his future

inheritance. Returning almost immediately to his campaign, Henry captured

Sens only nine days after his marriage on 2 June 1420, pressing on towards

Montereau-sur-Yonne, scene of Duke John's murder, before besieging the

The chateau of Alengon was

town of Melun between July and November, following which Henry entered

constructed from the early

Paris on 1 December 1420 as regent of France. He had achieved far more than

12th century, rep lad ng an

he must have thought possible in 1417, partly through his own conquests

earlier structure dating

and partly through the opportunities offered to him by the Armagnac and

from the time of the

Burgundian conflict. He now felt secure enough in his position to return to

Conqueror. It was only

finished in the early 15th

England with his new bride in the early months of 1421.

century. The only surviving

The final campaign

part of the castle from the

period in question is the

Henry spent his time in England touring the country - showing the new queen

entrance portal, now the

to his subjects, visiting the major religious shrines and, above all, trying to

entrance to a prison.

drum up enthusiasm and support for his campaigns in France. Although the

(Author's collection)

Treaty of Troyes had confirmed him as the legal heir to the throne of France,

in practice the Dauphin and his Armagnac faction had control of the majority Left: A medieval street in of France, and if Henry wanted to safeguard his new inheritance then he would Alenqon. The success of have to fight for it.

Henry's push southwards in

He had not been long in England when he received disastrous news from his 1417 was no doubt helped new realm. His brother, Thomas, Duke of Clarence, - who had been left in by the fact that the Duke charge of Normandy in Henry's absence - had led a substantial force on a raid of Alengon had perished into the Armagnac-controlled territories of Maine and Anjou. Here he had in 1415 at the battle of

encountered a major Franco-Scottish force at Bauge on 14 March 1421. Without Agincourt and the duchy waiting for his slow-moving archers to catch him up, Clarence launched a was now in the hands of

mounted charge at the Scottish troops, which, while initially successful, was his infant son. The loss later hampered by marshy ground while Scottish arrow fire cut down his men. of a high proportion of the The higher ranks of the army were particularly hard hit, with Thomas, Duke of Norman aristocracy during Clarence, Sir Gilbert Umfraville and Sir John Grey all killed, while the Earl of the Agincourt campaign Huntingdon was taken prisoner. The Earl of Salisbury succeeded in extracting would ease Henry's

the surviving English forces and retreated to the border of Normandy, which he conquests from 1417 to 1420. (Author's collection)

proceeded to secure, and waited for the return of Henry to France.

Spurred on by the first military disaster of his campaigns, Henry redoubled Right: A medieval arch in his efforts to gain finance for more troops and supplies, and in May both the town of Belleme in the parliament and the convocation of clergy granted him subsidies, while he Perche region of

also obtained a substantial amount through a loan from his uncle Henry Normandy. This was

Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester. At the same time he confiscated his probably the furthest

stepmother Joan of Navarre's dowry after she was charged with witchcraft point that Henry reached

(a charge later dropped by Henry on his deathbed).

in his drive southwards in

Henry used all this money to gather together a new army of 4,000-5,000 1417 before turning back.

men and was back in Calais in June 1421, entering Paris on 4 July. Here he (Author's collection)

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In a break from standard

medieval tradition, Henry

carried on campaigning

over the winter, besieging

the town and castle of

Falaise from December 1417

to February 1418. Following

the submission of the

garrison, Henry insisted

that they repair the damage

done by the English artillery

to the fortifications of the

town and castle before they

were allowed to depart.

(Author's collection)

replaced the Duke of Exeter as commander of the garrison with a

Burgundian, thus removing a cause of civil unrest. Then, with his customary

urgency and decisiveness, he relieved the siege of Chartres and besieged the

Armagnac fortress of Dreux, which fell on 20 August. Henry then pushed on

down towards the Loire Valley hoping to provoke the Dauphin into battle,

and even raided the outskirts of Orleans.

But the Armagnacs would not come out of

their defences, and Henry went eastwards,

clearing fortifications on the Yonne and

the Seine, before approaching the main

target of his campaign, the town of Meaux

some 48km (30 miles) to the east of Paris,

on 6 October. This Armagnac stronghold

had been launching raids to the very gates

of Paris and had long been a thorn in the

side of Henry's civil administration there.

Again, Henry settled into the pattern of

winter campaigning, dividing his army

into four in order to cover all the

approaches to the town, with each camp

connected by trenches as at the siege of

Rouen. An attempt by Guy de Nesle, Sire

d'Offrement, to reinforce the garrison with

100 men-at-arms on 9 March 1422 failed

and led to his capture, which so dispirited

the defenders that they withdrew into the

market, proposing to set fire to the old

town. Henry found out about this move

and managed to break into the old town

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