Alber that's excellent. Wait, didn't he say that you'd been wanting to go to England?
As you wish cat I can understand for some reason okay so II I got those treats you like from across town though
I don't know why I needed to go right now to get them but oh
You two started the show already cool
No, no, it's fine. It's fine. I'm not um that upset
I'm just gonna continue the story and let you both figure out whatever this is
Henry v is a serious contender for the most impressive man ever to rule England in the words of a famous historian Henry had by
The end of his reign transformed the spirit of his own people and become the arbiter of Christian Europe dwarfing Emperor and Pope
Contemporaries agreed on his death a chronicler wrote. He did not leave his like upon earth among Christian kings or princes
Henry, v was fiercely intelligent
Focused a brilliant military commander and strategist frightening lea dynamic and energetic. His only fault was to die young
Well that and being so horrific ly ruthless and cold that another historian wrote of Henry that he was
conclusive proof that a man may be a hero and yet a monster Henry became king in
1413 he was fiercely pious and heard math several times a day
He was also a ruthless
Advocate of religious unity his father the usurper Henry the fourth had passed the law called a heretic oaken berrendo
Which means literally heretics shall be burned henry v was equally determined to rub out any heresy and in fourteen seventeen
He would execute even his companion in arms. John old castle has a result for medieval monarchs
The unity of the church was a divinely ordained responsibility
But it was also good politics
the church was far and away the most effective propaganda and
Communication device any medieval ruler could hope for in the first two years of his reign
Henry made quite clear who was boss. He had a talent of creating a sense of collaboration
Consultation and purpose amongst his great men while being utterly ruthless with anyone who stepped out of line
Thus as his army waited to sail for France in 1415 his very last out was to execute a man of royal blood
And son of the great Edward the third for trumped-up reasons of treason
Henry the fifth always intended to make war on France as far as he was concerned
He had been cheated of his birthright as established by the Treaty of Brittany in 1360
And if the French wouldn't give it to him he would take it from them
so there the French meanwhile had recovered their
Effortless arrogance and in so many words they informed Henry that his mother was a hamster and his father smelt of elderberries
Henry would show them their chosen the wrong guy to call the son of a hamster in
1415 Henry appealed to English
Patriotism by repeating Edward the thirds charge that the French were trying to eradicate the English language from now on Henry made sure English
Was the official language of England he even wrote open letters to his people in English. Of course, he backed that up by contracting
320 captains and from the towns and villages all over England archers and knights set out for Southampton
to join their King and in August 14 15 an army of
12,000 left England Henry tried one last letter to the Doh fat of France it read friend
Give us what we are owed and by the will of the almighty avoid a deluge of human blood
Not sure he was serious about the friend thing in France the Mad King Charles the sixth was about as useful as a chocolate teapot
but despite the squabbling of the Royal Dukes the dough fire managed to pull together a
united front and when Henry landed at the walls of Harfleur
He was in the dangerous position exposed and vulnerable a true walk just 50 miles away
The French army gathered capturing a base quickly was essential but Harfleur fought heroically and it was six long weeks
Before it finally agreed to yield half fleurs stubborn resistance gave Henry a further problem
It was now almost October medieval armies went home for winter supplying an army of any size through winter was practically impossible
But to go home after capturing one poxy castle was not in the playbook for either hero or monster, obviously
Marching all the way through French territory to Calais just to show the French that he could would be utterly daft
So that is of course where Henry decided to do just to make the message absolutely clear
He'd follow the route of Edward the third and crossed the river Somme launched tack as they marched north the English army left a brown
Trail of poo behind them dysentery the biggest killer of medieval warfare
camp fever as it was called and Henry's army had it in spades from the camps around how Fleur
a week
riven by illness and really in no condition to fight and so Henry played it safe and he took a route to stay away from
The dophins army gathering at Rouen sadly the French were not blithering idiots and had learned from last time
They'd closed the for dat blonde stack once again
though the English managed to find a way to cross the river Somme but this time the French were already ahead of them near the
village of Agincourt as the English Crested arised they were faced by the terrifying sight of the French just waiting for them the
Disease-ridden english army was probably down to about 8000 now
6,500 of whom were likely armed archers facing them was something like
15,000 heavily armed Frenchmen again
the French had learned the lesson of crécy and this time they waited overnight the sound of their partying drifted over to the camp of
the cold wet and sick English the following day the French did not just charge they
Waited and so both armies waited as the rain poured down
Soaking earth clothes bodies staring at each other across a plowed field the French had a plan and it did not include
Charging at the English to bemoan down by arrows the English had a plan it involved the French
Charging at them and being moaned down by arrows stalemate. Henry had to provoke a response
mounted on a white horse
He gave the signal
English trumpets blared now strike came the order with the flash of a white baton the whole army advanced a longbow range and unleashed a
storm
satisfyingly the French panicked forgot their plan and
Attacked the story is well-known the French attacked the English line over the mud of a plowed field as they came on they were hammered
By archers when they arrived they could barely stand in the mud let alone fight and they were hacked down
Henry would let nothing stand in the way of victory without Ruth
he sent a body of 200 English archers to slaughter all the
Helpless French prisoners in the English camp to show the French that Henry would stop at nothing to achieve victory
the French got the message and they fled the
great men of France lay dead in the mud and blood all were captured that night as henry celebrated at supper The Dukes of all
AO and bokmal were made to serve Him was the ultimate humiliation
Great victory though. It was Agincourt was the opening of a war not the end of it in
1417 henry was back with a new army this time going city to city to make himself king of
And city by city northern France began to fall to his talent at last in 1418 after a six-month siege
He captured the mighty royal capital of normandy
70,000 people strong half as big again as london against him the French were now led by John the fearless Duke of Burgundy
By now the Duke was almost richer and more powerful than the French monarchy itself
His court had become Europe's cultural center famed throughout Christendom. This made it difficult for the dough fad to like or trust the Duke
No heir to the French throne likes to have a subject more powerful than he was who might just take a shine to his throne
No, Duke likes to feel that his monarch is jealous enough to cut his throat
This made conversations a little awkward
But they eventually agreed to meet on neutral ground on a bridge between their two camps
The security arrangements were elaborate and as it happens rubbish because on the 10th of September
1418 on the bridge Duke John the fearless was hacked to death by the dophins men. This was an act of breathtaking
Brutality and butter clenching stupidity. So buttered clenching is stupid
In fact that when a hundred years later the French King Francis the first visited the friary where the skull of John the fearless was
Held he remarked here is the hole through which the English entered France John the fearless
his son was
Understandably miffed that his dad had been hacked to death and there was only one man capable of wreaking the vengeance
He thirsted for Henry
so England and burgundy agreed to replace the Valois dynasty with the
Plantagenet dynasty as kings of France in the form of Henry the fifth the Anglo Burgundian Alliance was irresistible
England's steamroller controlled vast waves of northern France Normandy
Maine Turin Anjou and even Paris itself
The dopher was a washed-up has-been loser on the run by
1420 the mentally ill Charles the six were forced to agree to an astounding
Treaty of twat by this treaty Henry would be married to the king's daughter Catherine of Valois
Their children would be the heirs to the throne of France in
1420 Henry and Catherine tied the knot in December 14 21 Catherine gave birth to their son. Who would therefore be king of France?
but while Henry had no military equal camp fever was a challenge too far for him and as he campaigned
Dysentery caught up with him and on August the 31st 14 22 he died
But he died only after having conferred with his brother John Duke of Bedford about what should happen next
Which was a good thing because the new King of England was 9 months old and a good deal more interested in filling his nappies
Than ruling his new kingdoms