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- [00:01]
Dan Jones
Hello, my happy historical campers. Last time I left you on a cliffhanger, so I'll keep this quick. We're about to pick up the second part of the sensational Battle of Agincourt and find out how England reacted to the result. If you want a place where you can work through all your feels, please come and hang out with my royal favourites over on Patreon. If you join our inner circle today, you'll get ad free listening every episode a week early, bonus video episodes, plus a space where you can chat with other listeners, swap book recommendations, pet pics and travel tips, post questions for me and my producers and enter competitions to win prizes like copies of my latest books, Lionhearts and Henry V. But we also have a weekly discussion topic this week. I want to know what you think of the way Henry V treated the Agincourt prisoners. Butchery or pragmatism? Head to patreon.com forward/thisishistory to have your say. Okay, that's enough of me. Here's oh well, me. Enjoy the show.
- [01:10]
Jonathan Van Ness
It's Jonathan Van Ness from Getting Better. With Jonathan Van Ness, it's easy to feel hopeless, but we don't have to stay there. I'm all about finding places where we can turn that energy into hope and into action. One of those places is Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Americans United, or au, is this corporate, quiet, but mighty force working every day to preserve freedom without favor and equality without exception. I am so obsessed with that tagline. And let me tell you something, honey, that wall between church and state, paper thin. It's got a leak, honey. It's one of the last safeguards protecting so many of our rights. So right now, from bodily autonomy to LGBTQ + rights to the future of public schools, to me, this is about creating a world where everyone gets to live as themselves. As long as you're not harming anyone else. Now is not the time to curl up and hide. It's the time to link arms and stand together for a better future. Join Americans United for Separation of Church and State and their growing movement. Because church, state separation protects us all. Learn more and join the fight@au.org better. Let's go. Americans United.
- [02:13]
Joel Dommet
Joel Dommet, shall we tell these wonderful people about the new business that we're starting? Good idea, Ben Shepard. Especially if you want them to come along for the ride. Exactly what we want. Quite simply, we are starting a business. We're starting a brand. This is not going to be a television show. There's no bright lights no makeup. This is very, very real, Ben. We've got no idea how to do it, but we are going to share the whole journey with you right here on our brand new podcast, the Businessmen Podcast. Out now.
- [02:48]
Dan Jones
The French prisoners bump along the road from Eltham to London. Paraded like circus animals, they're miserably depressed. Ahead, they can see the suburbs of London. And as England's capital drifts into view, they realise a party awaits their arrival. Ecstatic crowds pack the city streets. Some Londoners have clambered onto the rooftops, others have squeezed onto longboat bridge. Boats full of gleeful revellers bob everywhere in the River Thames. The whole city is in the mood for a sing song and a party. The closer the prisoners get, the more they realize how much all this means to the English. It's November 1415 and these revelers are out in the streets to celebrate the homecoming of of Henry V, Lancastrian King of England and would be conqueror of France. The last time they saw Henry was in the summer when he set off on a mission to try and capture our Fleur, a coastal town in Normandy. Now, four months later, he's come back with way more than that. Our Fleur has fallen and a great battle has been won. The French have been humiliated. A few Weeks ago on October 25, Henry and a small army, mostly archers, destroyed the cream of the French nobility at the Battle of Agincourt. Thousands of Frenchmen died. The English lost barely a few hundred. The prisoners include two of the commanders of that battle, the legendary knight Boucicault, and the French king's young nephew, Charles, Duke of Orleans. They're both destined for long spells in prison awaiting ransom. But as they enter London and see delirious English men and women partying all around them, they count themselves lucky. Agincourt was a bloodbath. Even putting aside the dark death toll in the fighting, there was a horrendous moment where almost every man who'd been taken prisoner on the field was executed. Murdered, you might say on the spot. Only a handful escaped that fate. They've been kept alive to tell the tale. The tale of Henry V, Inspirational general, brilliant military tactician and hyper focused monomaniac who's coming for the French crown and will settle for nothing but total victory. Four months ago, the French regarded Henry as a bit of a joke. Now he's the stuff of nightmares. Henry V is a stone cold killer. And the scary thing is, he's only just getting started. I'm Dan Jones and from Sony Music Entertainment. This is history Season 8 of A Dynasty to Die For Episode 8 the Triumph Many years ago, I went down to a rather bleak spot in southern England to try my hand at the physical fitness assessment for the Royal Marines. I wasn't actually trying to join the Marines, which is just as well for the UK's national security, but I was writing about the elite military mindset and this was one of the most notorious selection processes outside the Special Forces. Needless to say, the day was exceptionally hard. Cold, wet, muddy and physically gruelling. The fitness test was designed to break everyone who took it, then to see who kept going once they'd been broken. The toughest bit was at the end of a long and painful run over the countryside, when the would be recruits got to what they thought was the finish line. Totally shattered and having given everything they were told, they actually had another mile to run. It was a harsh trick, but it was designed to select for a certain relentless mindset. I think about that feeling when I think about the Battle of Agincourt Last episode. We left Henry's small army, his little blessed many standing spent on the battlefield with French prisoners among them. They'd just fought themselves to a standstill and won a great victory, or so they thought. Then things started to go sideways. On the horizon, someone spots French banners. Is it reinforcements arriving? Is it French survivors regrouped and coming back? Is it a bit of both? As commander, Henry has split seconds to decide what he thinks is happening and what to do. Can he possibly rally his knackered men to run that unexpected last mile? Potentially fight a whole new battle? Maybe. But not all of them will have it in them. Even if they do have it in them, how are they going to reassemble for Agincourt Park d'? Oeu with so many French prisoners among them, Henry makes a dismal choice. With the exception of a few very high ranking nobles, he orders all the French prisoners slaughtered on the spot. His troops recoil at the order, partly because it's bad form to kill people in cold blood, but mostly because these prisoners are walking paydays and in the form of ransoms. Alive, each one of them is a winning lottery ticket, or at least five numbers in the bonus ball. Dead, they're worth nothing. But Henry has given his order and he sends round a hit squad of executioners to do the job. If any of his own men are wavering, it's an order that many people still hold against Henry today. Was he justified or is he a monster? That's our discussion topic this week on Patreon head over to patreon.com thisishistory to join the debate. As it turns out, once Henry's bloodbath has happened, there is no second wave to the attack. The French think better of having another go. Does Henry feel bad? It's not clear that he does. In fact, he takes a very definite view about why he succeeded at Agincourt and the French ended up as dog meat. He explains his theory on the return journey to England to someone who could probably do without the lecture. That's young Charles, Duke of Orleans, the French king's nephew. Charles is only 21. He's just screwed up big time and he'd probably prefer to be left alone to lick his wounds. But here he is with Agincourt disappearing in the rear view mirror and Henry chirping in his ear. I believe in full certainty that God wanted to punish the French, says Henry, ignoring the fact that genuinely nobody asked. There has never been such a great deal Disarray your disorderly behaviour in excesses, sins and wicked vices as has reigned in France at present. Henry tells the Duke of Orleans that Henry has been sent to France as God's scourge. No matter how many men are dead, the French only have themselves to thank. How's that for victim blaming? If you'd like to hear how the French processed Agincourt, listen to episode four of A New Hope, from our last miniseries, the Glass King. Still, Henry is consistent, as we heard at the start of this episode. A few weeks after Agincourt, Henry returns to London with his prisoners at his back. He's greeted with a triumph worthy of a Roman general. London's streets are packed and every building is decorated in grand style. The mayor and all the grand poobahs of the city guilds come out to meet Henry on the road. Arrayed in their finest clothes and furs, they do plenty of bowing and scraping. Many of them invested huge sums in this campaign. They're elated to find they backed the right horse. Things get even more exotic when Henry crosses London Bridge. Models of two mythical giants, Gog and Magog, stand guard over the bridge. Just inside the city, there's a huge effigy of St George. Boys dressed as angels hang from windows singing religious hymns, and a banner describes London as the city of the King of Justice. At Cheapside, the road that runs through the middle of the city, there's a fountain, gushing wine and a mock castle with sexy maidens dancing round it, singing, Hail Henry V, King of England and of France. It's A hell of a party. So how does Henry react to all this? There are some kings, Richard II might have been one of them, who would have basked in all this adulation. Henry appreciates it, but he's also very particular about how he accepts it. While he's happy, his people are happy, he insists that it's not him they should be celebrating. Thanks are only due to God. For that reason, Henry doesn't show off his battle armour from Agincourt or his helmet dented where the Duke of Alencon smashed him in the head with a He forbids the singing of any jingoistic songs. He rides at the head of the parade, but there is no smiling and waving. Henry keeps a very solemn demeanour and spends most of his time inside London's biggest churches, praying, kissing relics and making offerings at religious shrines. So yes, there's a big knees up in London. But Henry is half aloof. He very much isn't staying up till 2am drinking espresso martinis with the Die Hards. In fact, as evening is settling on his triumphant parade, he goes to Westminster palace and gets an early night. Party pooper? Maybe, but that's because Henry is a long way from feeling like he's achieved anything. All he's proved so far is that God wants him to succeed now. Henry wants more. He wants it now. And he's already thinking of the steps he needs to take to make the next expedition to France even deadlier than this one. Now, you might think you're a lot further away from people in the Middle Ages, but the reality is, we're a lot closer than you think. Take Henry V, for example, England's greatest warrior king who also had to make hiring decisions. If only Henry had Indeed a jobs board that catapults your business into the hands of people you definitely want to work with. With Indeed. Sponsored Jobs Spend more time interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results now. And listeners of this show will get a £100 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com dynasty just go to Indeed.com dynasty right now and support this is a dynasty to die for by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com dynasty terms and conditions apply. Hiring do it the Right Way with.
- [15:51]
Jonathan Van Ness
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- [16:56]
Dan Jones
In the crisp, cold early days of 1416, Henry takes a short break to go on pilgrimage. This isn't an extravagant journey to Jerusalem or Santiago de Compostella. He leaves the package holiday catalogue in its drawer and sets out for North Wales, where there's a place that was dear to the heart of the two kings he knew when he was growing up. His father, Henry iv and his cousin Richard ii. The pilgrimage site is called Saint Winifred's well, it's a natural spring with a little chapel beside it. Here Henry can run his fingers fingers in the spring, or if he likes, join other pilgrims in stripping off and bathing in its bracingly cold waters on a January day. That's got to be a real ball shriveler, but it's worth it. The spring was said to have sprung nine centuries earlier when pious young Winifred had her head cut off by a predatory prince called Carruddag, then had it reattached by Winifred's religious tutor. It's a long story, which I'll get into with producer Al on this week's bonus episode. For subscribers, head to our Patreon if you want to hear the full account. For now, suffice to say that this place has special symbolism for Henry. It's in Wales, where he cut his teeth as a warrior. This was a site that his father visited in the aftermath of his own miraculous battlefield victory at Shrewsbury in 1403. And the chapel there was actually paid for by Richard ii. So this is a good place for Henry to go and reflect, to give more thanks for his deliverance at Agincourt, as well as to contemplate his next move in his mission to conquer France. As he lowers himself into the icy waters, he must conclude that there are a lot of ways he could play this. Does he go down the route of diplomacy? Does he raise an army and try to force another battle, maybe this time getting the French to put mad old King Charles VI in the field? Does he throw himself into the politics of the Burgundian Armagnac civil war that has torn the French court down the middle? Or does he regard all Frenchmen as enemies and just adopt a policy of kill em all? News has arrived over Christmas that Charles eldest son, the Dauphin, the kid who sent Henry tennis balls and thought he was such a lol ninja, has died of dysentery. Charles son John is the next Dauphin in line. What will he be like as a sparring partner? There is so much to think about. Henry could do with a wise old head to bounce all this off. Which is lucky, because when he gets back to London after his cryotherapy getaway in Wales, he hears that a very grand visitor is on his way to England for a visit. He's called Sigismund of Luxembourg, King of the Germans. He's the younger brother of the long dead Anne of Bohemia, Richard II's first queen. But that's all ancient history. Sigismund today regards himself as Europe's peacemaker in chief, and he's come to England with a few key agenda items in mind. Henry figures that if he keeps Sigismund sweet, it could be very good news for his ambitions in France. Unfortunately, Sigismund isn't hard to keep sweet. He arrives in England in May 1416 via Paris, where he's been appalled to see rioting basically outside his bedroom window between Burgundian and Armagnac mobs. When he gets to England, Henry gives him a fine reception, putting on a state welcome in London, letting him have Westminster palace as his own pad for a few weeks. Not a bad Airbnb if you can get it. Sigismund brings Henry a present, the pickled heart of St. George. So Henry grants the German king England's highest honor, the Order of the Garter, and gifts him a jeweled sword used at Henry's own coronation. They then spend the next few months in fruitful political discussions. Henry promises to support Sigismund's grand aim to end the papal schism, by which there are now not two, but three popes in Europe. If you want to refresh on how that papal schism got started, by the way, go back to the this Is History archive and check out bonus Episode four in season seven. In return, Sigismund offers Up a range of helpful suggestions that for how Henry might squeeze out massive concessions from the French, amounting to turning the clock back to 1360 at the height of Edward iii's campaigns. Sigismund proposes himself as chief negotiator. And by the time he's been in England for a couple of months, it's clear that Henry has made firm friends with one of the most influential rulers in the whole of europe. And it doesn't take long for his influence to take root in Henry's court. In August 1416, Henry wants to sail to harfleur again to quash a french naval blockade, trying to starve the english garrison out of the town. Sigismund talks him out of it. It's just as well. Henry sends his brother John, duke of Bedford, to lead the mission in his place. Place. And although John is victorious, he limps back to port badly wounded, having lost 20 ships and two and a half thousand men in seriously vicious fighting. The water around our fleur bobs with corpses for days after the battle, Dead soldiers washing in and out with the tides. Sigismund wisely cautioned Henry against fighting. Fighting in that one. But he doesn't put him off fighting altogether. At the end of the summer of 1416, Henry and Sigismund announce a binding peace deal between England and Germany known as the treaty of canterbury. The text of the treaty condemns French wickedness, stubbornness and duplicity. Reading between the lines of this agreement, it's clear what's coming coming next. Henry has done his diplomacy. Now he's itching for another tear up. At a parliament that October, his chancellor, bishop Henry Beaufort, gives a speech explaining that in order to put the French in their box and claim everything that is rightfully owned by the English, the king needs enough tax to raise another massive invasion army. Let us make wars so that we might have peace. Beaufort declaims, for the end of war is peace.
- [24:24]
Joel Dommet
Joel Dommet, shall we tell these wonderful people about the new business that we're starting? Good idea, Ben Shepherd. Especially if you want them to come along for the ride. Exactly what we want. Quite simply, we are starting a business. We're starting a brand. This is not going to be a television television show. There's no bright lights and makeup. This is very, very real. We've got no idea how to do it, but we are going to share the whole journey with you right here on our brand new podcast, the businessmen podcast out now.
- [25:02]
Dan Jones
The geese run around the farmyard, their tails bobbing and their long necks straining as they try to get away from the boys chasing them. The Boys curse and trip over and get a few sharp pecks for their troubles. But eventually they grab one of the geese and pin it down. One of the boys holds its head so it can't peck. The other stretches out its wing and taking a firm grip, yanks as hard as he can on the longest feather. It comes out, much to the goose's annoyance. But there's still more to do. Every goose in this farmyard has to have six of its longest wing feathers ripped out. They're going to be supplied to the local fletcher. That's an arrow maker. Goose feathers make for precise arrow flights. It's 1417 and all over England this scene is being repeated on royal orders. Arrows are being manufactured on a mass scale. The government is buying up every scrap of cheese and salted meat it can get. Taxes are being collected and royal jewels are being pawned with London's biggest money lenders. England is on a war footing. And although Henry's exact plan of attack is a closely guarded state secret, it's obvious this is going to be a massive assault. It's also going to be a zealous one. Not only is the country laying down weapons, ammunition and food supplies, Henry has also issued orders for the moral improvement of the realm. His judges are out en masse, cracking down on crime and disorder in the localities. They smash particularly notorious cases, including breaking up a gang that's been terrorizing the home counties under the leadership of a gangster who goes by the name of Friar Tuck. They also hunt down and execute three depraved serial killers who've been at large in East Anglia abducting and mutilating children. Besides horrible crimes like these, Henry is also taking aim at low key immorality. He orders that all the bath houses and brothels in London be closed, since he regards them as hotbeds of vice. Henry's aim in keeping his people dangerous, dirty and horny is, as his law puts it, to avoid incurring the great abomination and displeasure of God. It's less than two years since Henry had his arm around the shoulder of the Duke of Orleans, telling him that the sins of the French were the reason they lost at Agincourt. It would be more than a bit embarrassing to fall into the same trap. In April 1417, Henry makes his formal departure from London, cheered by his people as he heads off to take ship on the south coast of England. Even before he leaves the country, it feels like God is smiling on his new campaign. The word from France is that yet another Dauphin has died. Charles Vi is now down to his last son, a 14 year old kid also called Charles, who was not even six months old at the time Henry was coming through his first great test on the battlefield at Shrewsbury. France has a mad king, a dauphin, who is more of the age to be playing Xbox than guiding the defence of the realm. Politics hopelessly torn between two factions and a track record of inviting God's scorn and disfavor. Henry has ships, men, goose feather arrows, a lot of money and even more military momentum. His 1415 campaign was a nerve jangler. Surely this 1417 campaign should be a bit more straightforward. That's what you'd think. But as Henry leaves his rank realm to fight his second great campaign against the French, no one can know that he'll be gone for nearly four years. But we do so saddle up and join Henry and me for the next stage of his great adventure. When we return. Next time on this Is History. Well, that's it. From the slaughter of the prisoners to the silence of the geese to a nonutfrench campaign. There was quite a lot going on there. Remember, if you want to get next week's instalment of Henry's wild story a week early, enjoy ad free listening and get all the other fun benefits of being a royal favourite, just head over to Patreon and sign up. Today our weekly discussion topic is the hottest debate in Henry V's studies. Was he right to whack those Agincourt prisoners? Or is his reputation forever stained by this cruel and callous act? Jump on patreon.com thisishistory to have your say. I look forward to diving into the debate.