After Agincourt, Henry sallied forth to Calais without fear of apprehension, and from there sailed to England. The conquering Hero, King Hal! Henry V. The king’s entry into London that November was a rapturous affair. The citizenry turned out in their thousands to welcome the conquering hero. As Henry rode through the streets, the Londoners …
‘King Henry marched his men from Harfleur towards Calais! But, it was at tiny Agincourt village where he had his most victorious day!’ The march to Calais. On October 6th Henry left Harfleur with an army of around 7,000 men to travel to Calais. There he would formulate plans for the recovery of the French …
In December 1414, with the insurrection of the Lollards dealt with, Henry might have muttered: ‘Oldcastle, Oldcastle, what an irritating old rascal! To have me captured and toppled, he made a dash! Where is he now? Just a mere pile of smouldering ash!’ Sir John Oldcastle’s final moments. The appalling stench of roasted human flesh, …
King Henry V. As the new reign of Henry V dawned, so did a serious religious problem that could not be left to fester. Some years before, John Wycliffe, a priest and scholar at Oxford university had attacked Roman Catholic beliefs. He held that the Bible should be translated from Latin into English and that …
Duty is the ultimate beauty. ‘Well, that is what he thought! And boy, how the young king fought!’ But, first things first. Henry’s coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on Passion Sunday, 1413 in the midst of a snowstorm. The young king cut a distinctive figure as he strode towards the throne in his coronation …
‘No, you insolent young pup! Don’t you tell me that my time as king is up!’ So said the old, tired hound, King Henry IV to the eldest of his litter, Prince Hal! Henry was angry beyond measure that his son would suggest that he should abdicate as king. Teaching Prince Hal a lesson! The …
‘To be constantly poorly and ill! It has a terrible effect on a man’s strength of will!’ Whatever satisfaction Henry might have derived from putting down the final Percy rebellion, it was to be short-lived. Less than four months later he was stricken by a serious stroke on June 8th 1408, the third anniversary of …
‘Oh to gain widespread approval for my new regime! Oh, yes that is indeed my most earnest, earthly dream!’ Henry IV. Archbishop Scrope’s rebellion 1405 Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York. There had been a rebellion led by the Archbishop of York, Richard Scrope in May 1405, who had denounced Henry as a usurper and a …
The accession of Bolingbroke to the throne as Henry IV was marred by the muttering that he was a usurper. The coronation of Henry IV in October 1399. Despite the jollity at the coronation banquet, others were quietly bitching about Henry as they tucked into their venison. To them, he was not the rightful king, …
‘By his many actions so base, senseless and awful! King Richard sowed the seeds of his own ignominious downfall!’ Richard now embarked upon a policy which he believed would secure him his coveted position as absolute monarch. In fact, it would bring about his own dramatic fall from power and ultimately his untimely death, aged …