Shakespeare's Kings (62 page)

It
was
primarily
in
an
attempt
to
minimize
the
damage
done
at Beauge
that,
on
10
June
1421,
Henry
embarked
for
France
on
his
last campaign.
He
brought
with
him
a
smaller
army
than
on
either
of
the two
previous
occasions
-
some
4,000
in
all
-
having
left
a
sizeable
force in
Normandy
the
previous
year.
By
the
end
of
the
summer
English prestige
was
restored;
not,
however,
English
popularity,
for
Henry
now fell
prey
to
some
mysterious
disease
and,
as
his
health
declined,
so
his cruelty
towards
those
who
resisted
him
seemed
to
increase.
After
his capture
of
the
castle
of
Rougemont
he
burnt
it
to
the
ground,
hanged every
member
of
the
garrison
and
drowned
every
fugitive
he
caught. And
Rougemont
was
not
alone:
the
surrender
of
Meaux,
after
a
siege which
lasted
throughout
the
winter
and
spring,
provided
opportunities for
further
inhumanity.
Two
weeks
later,
at
the
end
of
May
1422, Queen
Katherine
joined
him
in
France,
leaving
behind
at
home
their five-month-old
son
Henry,
whom
his
father
was
never
to
see.

By
now
the
King
was
clearly
dying.
Though
no
longer
able
to
sit his
horse,
he
made
a
last
heroic
effort
to
lead
his
army
against
the Dauphin,
who
was
besieging
the
town
of
Cosne;
but
even
by
litter
the journey
proved
too
much
for
him.
He
was
rowed
down
the
Seine
to Charenton
and
thence
carried
to
Vincennes.
There,
on
31
August,
he summoned
his
councillors
and
urged
them
to
maintain
the
Burgundian alliance;
then
he
begged
them
to
forgive
him
for
any
injustices,
took communion
for
the
last
time
and
died.
Had
he
lived
just
six
weeks longer
he
would
have
been
King
of
France,
for
on
11
"October
his
rival -
the
poor
demented
Charles
VI
-
followed
him
to
the
grave.
His
body

1. It was perhaps in recognition of this that Buchan was appointed Constable of France in the following year.

lay
in
state
at
Saint-Denis,
after
which
on
1
5
September
the
magnificent funeral
procession
started
for
home,
arriving
in
London
on
5
November. Two
days
later
King
Henry
V
was
buried
in
Westminster
Abbey,
his three
favourite
chargers
being
led
up
to
the
altar
with
him.
He
was thirty-four
years
old.

Henry's
tomb
of
Purbeck
marble,
at
the
far
end
of
St
Edward's Chapel
just
to
the
east
of
the
crossing,
has
lost,
alas,
much
of
its
splendour. It
was
originally
surmounted
-
at
the
expense
of
his
widow
-
by
an effigy
in
oak,
with
the
head,
hands,
sceptre
and
other
regalia
moulded in
solid
silver
and
the
rest
plated
in
silver
gilt;
but
all
the
precious
metal was
stolen
in
1546,
and
the
new
head
of
polyester
resin,
added
in
1971, can
hardly
be
considered
an
adequate
substitute.
For
Henry,
however, the
tomb
was
only
a
beginning.
He
was
the
first
English
monarch
also to
insist
on
a
chantry
chapel,
in
which
masses
could
be
said
in
perpetuity for
his
soul;
and
this
tremendous
edifice
towers
above
the
tomb
in
a breathless
display
of
arrogance,
completely
overshadowing
not
only
the Plantagenet
tombs
below
but
even
the
shrine
of
the
Confessor
himself. It
is
covered
with
elaborate
sculptures
of
remarkably
high
quality, including
two
representations
of
Henry
on
his
charger
and
two
more depicting
his
coronation.
Most
moving
of
all,
on
a
wooden
beam
high above,
are
a
shield
and
saddle,
with
a
helmet
which
-
although
manifestly designed
for
tilting
-
is
traditionally
believed
to
have
been
worn
by him
at
Agincourt.

And
what
of
Katherine?
In
their
tomb
effigies,
his
two
predecessors both
He
beside
their
wives;
Henry
is
alone.
He
had
made
no
provision for
his
Queen,
who
some
three
years
after
her
husband's
death
married the
Welshman
Owen
Tudor
and
bore
him
a
son,
Edmund,
the
future father
of
King
Henry
VII.
When
she
died
in
1437,
she
was
given
a tomb
in
the
Lady
Chapel;
and
when
her
grandson
demolished
that chapel
to
make
way
for
the
one
which
now
bears
his
name,
her
body was
placed
in
a
coffin
of
loose
boards
and
laid
beside
Henry
V's
tomb, where
it
was
regularly
exposed
to
curious
visitors.
¹
Only
in
1776
were the
bones,
still
'firmly
united,
and
thinly
cloth'd
with
flesh,
like
scrapings