HENRY V.—1413 to 1422.
How Henry the Fifth was very gay and thoughtless when he was Prince
of Wales, but became a great and wise King; how he went to war with
France, and gained the battle of Agincourt, and how the people
lamented at his death.
I think you would have liked King Henry the Fifth who was often
called Harry of Monmouth.
He was very good-natured and very gay; yet, when it was right to be
grave and wise, he could be so, and we never had a braver king in
England.
I must tell you a little about his behaviour while he was a young
man, and only Prince of Wales, before I say anything about the time
when he was king.
It is said that he was very merry and fond of playing wild pranks
with gay and reckless young men of low birth; but all the stories
told about his conduct at this time can hardly be true. I will tell
you some of them.
Once, when he had been doing something wrong, his father, who was ill
at Windsor, sent for him, and he went directly in a very droll dress,
that he had had made for some frolic; it was of light blue satin,
and it had a great many odd puckers in the sleeves, and at every
pucker he made the tailor leave a bit of blue thread and a tag like a
needle. When the king saw such a strange coat, he was a little vexed
that he should dare to come to him, while he was so ill, in it. But
Prince Harry said he was in such a hurry to see his father, and to do
whatever he wished for, that he could not spare time to take off the
coat, and so he came in it just as he was; and his father forgave him
because of his obedience.
Another time he was strolling about in London with some idle merry
companions, when he heard that one of his servants had behaved ill,
and had been carried before the chief judge, whose name was Sir
William Gascoyne. He went directly to the court where the judge was,
and desired him to let his servant go because he was the king’s son.
But the judge refused, and said he was sitting there for the king
himself, to do justice to everybody alike, and he would not let
the man go till he had been punished. The prince was in too great
a passion to think rightly at that moment, and he struck the chief
justice. That wise and good man instantly ordered the officers to
take the bold young prince to prison, and it was not till he had made
very humble excuses that he forgave him, and set him free. He said
that such an act was worse in the king’s son than in anybody else;
because, as he was sitting in the court for the king, other people,
if they offended, were only subjects doing wrong, but the prince,
being the king’s son, as well as his subject, was offending both king
and father. Harry had the sense to understand this; and when his
passion was over he thanked the judge, promised never to behave so
ill again, and kept his word.
The king, you may be sure, was pleased with the judge, who was not
afraid to do justice on his son; and he praised his son for getting
the better of his passion, and submitting to the judge without
complaining. I must tell you, however, that Gascoyne was removed
from being chief justice soon after Henry became king, but that was
because he had grown very old and was no longer fit to do the duty of
a judge.
When King Henry the Fourth died, the people may have been a little
afraid lest Harry should not make a good king, though he might be a
merry one. If they were they soon saw they were mistaken.
None of our kings was ever more wise, or clever, or brave, or fonder
of doing justice; and even now nobody in England ever thinks of Henry
the Fifth without loving him.
In the very beginning of his reign there was a war with France. The
poor King of France was mad. His queen was a very wicked woman,
and his son very young. All the noblemen were quarrelling with one
another, and the whole together with the King of England.
So Henry made ready his army, and sailed over to France, and, after
having taken a town called Harfleur, met a very large French army at
a place called Agincourt.
The English soldiers were tired with a long march; they had had very
bad weather to march in, which made many of them ill, and they had
not enough to eat. But they loved the king; they knew he was as badly
off as they were, and he was so kind and good-humoured, and talked
so cheerfully to them, that in spite of hunger, and weariness, and
sickness, they went to battle in good spirits. The English bowmen
shot their long arrows all at once with such force, that the French
soldiers, especially those on horseback, were obliged to give way;
and in a very short time King Henry won as great a victory at
Agincourt, as Edward the Third and the Black Prince did at Crecy
and Poitiers. One day, when you are older, you will read a most
delightful play written by the poet Shakspeare about this battle, and
some other parts of King Henry the Fifth’s life.
Not long after the battle, Henry went to Paris, and there the
princes and nobles told him that, if he would let the poor mad King
Charles be called king while he lived, Henry and his children should
be always Kings of France. And so peace was made, and Henry governed
France for a little while, and he married the French Princess
Catherine, and they had a little son born at Windsor, who was called
Henry of Windsor, Prince of Wales, and was afterwards King Henry the
Sixth.
Very soon afterwards, King Henry the Fifth was taken very ill at
Paris. He knew he was going to die, so he sent for his brothers and
the other English lords who were in France, and gave them a great
deal of good advice about ruling England and France, and begged them
to take care of his little son. He then told his chaplain to chant
some of the psalms to him, and died very quietly.
The English people wept and lamented bitterly, when they found that
they had lost their king.
He was kind to them, and so true and honest, that even his enemies
trusted entirely to him. He was very handsome, and so good-humoured,
that everybody who knew him liked his company; so good and just,
that wicked men were afraid of him; so wise, that his laws were the
fittest for his people that could have been made at the time; so
brave, that the very name of Henry, King of England, kept his enemies
in fear. And above all this, he was most pious towards God.