Toward the close of his life the King seems to have thought of
reviving the Crusades for the conquest of Jerusalem (S182), where,
according to tradition, an old prediction declared that he should
die. But his Jerusalem was nearer than that of Palestine. While
praying at the tomb of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey
(S66), he was seized with mortal illness. His attendants carried him
into a room near by.
When he recovered consciousness, and inquired where he was, he was
told that the apartment was called the Jerusalem Chamber. "Praise be
to God," he exclaimed, "then here I die!" There he breathed his last,
saying to his son, young Prince Henry:
"God knows, my son,
By what by-paths and indirect crook'd ways,
I met this crown; and I myself know well
How troublesome it sat upon my head;
To thee it shall descend with better quiet,
Better opinion, better confirmation;
For all the soil of the achievement[1] goes
With me into the earth."
[1] "Soil of achievement": stain or blame by which the crown was won.
Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Part II, Act IV, scene iv.