Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester: A Biography

by Kenneth Hotham Vickers

It was with the King’s division that Gloucester had his station, and to him the care of the siege on this side was committed, with the Duke of York and the Earl Marshal near him.[87] His chief duty was the bombardment of the town, from which it would seem that he had already shown his readiness to espouse new ideas, and that his later fame as a patron of scholars was preceded by a study of the art of war and of the new engines which now made siege work so much more possible than formerly. At any rate, in the hand-to-hand fighting of the old style, which took place when the besieged sallied forth from the town, we find other captains in command, though we read that where the fighting was heaviest, there did the King station his youngest brother.[88] Humphrey’s chief work was to organise and direct the attack on his side of the town, and it may seem strange that one, who had had no experience of war in the past, should be given so important a post. The explanation of the trust thus placed in Gloucester may be twofold. He had had no opportunity hitherto of showing his capabilities, and the King may have wished to try his metal at this early stage of the campaign, to know how far he could trust him. It is also just possible that he had a more complete grasp of the theory of military operations, and in especial of the use of cannon, than the untrained nobles of the English army, and that it was therefore as a student more than as a soldier that he won his first laurels in the field.

We hear a good deal of the siege engines which Humphrey made use of at the siege of Harfleur. They were of heavier metal and threw larger missiles than any guns hitherto seen in an English army, and they bombarded the barbicans before the gate and the walls to such good effect, that it was only the valiant pertinacity of the besieged that prevented an almost immediate surrender.[89] Moreover, the gunners worked in relays, so that the cannonade was kept up incessantly throughout the day, and were protected by shelters so constructed that they could be lowered for the purpose of taking aim and then raised again,[90] new methods possibly due to the ingenuity of Gloucester. On the east, Clarence carried on operations by means of mines, and the King directed similar operations on his side, but these had to be begun in the open under the fire of the besieged, and were met by countermines from the town, which defeated their object.[91] Throughout his excellent account of the siege, the author of the Gesta Henrici Quinti tries the merits of the tactics employed on the English side by the maxims of one ‘Magister Ægidius.’[92] This ‘Master Giles’ must have been Ægidius Romanus who wrote De Regimine Principum, a work very popular at the time, though it dated from a period before cannon were used. It was probably from this book that Gloucester obtained some of his knowledge of military matters, for when in later life he presented his books to the University of Oxford, a copy of this treatise was found amongst the volumes which comprised the gift,[93] and he at the same time retained a French copy of the work in his private library.[94]

1415] FALL OF HARFLEUR

For a month the siege was strenuously carried on, the defence being as determined as the attack. The breaches in the walls were filled up with faggots and tubs of earth, clay was spread in the streets to prevent the splintering of the missiles that fell there,[95] and on one occasion an English bastion was captured and fired.[96] But time began to tell on the brave little garrison, and they sent an urgent appeal for help to Paris. No relief came, and the English were gradually drawing nearer to the town, till on September 16 part of the outworks was captured.[97] On the next day Henry summoned Harfleur to surrender, even as he had done at the beginning of the siege, but though negotiations were opened they came to nothing, and the English prepared for a great assault on the morrow. Meanwhile, Gloucester’s cannon were kept busily at work, so that the besieged might have no rest. The assault, however, was never made, for during the night the French determined to acknowledge defeat, and in the morning De Gaucourt agreed to surrender the town if not relieved before the next Sunday, September 22. At the same time, with the permission of the English, another appeal for relief was sent to Paris,[98] but again it was disregarded, to the everlasting shame of the French Government says even an Armagnac chronicler.[99] There was therefore no sign of the approach of a relieving force, when, on the appointed Sunday, Henry entered his first conquest on French soil.[100]

Thus fell what Waurin calls ‘the chief port of Normandy and the best base the English could have for their military operations,’[101] but the pomp and grandeur with which Henry made his entry into the town, did not serve to conceal the way the siege had thinned the rank of besiegers as well as besieged. The warm days of August and September, together with the stagnant water which lay around the town, had done their worst, and, if we can believe a French chronicler, the food of the English had not been of the best, as the sea had tainted their provisions.[102] At all events fever and dysentery had raged in the camp, and among those who had died were Richard Courtenay, Bishop of Norwich, and the Earl of Suffolk.[103] Moreover, the Duke of Clarence was too ill for further campaigning, and he was accompanied by a large number of the soldiers when he went back to England, leaving the heavier siege guns at Calais on his way.[104] The army was still further thinned by the loss of the contingent assigned to the Earl of Dorset, who was made Captain of Harfleur.[105] The captive town was treated with justice, if not with leniency. Thirty of the principal citizens were held to ransom, whilst the minor citizens were given the option of taking the oath of allegiance or of departing with their goods.[106] The captain and his principal followers were allowed at large on condition of surrendering on November 11 at Calais.[107]

Henry spent a fortnight at Harfleur, making arrangements for the security of the town, and awaiting an answer to a bombastic and wholly superfluous challenge to personal combat which he had sent to the Dauphin.[108] On October 8 he set out to march from Harfleur to Calais,[109] with some 900 men-at-arms and 5000 archers.[110] Of this number Gloucester’s share must have been the 142 lancers and 406 archers, which we find in his retinue at Agincourt.[111] With this small army it was very rash to challenge the forces of France, and a council of war had asserted it in no measured terms, but Henry felt that in honour he could not recede, and, putting his trust in God and in his righteous cause—as we are told—he set forth to invite a pitched battle with the enemy.[112]

1415] MARCH TO AGINCOURT

The story of this memorable march has been so often told that it is unnecessary to give a detailed account of it here, more especially as Gloucester took no part in the management of the army; not once does his name appear in the pages of any chronicler till the day of Agincourt. His post till then was with the main body under the King himself, while Sir John Cornwall led the van, and the Duke of York with the Earl of Oxford commanded the rear.[113] Passing Fécamp and Arques, the English army met with some slight resistance at Eu,[114] but without delaying there went on towards [Abbeville], where Henry had intended to cross the Somme. News, however, came through a Gascon prisoner that the bridges over the river were broken down, and that the ford of Blanche-Taque was guarded by the French, so there was no alternative but to march inland and to seek for a passage higher up the Somme.[115] The French chroniclers declare that this report was untrue, and one complains bitterly of the mistake, which ultimately procured the defeat of France in a battle that, had it not been for the Gascon’s story, would never have been fought.[116] The English army, therefore, having turned to the right, left Amiens on the left, and passed by Boves and Corbie to the neighbourhood of Nesle, preparing all the time for French resistance, and the archers in particular providing themselves with those sharp stakes, which were to stand them in such good stead in the day of battle.[117] Meanwhile, the eight days’ food that the soldiers had brought with them from Harfleur was exhausted, and besides present shortage of provender they anticipated worse things when they reached a district harried by the French cavalry.[118] Near Nesle, however, a ford was found, and though a marsh flanked him on and the river on the other, Henry got his men along the two narrow causeways which led to the crossing and across the Somme itself without interference from the enemy, who probably thought that their opponents were as numerous as the French chroniclers afterwards declared them to have been.[119] The Somme was crossed on the 19th, and disregarding a challenge from the Armagnac chiefs, Henry continued steadily on his way to Calais by way of Peronne, where he fell in with the tracks of the French army, and learnt for the first time the large numbers he would have to fight.[120] Nothing daunted, he encouraged the flagging spirits of his men, and on Thursday, October 24, he lay at Maisoncelles with his army encamped around him.[121] The French lay within earshot, and both armies endured the full force of the rain and storm of a wild night, but while revel and rejoicing prevailed among the French soldiers, the English knew that on the morrow they would have to meet the alternative of victory or annihilation, and the King’s command to be silent and watchful was rigidly obeyed.[122]

1415] BATTLE OF AGINCOURT